Daily Readings

Brothers and sisters:Be kind to one another, compassionate,forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,as Christ loved us and handed himself over for usas a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,as is fitting among holy ones,no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,but instead, thanksgiving.Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,that is, an idolater,has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,for because of these thingsthe wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.So do not be associated with them.For you were once darkness,but now you are light in the Lord.Live as children of light. 

R. (see Eph. 5:1) Behave like God as his very dear children.Blessed the man who follows notthe counsel of the wickedNor walks in the way of sinners,nor sits in the company of the insolent,But delights in the law of the LORDand meditates on his law day and night.R. Behave like God as his very dear children.He is like a treeplanted near running water,That yields its fruit in due season,and whose leaves never fade.Whatever he does, prospers.R. Behave like God as his very dear children.Not so the wicked, not so;they are like chaff which the wind drives away.For the LORD watches over the way of the just,but the way of the wicked vanishes.R. Behave like God as his very dear children.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.Your word, O Lord, is truth;consecrate us in the truth.R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.And a woman was there who for eighteen yearshad been crippled by a spirit;she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”He laid his hands on her,and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.But the leader of the synagogue,indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,said to the crowd in reply,“There are six days when work should be done.Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!Does not each one of you on the sabbathuntie his ox or his ass from the mangerand lead it out for watering?This daughter of Abraham,whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath dayfrom this bondage?”When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Thus says the LORD:"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans."If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,you shall not act like an extortioner toward himby demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge,you shall return it to him before sunset;for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in?If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate." 

R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.I love you, O LORD, my strength,O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.R. I love you, Lord, my strength.My God, my rock of refuge,my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,and I am safe from my enemies.R. I love you, Lord, my strength.The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!Extolled be God my savior.You who gave great victories to your kingand showed kindness to your anointed.R. I love you, Lord, my strength. 

Brothers and sisters:You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,so that you became a model for all the believersin Macedonia and in Achaia.For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forthnot only in Macedonia and in Achaia,but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves openly declare about uswhat sort of reception we had among you,and how you turned to God from idolsto serve the living and true Godand to await his Son from heaven,whom he raised from the dead,Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord,and my Father will love him and we will come to him.R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,they gathered together, and one of them,a scholar of the law tested him by asking,"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him,"You shall love the Lord, your God,with all your heart,with all your soul,and with all your mind.This is the greatest and the first commandment.The second is like it:You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." 

Brothers and sisters:Grace was given to each of usaccording to the measure of Christ’s gift.Therefore, it says:

He ascended on high and took prisoners captive;he gave gifts to men.

What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descendedinto the lower regions of the earth?The one who descended is also the one who ascendedfar above all the heavens,that he might fill all things.

And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets,others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,for building up the Body of Christ,until we all attain to the unity of faithand knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhoodto the extent of the full stature of Christ,so that we may no longer be infants,tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teachingarising from human trickery,from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.Rather, living the truth in love,we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ,from whom the whole Body,joined and held together by every supporting ligament,with the proper functioning of each part,brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love. 

R. (1) Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.I rejoiced because they said to me,“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”And now we have set footwithin your gates, O Jerusalem.R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.Jerusalem, built as a citywith compact unity.To it the tribes go up,the tribes of the LORD.R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.According to the decree for Israel,to give thanks to the name of the LORD.In it are set up judgment seats,seats for the house of David.R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,but rather in his conversion that he may live.R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Some people told Jesus about the Galileanswhose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?By no means!But I tell you, if you do not repent,you will all perish as they did!Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them–do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?By no means!But I tell you, if you do not repent,you will all perish as they did!”

And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,he said to the gardener,‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.So cut it down.Why should it exhaust the soil?’He said to him in reply,‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future.If not you can cut it down.’”