Daily Readings

Brothers and sisters:Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.But I shall show you a still more excellent way.If I speak in human and angelic tonguesbut do not have love,I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.And if I have the gift of prophecyand comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;if I have all faith so as to move mountains,but do not have love, I am nothing.If I give away everything I own,and if I hand my body over so that I may boastbut do not have love, I gain nothing.Love is patient, love is kind.It is not jealous, love is not pompous,it is not inflated, it is not rude,it does not seek its own interests,it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoingbut rejoices with the truth.It bears all things, believes all things,hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails.If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;if tongues, they will cease;if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.For we know partially and we prophesy partially,but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,think as a child, reason as a child;when I became a man, I put aside childish things.At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,but then face to face.At present I know partially;then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.So faith, hope, love remain, these three;but the greatest of these is love. 

R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.Sing to him a new song;pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.For upright is the word of the LORD,and all his works are trustworthy.He loves justice and right;of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.May your kindness, O LORD, be upon uswho have put our hope in you.R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life,you have the words of everlasting life.R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

Jesus said to the crowds:“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?What are they like?They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” 

Brothers and sisters:As a body is one though it has many parts,and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,so also Christ.For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body,whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Now the body is not a single part, but many.

Now you are Christ’s Body, and individually parts of it.Some people God has designated in the Churchto be, first, Apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;then, mighty deeds;then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,and varieties of tongues.Are all Apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?Do all work mighty deeds?  Do all have gifts of healing?Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

R. (3) We are his people: the sheep of his flock.Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;serve the LORD with gladness;come before him with joyful song.R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.Know that the LORD is God;he made us, his we are;his people, the flock he tends.R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.Enter his gates with thanksgiving,his courts with praise;Give thanks to him; bless his name.R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.For he is good, the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,and his faithfulness, to all generations. R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.

At the cross her station keeping,Stood the mournful Mother weeping,Close to Jesus to the last.Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,All his bitter anguish bearing,Now at length the sword had passed.Oh, how sad and sore distressedWas that Mother highly blessedOf the sole begotten One!Christ above in torment hangs,She beneath beholds the pangsOf her dying, glorious Son.Is there one who would not weep,'Whelmed in miseries so deep,Christ's dear Mother to behold?Can the human heart refrainFrom partaking in her pain,In that mother's pain untold?Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,She beheld her tender Child,All with bloody scourges rent.For the sins of his own nationSaw him hang in desolationTill his spirit forth he sent.O sweet Mother!  font of love,Touch my spirit from above,Make my heart with yours accord.Make me feel as you have felt;Make my soul to glow and meltWith the love of Christ, my Lord.Holy Mother, pierce me through,In my heart each wound renewOf my Savior crucified.Let me share with you his pain,Who for all our sins was slain,Who for me in torments died.Let me mingle tears with you,Mourning him who mourned for me,All the days that I may live.By the cross with you to stay,There with you to weep and pray,Is all I ask of you to give.Virgin of all virgins blest!Listen to my fond request:Let me share your grief divine.Let me to my latest breath,In my body bear the deathOf that dying Son of yours.Wounded with his every wound,Steep my soul till it has swoonedIn his very Blood away.Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,Lest in flames I burn and die,In his awful judgment day.Christ, when you shall call me hence,Be your Mother my defense,Be your cross my victory.While my body here decays,May my soul your goodness praise,Safe in heaven eternally.Amen.  (Alleluia)

R. Alleluia, alleluia.Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary;without dying you won the Martyr’s crownbeneath the Cross of the Lord.R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his motherand his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,and Mary Magdalene.When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he lovedhe said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”Then he said to the disciple,“Behold, your mother.”And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

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Luke 2:33-35

Jesus’ father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,“Behold, this child is destinedfor the fall and rise of many in Israel,and to be a sign that will be contradictedand you yourself a sword will pierceso that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!" In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord! Hearken, my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter mysteries from of old. R. Do not forget the works of the Lord! While he slew them they sought him and inquired after God again, Remembering that God was their rock and the Most High God, their redeemer. R. Do not forget the works of the Lord! But they flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues, Though their hearts were not steadfast toward him, nor were they faithful to his covenant. R. Do not forget the works of the Lord! But he, being merciful, forgave their sin and destroyed them not; Often he turned back his anger and let none of his wrath be roused. R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!

Brothers and sisters: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

R. Alleluia, alleluia. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Cross you have redeemed the world. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.