Daily Readings

Let my eyes stream with tearsday and night, without rest,Over the great destruction which overwhelmsthe virgin daughter of my people,over her incurable wound.If I walk out into the field,look! those slain by the sword;If I enter the city,look! those consumed by hunger.Even the prophet and the priestforage in a land they know not.Have you cast Judah off completely?Is Zion loathsome to you?Why have you struck us a blowthat cannot be healed?We wait for peace, to no avail;for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness,the guilt of our fathers;that we have sinned against you.For your name's sake spurn us not,disgrace not the throne of your glory;remember your covenant with us, and break it not.Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain?Or can the mere heavens send showers?Is it not you alone, O LORD,our God, to whom we look?You alone have done all these things. 

R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;may your compassion quickly come to us,for we are brought very low.R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.Help us, O God our savior,because of the glory of your name;Deliver us and pardon our sinsfor your name's sake.R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;with your great power free those doomed to death.Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,will give thanks to you forever;through all generations we will declare your praise.R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;all who come to him will live for ever.R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house.His disciples approached him and said,"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.The weeds are the children of the Evil One,and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,so will it be at the end of the age.The Son of Man will send his angels,and they will collect out of his Kingdomall who cause others to sin and all evildoers.They will throw them into the fiery furnace,where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.Then the righteous will shine like the sunin the Kingdom of their Father.Whoever has ears ought to hear."

The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth;wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,and go now to the Parath;there hide it in a cleft of the rock.Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Parathand buried the loincloth.After a long interval, the LORD said to me:  Go now to the Parath and fetch the loinclothwhich I told you to hide there.Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loinclothfrom the place where I had hid it.But it was rotted, good for nothing!Then the message came to me from the LORD:  Thus says the LORD:So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot,the great pride of Jerusalem.This wicked people who refuse to obey my words,who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins,so had I made the whole house of Israeland the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.But they did not listen.

R.  (see 18a)  You have forgotten God who gave you birth.You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,You forgot the God who gave you birth.When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathingand anger toward his sons and daughters.R.  You have forgotten God who gave you birth.“I will hide my face from them,” he said,“and see what will then become of them.What a fickle race they are,sons with no loyalty in them!”R.  You have forgotten God who gave you birth.“Since they have provoked me with their ‘no-god’and angered me with their vain idols,I will provoke them with a ‘no-people’;with a foolish nation I will anger them.”R.  You have forgotten God who gave you birth.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truththat we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seedthat a person took and sowed in a field.It is the smallest of all the seeds,yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.It becomes a large bush,and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’”

He  spoke to them another parable.“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeastthat a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flouruntil the whole batch was leavened.”

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." Solomon answered:"O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, kingto succeed my father David;but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heartto judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him:"Because you have asked for this—not for a long life for yourself,nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies,but for understanding so that you may know what is right—I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understandingthat there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you." 

R. (97a) Lord, I love your commands.I have said, O LORD, that my partis to keep your words.The law of your mouth is to me more preciousthan thousands of gold and silver pieces.R. Lord, I love your commands.Let your kindness comfort meaccording to your promise to your servants.Let your compassion come to me that I may live,for your law is my delight.R. Lord, I love your commands.For I love your commandsmore than gold, however fine.For in all your precepts I go forward;every false way I hate.R. Lord, I love your commands.Wonderful are your decrees;therefore I observe them.The revelation of your words sheds light,giving understanding to the simple.R. Lord, I love your commands.

Brothers and sisters:We know that all things work for good for those who love God,who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestinedto be conformed to the image of his Son,so that he might be the firstbornamong many brothers and sisters.And those he predestined he also called;and those he called he also justified;and those he justified he also glorified. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;for you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

Jesus said to his disciples:"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,which a person finds and hides again,and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchantsearching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price,he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashoreand sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteousand throw them into the fiery furnace,where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied,"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heavenis like the head of a householdwho brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."  

Jesus said to his disciples:"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,which a person finds and hides again,and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchantsearching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price,he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."