FIRST
READING: Job 3:
1 - 3, 11 - 17, 20 - 23
1
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2
And Job said:
3
"Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which
said, 'A man-child is conceived.'
11
"Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and
expire?
12
Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?
13
For then I should have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept;
then I should have been at rest,
14
with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for
themselves,
15
or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16
Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never
see the light?
17
There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at
rest.
20
"Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the
bitter in soul,
21
who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for
hid treasures;
22
who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the grave? 23
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?
23
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?
PSALM:
Psalms 88: 2
- 8
2
Let my prayer come before thee, incline thy ear to my cry!
3
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4
I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit; I am a man who has
no strength,
5
like one forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the
grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more, for they are cut
off from thy hand.
6
Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and
deep.
7
Thy wrath lies heavy upon me, and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy
waves. [Selah]
8
Thou hast caused my companions to shun me; thou hast made me a thing
of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 18:
1 - 5, 10
1
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them,
3
and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like
children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4
Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven.
5
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me;
10
"See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I
tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my
Father who is in heaven.
