FIRST
READING: Jeremiah
1: 4 - 5, 17 - 19
4
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were
born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
17
But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them everything that I
command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before
them.
18
And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar,
and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah,
its princes, its priests, and the people of the land.
19
They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you,
for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you."
PSALM:
Psalms 71:
1 - 6, 15 - 17
1
In thee, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!
2
In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline thy ear to me,
and save me!
3
Be thou to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for
thou art my rock and my fortress.
4
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of
the unjust and cruel man.
5
For thou, O Lord, art my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6
Upon thee I have leaned from my birth; thou art he who took me from
my mother's womb. My praise is continually of thee.
15
My mouth will tell of thy righteous acts, of thy deeds of salvation
all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.
16
With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come, I will praise thy
righteousness, thine alone.
17
O God, from my youth thou hast taught me, and I still proclaim thy
wondrous deeds.
SECOND
READING: 1
Corinthians 12: 31 -- 13:
13 Or 13:
4 - 13
31
But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still
more excellent way.
1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I
am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing.
3
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but
have not love, I gain nothing.
4
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5
it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it
is not irritable or resentful;
6
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
8
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for
tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I
reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know
in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood.
13
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is
love.
Or
4
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5
it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it
is not irritable or resentful;
6
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
8
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for
tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I
reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know
in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood.
13
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is
love.
GOSPEL:
Luke 4:
21 - 30
21
And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing."
22
And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, "Is not this Joseph's
son?"
23
And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this
proverb, `Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at
Caper'na-um, do here also in your own country.'"
24
And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in
his own country.
25
But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the
days of Eli'jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when there came a great famine over all the land;
26
and Eli'jah was sent to none of them but only to Zar'ephath, in the
land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet
Eli'sha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Na'aman the Syrian."
28
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
29
And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow
of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him
down headlong.
30
But passing through the midst of them he went away.
