FIRST
READING: Hosea
14: 2 - 10
2
Return to your God Yahweh, O Israel! Your sins have caused your
downfall.
3
Return to Yahweh with humble words. Say to him, "Oh you who show
compassion to the fatherless forgive our debt, be appeased. Instead
of bulls and sacrifices, accept the praise from our lips.
4
Assyria will not save us: no longer shall we look for horses nor ever
again shall we say 'Our gods' to the work of our hands."
5
I will heal their wavering and love them with all my heart for my
anger has turned from them.
6
I shall be like dew to Israel like the lily will he blossom. Like a
cedar he will send down his roots;
7
his young shoots will grow and spread. His splendor will be like an
olive tree, his fragrance, like a Lebanon cedar.
8
They will dwell in my shade again, they will flourish like the grain,
they will blossom like a vine, and their fame will be like Lebanon
wine.
9
What would Ephraim do with idols, when it is I who hear and make him
prosper? I am like an ever-green cypress tree;
all
your fruitfulness comes from me.
10
Who is wise enough to grasp all this? Who is discerning and will
understand? Straight are the ways of Yahweh: the just walk in them,
but the sinners stumble.
PSALM:
Psalms 51:
3 - 4, 8 - 9, 12 - 14, 17
3
Have mercy on me, O God, in your love. In your great compassion blot
out my sin.
4
Wash me thoroughly of my guilt; cleanse me of evil.
8
I know you desire truth in the heart, teach me wisdom in my inmost
being.
9
Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me, I shall be
whiter than snow.
12
Create in me, O God, a pure heart; give me a new and steadfast
spirit.
13
Do not cast me out of your presence nor take your holy spirit from
me.
14
Give me again the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing
spirit.
17
O Lord, open my lips, and I will declare your praise.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 10:
16 - 23
16
Look, I send you out like sheep among wolves. You must be clever as
snakes and innocent as doves.
17
Be on your guard with respect to people, for they will hand you over
to their courts and they will flog you in their synagogues.
18
You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me,
and so you may witness to them and the pagans.
19
But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say and
how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what
you are to say.
20
For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your
Father in you.
21
Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child;
children will turn against parents and have them put to death.
22
Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the
end will be saved.
23
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For sure, you
will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of
Man comes.
