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| "Sacred Heart of Jesus" -- by Pompeo Batoni, 1767 |
FIRST
READING: 1 Maccabees 6: 1-13
1
But not long after the king sent a certain old man of Antioch, to
compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers and of God:
2
And to defile the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to call it the
temple of Jupiter Olympius: and that in Gazarim of Jupiter
Hospitalis, according as they were that inhabited the place.
3
And very bad was this invasion of evils and grievous to all.
4
For the temple was full of the riot and revellings of the Gentiles:
and of men lying with lewd women. And women thrust themselves of
their accord into the holy places, and brought in things that were
not lawful.
5
The altar also was filled with unlawful things, which were forbidden
by the laws.
6
And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the
fathers observed, neither did any man plainly profess himself to be a
Jew.
7
But they were led by bitter constraint on the king's birthday to the
sacrifices: and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were
compelled to go about crowned with ivy in honour of Bacchus.
8
And there went out a decree into the neighbouring cities of the
Gentiles, by the suggestion of the Ptolemeans, that they also should
act in like manner against the Jews, to oblige them to sacrifice:
9
And whosoever would not conform themselves to the ways of the
Gentiles, should be put to death: then was misery to be seen.
10
For two women were accused to have circumcised their children: whom,
when they had openly led about through the city with the infants
hanging at their breasts, they threw down headlong from the walls.
11
And others that had met together in caves that were near, and were
keeping the sabbath day privately, being discovered by Philip, were
burnt with fire, because they made a conscience to help themselves
with their hands, by reason of the religious observance of the day.
12
Now I beseech those that shall read this book, that they be not
shocked at these calamities, but that they consider the things that
happened, not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of
our nation.
13
For it is a token of great goodness when sinners are not suffered to
go on in their ways for a long time, but are presently punished.
PSALM:
Psalms 9: 2-4, 6, 16, 19
2
I will give praise to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will
relate all thy wonders.
3
I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing to thy name, O thou
most high.
4
When my enemy shall be turned back: they shall be weakened and perish
before thy face.
6
Thou hast rebuked the Gentiles, and the wicked one hath perished:
thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.
16
I will rejoice in thy salvation: the Gentiles have stuck fast in the
destruction which they have prepared. Their foot hath been taken in
the very snare which they hid.
19
For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of
the poor shall not perish for ever.
GOSPEL:
Luke 20:
27-40
27
And there came to him some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is
any resurrection, and they asked him,
28
Saying: Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having
a wife, and he leave no children, that his brother should take her to
wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
29
There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and
died without children.
30
And the next took her to wife, and he also died childless.
31
And the third took her. And in like manner all the seven, and they
left no children, and died.
32
Last of all the woman died also.
33
In the resurrection therefore, whose wife of them shall she be? For
all the seven had her to wife.
34
And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry, and are
given in marriage:
35
But they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the
resurrection from the dead, shall neither be married, nor take wives.
36
Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels, and
are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
37
Now that the dead rise again, Moses also shewed, at the bush, when he
called the Lord, The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob;
38
For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to
him.
39
And some of the scribes answering, said to him: Master, thou hast
said well.
40
And after that they durst not ask him any more questions.
