FIRST READING:
Hosea
11:
1, 3 - 4, 8 - 9
1
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my
son.
3
Yet it was I who taught E'phraim to walk, I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I
led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I
became to them as one, who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent
down to them and fed them.
8
How can I give you up, O E'phraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel!
How can I make you like Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboi'im! My
heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I
will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy E'phraim;
for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not
come to destroy.
PSALM: Isaiah 12: 2 - 6
2
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be
afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has
become my salvation."
3
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4
And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call
upon his name; make known his deeds among the nations, proclaim that
his name is exalted.
5
"Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this
be known in all the earth.
6
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel."
SECOND READING: Ephesians 3: 8 - 12, 14 - 19
8 To me, though I am the very least of
all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all men see what is the
plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things;
10 that through the church the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and
powers in the heavenly places.
11 This was according to the eternal
purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness and
confidence of access through our faith in him.
14 For this reason I bow my knees
before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and
on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his
glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his
Spirit in the inner man,
17 and that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have power to comprehend with
all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of
God.
GOSPEL: John 19: 31 - 37
31 Since it was the day of Preparation,
in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the
sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that
their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32 So the soldiers came and broke the
legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him;
33 but when they came to Jesus and saw
that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34 But one of the soldiers pierced his
side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
35 He who saw it has borne witness --
his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that
you also may believe.
36 For these things took place that the
scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be
broken."
37 And again another scripture says,
"They shall look on him whom they have pierced."
