FIRST READING: Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.
16 Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely,
17 Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.
18 And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.
19 If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.
20 But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
PSALM: Psalms 50: 8-9, 16-17, 21, 23
8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices: and thy burnt offerings are always in my sight.
9 I will not take calves out of thy house: nor he goats out of thy flocks.
16 But to the sinner God hath said: Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth?
17 Seeing thou hast hated discipline: and hast cast my words behind thee.
21 These things hast thou done, and I was silent. Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face.
23 The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will shew him the salvation of God.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL: Ezekiel 18: 31
Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, says the LORD,
and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
GOSPEL: Matthew 23:1-12
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2 Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.
3 All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not.
4 For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them.
5 And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes.
6 And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues,
7 And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.
8 But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren.
9 And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ.
11 He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
As many of you already know, I was fired from my previous job back in January, as I told you in a previous post here. At the time, I did not want to go into the details of the reason I was given for being fired, so I will now. My former employer had told me, and the young lady that I worked with, that he was going to have to cut hours... Read more by clicking here.