Mass Readings for Sunday, June 27, 2010

FIRST READING: 1 Kings 19: 16, 19 - 21

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16 and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel; and Eli'sha the son of Shaphat of A'bel-meho'lah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

19 So he departed from there, and found Eli'sha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Eli'jah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.

20 And he left the oxen, and ran after Eli'jah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?"

21 And he returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Eli'jah, and ministered to him.

PSALM: Psalms 16: 1 - 2, 5, 7 - 11

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1 Preserve me, O God, for in thee I take refuge.

2 I say to the LORD, "Thou art my Lord; I have no good apart from thee."

5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; thou holdest my lot.

7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.

8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also dwells secure.

10 For thou dost not give me up to Sheol, or let thy godly one see the Pit.

11 Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fulness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.

SECOND READING: Galatians 5: 1, 13 - 18

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1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

15 But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.

GOSPEL: Luke 9: 51 - 62

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51 When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him;

53 but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?"

55 But he turned and rebuked them.

56 And they went on to another village.

57 As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."

59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

60 But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home."

62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Mass Readings for Saturday, June 26, 2010

 Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer (Optional Memorial)

FIRST READING: Lamentations 2: 2, 10 - 14, 18 - 19

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2 The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have cast dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my soul is in tumult; my heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.

12 They cry to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.

13 What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can restore you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading.

18 Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!

19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

PSALM: Psalms 74: 1 - 7, 20 - 21

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1 O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever? Why does thy anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thy heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where thou hast dwelt.

3 Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4 Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place; they set up their own signs for signs.

5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

6 And then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

7 They set thy sanctuary on fire; to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.

20 Have regard for thy covenant; for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21 Let not the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise thy name.

GOSPEL: Matthew 8: 5 - 17

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5 As he entered Caper'na-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him

6 and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress."

7 And he said to him, "I will come and heal him."

8 But the centurion answered him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.

9 For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and he does it."

10 When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth."

13 And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; be it done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment.

14 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever;

15 he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and served him.

16 That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

17 This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases."

Mass Readings for Friday, June 25, 2010

FIRST READING: 2 Kings 25: 1 - 12

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1 And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; and they built siegeworks against it round about.

2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedeki'ah.

3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

4 Then a breach was made in the city; the king with all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, though the Chalde'ans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.

5 But the army of the Chalde'ans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

6 Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence upon him.

7 They slew the sons of Zedeki'ah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedeki'ah, and bound him in fetters, and took him to Babylon.

8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month -- which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnez'zar, king of Babylon -- Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9 And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

10 And all the army of the Chalde'ans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard carried into exile.

12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

PSALM: Psalms 137: 1 - 6

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1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.

3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

GOSPEL: Matthew 8: 1 - 4

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1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him;

2 and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."

3 And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to the people."

Mass Readings for Thursday, June 24, 2010

 Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

FIRST READING: Isaiah 49: 1 - 6

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1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.

3 And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."

4 But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."

5 And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength --

6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

PSALM: Psalms 139: 1 - 3, 13 - 15

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1 O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me!

2 Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; thou discernest my thoughts from afar.

3 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

13 For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well;

15 my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.

SECOND READING: Acts 13: 22 - 26

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22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, `I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'

23 Of this man's posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

24 Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, `What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.'

26 "Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

GOSPEL: Luke 1: 57 - 66, 80

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57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son.

58 And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechari'ah after his father,

60 but his mother said, "Not so; he shall be called John."

61 And they said to her, "None of your kindred is called by this name."

62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called.

63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." And they all marveled.

64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea;

66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him.

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.