Daily Mass Readings for Sunday, October 23, 2011

FIRST READING: Exodus 22: 20 - 26

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20 "Whoever sacrifices to any god, save to the LORD only, shall be utterly destroyed.

21 "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

22 You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.

23 If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry;

24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

25 "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him.

26 If ever you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down.

PSALM: Psalms 18: 2 - 4, 47, 51

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2 I love thee, O LORD, my strength

3 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

4 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

47 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,

51 Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed.

SECOND READING: 1 Thessalonians 1: 5 - 10

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5 for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit;

7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedo'nia and in Acha'ia.

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedo'nia and Acha'ia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

9 For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,

10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

GOSPEL: Matthew 22: 34 - 40

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34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad'ducees, they came together.

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.

36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

Daily Mass Readings for Saturday, October 22, 2011

FIRST READING: Romans 8: 1 - 11

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1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot;

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

PSALM: Psalms 119: 41, 43 - 45, 47 - 48

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1 The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein;

2 for he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers.

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.

5 He will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of his salvation.

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. [Selah]

GOSPEL: Luke 13: 1 - 9

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1 There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

2 And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?

3 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

4 Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo'am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?

5 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

6 And he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

7 And he said to the vinedresser, `Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?'

8 And he answered him, `Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure.

9 And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Daily Mass Readings for Friday, October 21, 2011

FIRST READING: Romans 7: 18 - 25

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18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self,

23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

PSALM: Psalms 119: 66, 68, 76 - 77, 93 - 94

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66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in thy commandments.

68 Thou art good and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

76 Let thy steadfast love be ready to comfort me according to thy promise to thy servant.

77 Let thy mercy come to me, that I may live; for thy law is my delight.

93 I will never forget thy precepts; for by them thou hast given me life.

94 I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.

GOSPEL: Luke 12: 54 - 59

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54 He also said to the multitudes, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, `A shower is coming'; and so it happens.

55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.

56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57 "And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

58 As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.

59 I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper."

Daily Mass Readings for Thursday, October 20, 2011

Optional Memorial of Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest

FIRST READING: Romans 6: 19 - 23

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19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.

20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PSALM: Psalms 1: 1 - 4, 6

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1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

GOSPEL: Luke 12: 49 - 53

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49 "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!

50 I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!

51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;

52 for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;

53 they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."