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| "The Widow's Mite" -- by James Tissot |
FIRST
READING: Tobit
12: 1, 5-15, 20
1
Then Tobias called to him his son, and said to him: What can we give
to this holy man, that is come with thee?
5
So the father and the son, calling him, took him aside: and began to
desire him that he would vouchsafe to accept of half of all things
that they had brought.
6
Then he said to them secretly: Bless ye the God of heaven, give glory
to him in the sight of all that live, because he hath shewn his mercy
to you.
7
For it is good to hide the secret of a king: but honourable to reveal
and confess the works of God.
8
Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of
gold:
9
For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth
away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting.
10
But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul.
11
I discover then the truth unto you, and I will not hide the secret
from you.
12
When thou didst pray with tears, and didst bury the dead, and didst
leave thy dinner, and hide the dead by day in thy house, and bury
them by night, I offered thy prayer to the Lord.
13
And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that
temptation should prove thee.
14
And now the Lord hath sent me to heal thee, and to deliver Sara thy
son's wife from the devil.
15
For I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the
Lord.
20
It is time therefore that I return to him that sent me: but bless ye
God, and publish all his wonderful works.
PSALM:
Tobit 13: 2, 6-8
2
For thou scourgest, and thou savest: thou leadest down to hell, and
bringest up again: and there is none that can escape thy hand.
6
See then what he hath done with us, and with fear and trembling give
ye glory to him: and extol the eternal King of worlds in your works.
7
As for me, I will praise him in the land of my captivity: because he
hath shewn his majesty toward a sinful nation.
8
Be converted therefore, ye sinners, and do justice before God,
believing that he will shew his mercy to you.
GOSPEL:
Mark 12: 38-44
38
And he said to them in his doctrine: Beware of the scribes, who love
to walk in long robes, and to be saluted in the marketplace,
39
And to sit in the first chairs, in the synagogues, and to have the
highest places at suppers:
40
Who devour the houses of widows under the pretence of long prayer:
these shall receive greater judgment.
41
And Jesus sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people
cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much.
42
And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which
make a farthing.
43
And calling his disciples together, he saith to them: Amen I say to
you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast
into the treasury.
44
For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast
in all she had, even her whole living.
