Friday
of the Third Week of Lent
FIRST
READING: Hosea
14:2-10
2
Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by
thy iniquity.
3
Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take
away all iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the
calves of our lips.
4
Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will
we say any more: The works of our hands are our gods, for thou wilt
have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee.
5
I will heal their breaches, I will love them freely: for my wrath is
turned away from them.
6
I will be as the dew, Israel shall spring as the lily, and his root
shall shoot forth as that of Libanus.
7
His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree:
and his smell as that of Libanus.
8
They shall be converted that sit under his shadow: they shall live
upon wheat, and they shall blossom as a vine: his memorial shall be
as the wine of Libanus.
9
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear
him, and I will make him flourish like a green fir tree: from me is
thy fruit found.
10
Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he
shall know these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the
just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.
PSALM:
Psalms 81:6-11,
14, 17
6
He ordained it for a testimony in Joseph, when he came out of the
land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not.
7
He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in
baskets.
8
Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee: I heard
thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of
contradiction.
9
Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt
hearken to me,
10
There shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange
god.
11
For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt:
open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
14
If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:
17
And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out
of the rock.
GOSPEL:
Mark 12:28-34
28
And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning
together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which
was the first commandment of all.
29
And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O
Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.
30
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with
thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength.
This is the first commandment.
31
And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
32
And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth,
that there is one God, and there is no other besides him.
33
And that he should be loved with the whole heart, and with the whole
understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength;
and to love one's neighbour as one's self, is a greater thing than
all holocausts and sacrifices.
34
And Jesus seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art
not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him
any question.
