Catholic Mass Readings For Monday, July 21, 2014

Feast of Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor of the Church

FIRST READING: Micah 6: 1 - 4, 6 - 8

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1 Listen to what Yahweh said to me, "Stand up, let the mountains hear your claim, and the hills listen to your plea."

2 Hear, O mountains, Yahweh's complaint! Foundations of the earth, pay attention! For Yahweh has a case against his people, and will argue it with Israel.

3 "O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I been a burden to you? Answer me.

4 I brought you out of Egypt; I rescued you from the land of bondage; I sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you.

6 "What shall I bring when I come to Yahweh and bow down before God the most high? Shall I come with burnt offerings, with sacrifices of yearling calves?

7 Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with an overabundance of oil libations? Should I offer my firstborn for my sins, the fruit of my body for my wrongdoing?"

8 "You have been told, O man, what is good and what Yahweh requires of you: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

PSALM: Psalms 50: 5 - 6, 8 - 9, 16 - 17, 21, 23

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5 "Gather before me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

6 The heavens will proclaim his sentence, for God himself is the judge.

8 Not for your sacrifices do I reprove you, for your burnt offerings are ever before me.

9 I need no bull from your stalls, nor he-goat from your pens.

16 But God says this to the wicked: "What right have you to mouth my laws, or to talk about my covenant?

17 You hate my commands and cast my words behind you.

21 Because I was silent while you did these things, you thought I was like you. But now I rebuke you and make this charge against you.

23 Those who give with thanks offerings honor me, but the one who walks blamelessly, I will show him the salvation of God."

GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 38 - 42

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38 Then some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees spoke up, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."

39 Jesus answered them, "An evil and unfaithful people want a sign, but no sign will be given them except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

40 In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the monster fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.

41 At the judgment, the people of Niniveh will rise with this generation and condemn it, because they reformed their lives at the preaching of Jonah, and here there is greater than Jonah.

42 At the judgment, the Queen of the South will stand up and condemn you. She came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here there is greater than Solomon.

Sunday Catholic Mass Readings For July 20, 2014

FIRST READING: Wisdom 12: 13, 16 - 19

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13 For there is no other god besides you, one who cares for everyone, who could ask you to justify your judgments;

16 Your strength is the source of your justice and because you are the Lord of all, you can be merciful to everyone.

17 To those who doubt your sovereign power you show your strength and you confound the insolence of those who ignore it.

18 But you, the Lord of strength, judge with prudence and govern us with great patience, because you are able to do anything at the time you want.

19 In this way you have taught your people that a righteous person must love his human fellows; you have also given your people cause for hope by prompting them to repent of their sin.

PSALM: Psalms 86: 5 - 6, 9 - 10, 15 - 16

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5 You are good and forgiving, O Lord, caring for those who call on you.

6 Listen, O Lord, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.

9 All the nations you have made will come; they will worship before you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name.

10 For you are great, and wonderful are your deeds; you alone are God.

15 But you, O Lord God, are merciful, slow to anger, loving and faithful.

16 Turn to me, take pity on me; give your strength to your servant, and save the child of your handmaid.

SECOND READING: Romans 8: 26 - 27

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26 We are weak, but the Spirit comes to help us. How to ask? And what shall we ask for? We do not know, but the spirit intercedes for us without words, as if with groans.

27 And He who sees inner secrets knows the desires of the Spirit, for he asks for the holy ones what is pleasing to God.

GOSPEL: Matthew 13: 24 - 43 OR Matthew 13: 24 - 30

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24 Jesus told them another parable, "The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

25 While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and left.

26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared.

27 Then the servants of the owner came to him and said: 'Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'

28 He answered them: 'This is the work of an enemy.' They asked him: 'Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?'

29 He told them: 'No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them.

30 Let them just grow together until harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the workers: Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn."

31 Jesus put another parable before them, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field.

32 It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it has fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches."

33 He told them another parable, "The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast which a woman took and buried in three measures of flour until the whole mass of dough began to rise."

34 Jesus taught all this to the crowds by means of parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.

35 So what the Prophet had said was fulfilled: I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.

36 Then he sent the crowds away and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

37 Jesus answered them, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

38 The field is the world; the good seed are the people of the Kingdom; the weeds are those who follow the evil one.

39 The enemy who sows them is the devil; the harvest is the end of time and the workers are the angels.

40 Just as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of time.

41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom all that is scandalous and all who do evil.

42 And these will be thrown in the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.

OR

24 Jesus told them another parable, "The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

25 While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and left.

26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also appeared.

27 Then the servants of the owner came to him and said: 'Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'

28 He answered them: 'This is the work of an enemy.' They asked him: 'Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?'

29 He told them: 'No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them.

30 Let them just grow together until harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the workers: Pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn."

Catholic Mass Readings For Saturday, July 19, 2014

FIRST READING: Micah 2: 1 - 5

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1 Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds: in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God.

2 And they have coveted fields, and taken them by violence, and houses they have forcibly taken away: and oppressed a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I devise an evil against this family: from which you shall not withdraw your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for this is a very evil time.

4 In that day a parable shall be taken up upon you, and a song shall be sung with melody by them that say: We are laid waste and spoiled: the portion of my people is changed: how shall he depart from me, whereas he is returning that will divide our land?

5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the cord of a lot in the assembly of the Lord.

PSALM: Psalms 10: 1 - 4, 7 - 8, 14

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1 Unto the end, for the hidden things of the Son. A psalm for David.

2 I will give praise to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will relate all thy wonders.

3 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing to thy name, O thou most high.

4 When my enemy shall be turned back: they shall be weakened and perish before thy face.

7 The swords of the enemy have failed unto the end: and their cities thou hast destroyed. Their memory hath perished with a noise.

8 But the Lord remaineth for ever. He hath prepared his throne in judgment:

14 Have mercy on me, O Lord: see my humiliation which I suffer from my enemies.

GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 14 - 21

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14 And the Pharisees going out made a consultation against him, how they might destroy him.

15 But Jesus knowing it, retired from thence: and many followed him, and he healed them all.

16 And he charged them that they should not make him known.

17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying:

18 Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul hath been well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

19 He shall not contend, nor cry out, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.

20 The bruised reed he shall not break: and smoking flax he shall not extinguish: till he send forth judgment unto victory.

21 And in his name the Gentiles shall hope.

Catholic Mass Readings For Friday, July 18, 2014

FIRST READING: Isaiah 38: 1 - 6, 21 - 22, 7 - 8

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1 In those days Hezekiah was sick even to death, and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.

2 And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,

3 And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping.

4 And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:

5 Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold I will add to thy days fifteen years:

6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.

21 Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as it plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.

22 And Hezekiah had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

7 And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:

8 Behold I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun dial of Achaz with the sun, ten lines backward. And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.

PSALM: Isaiah 38: 10 - 12, 16

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10 I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.

11 I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.

12 My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent. My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he out me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.

16 O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.

GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 1 - 8

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1 At that time Jesus went through the corn on the sabbath: and his disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears, and to eat.

2 And the Pharisees seeing them, said to him: Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days.

3 But he said to them: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and they that were with him:

4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the loaves of proposition, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him, but for the priests only?

5 Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame?

6 But I tell you that there is here a greater than the temple.

7 And if you knew what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: you would never have condemned the innocent.

8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath.