Daily Mass Readings

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Mass Readings for Saturday, July 17, 2010

FIRST READING: Micah 2: 1 - 5

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, against this family I am devising evil, from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.

4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you, and wail with bitter lamentation, and say, "We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! Among our captors he divides our fields."

5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.

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

1 Why dost thou stand afar off, O LORD? Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes which they have devised.

3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart, and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.

4 In the pride of his countenance the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God."

7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

8 He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the hapless,

14 Thou dost see; yea, thou dost note trouble and vexation, that thou mayest take it into thy hands; the hapless commits himself to thee; thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.

GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 14 - 21

14 But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how to destroy him.

15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all,

16 and ordered them not to make him known.

17 This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

18 "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will any one hear his voice in the streets;

20 he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick, till he brings justice to victory;

21 and in his name will the Gentiles hope."

Steve Smith

I am a 68 year old single man from the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Mass Readings for Friday, July 16, 2010

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

1 In those days Hezeki'ah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover."

2 Then Hezeki'ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD,

3 and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight." And Hezeki'ah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:

5 "Go and say to Hezeki'ah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."

22 Hezeki'ah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

7 "This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:

8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

PSALM: Isaiah 38: 10 - 12, 16

10 I said, In the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

11 I said, I shall not see the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look upon man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night thou dost bring me to an end;

16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live!

GOSPEL: Matthew 12: 1 - 8

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath."

3 He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him:

4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

5 Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless?

6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

7 And if you had known what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath."

Steve Smith

I am a 68 year old single man from the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Mass Readings for Thursday, July 15, 2010

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

FIRST READING: Isaiah 26: 7 - 9, 12, 16 - 19

7 The path of the Upright One is honesty; you smooth the honest way of the upright.

8 Following the path of your judgements, O LORD, we set our hopes in you, your name, your memory are all our soul desires.

9 At night my soul longs for you and my spirit within me seeks you out; for when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn what saving justice is.

12 O LORD, you will grant us peace, having completed all our undertakings for us.

16 O LORD, in distress they had recourse to you, they expended themselves in prayer, since your punishment was on them.

17 As a pregnant woman near her time of delivery writhes and cries out in her pangs, so have we been, O LORD, in your eyes:

18 we have been pregnant, we have writhed, but we have given birth only to wind: we have not given salvation to the earth, no inhabitants for the world have been brought to birth.

19 Your dead will come back to life, your corpses will rise again. Wake up and sing, you dwellers in the dust, for your dew will be a radiant dew, but the earth will give birth to the shades.

PSALM: Psalms 102: 13 - 21

13 But you, LORD, are enthroned forever; your renown is for all generations.

14 You will again show mercy to Zion; now is the time for pity;

15 Its stones are dear to your servants; its dust moves them to pity.

16 The nations shall revere your name, LORD, all the kings of the earth, your glory,

17 Once the LORD has rebuilt Zion and appeared in glory,

18 Heeding the plea of the lowly, not scorning their prayer.

19 Let this be written for the next generation, for a people not yet born, that they may praise the LORD:

20 "The LORD looked down from the holy heights, viewed the earth from heaven,

21 To attend to the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die."

GOSPEL: Matthew 11: 28 - 30

28 Jesus said: 'Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest.