FIRST READING: Romans 7: 18 - 25
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
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
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."
