Daily Mass Readings For Saturday, March 24, 2012

FIRST READING: Jeremiah 11: 18 - 20

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18 The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds.

19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."

20 But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.

PSALM: Psalms 7: 2 - 3, 9 - 12

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2 lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away, with none to rescue.

3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous, thou who triest the minds and hearts, thou righteous God.

10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.

12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

GOSPEL: John 7: 40 - 53

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40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet."

41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee?

42 Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"

43 So there was a division among the people over him.

44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?"

46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"

47 The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also?

48 Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?

49 But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed."

50 Nicode'mus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,

51 "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?"

52 They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee."

53 They went each to his own house.

Daily Mass Readings For Friday, March 23, 2012

FIRST READING: Wisdom 2: 1, 12 - 22

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1 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, "Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.

12 "Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.

13 He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.

14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

15 the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.

16 We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.

17 Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

18 for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

19 Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance.

20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected."

21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,

22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls.

PSALM: Psalms 34: 17 - 21, 23

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17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked; and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

GOSPEL: John 7: 1 - 2, 10, 25 - 30

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1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.

2 Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?

26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?

27 Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from."

28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know.

29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me."

30 So they sought to arrest him; but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.