Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

Official Translation

Reading 1 - Jeremiah 7.23-28

Thus says the LORD:

“This I commanded my people, saying,
‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God,
and you shall be my people,
and walk in all the way that I command you,
that it may be well with you.’

But they did not listen nor turn their ear,
but walked in their own counsels
and in the stubbornness of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward.
Since the day that your fathers
came out of the land of Egypt to this day,
I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
daily rising up early and sending them:
yet they did not listen to me,
nor inclined their ear,
but made their neck stiff:
they did worse than their fathers.

You shall speak all these words to them,
but they will not listen to you;
you shall also call to them,
but they will not answer you.
You shall tell them,
‘This is the nation
that has not listened to the voice
of the Lord their God,
nor received instruction.
Faithfulness has perished,
and is cut off from their mouth.’”

Responsorial – Psalm 95.1-2, 6-7, 7-9 Resp. 8

R. Today, if you would hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving.
Let us extol him with songs!

R. Today, if you would hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker,
for he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care.

R. Today, if you would hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Today, oh that you would hear his voice!
Do not harden your heart, as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me,
they tested me though they saw my works.

R. Today, if you would hear his voice, harden not your heart.

Gospel – Luke 11.14-23

Jesus was casting out
a demon that was mute.
When the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke;
and the crowds marveled.

But some of them said,
“He casts out demons through Beelzebul,
the prince of the demons.”
Others, testing him,
sought from him a sign from heaven.
But he, knowing their thoughts,
said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to desolation.
A house divided against itself falls.
If Satan also is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?

For you say that I cast out demons through Beelzebul,
but if I cast out demons through Beelzebul,
by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if by the finger of God
I cast out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come to you.

When the strong one,
fully armed, guards his own dwelling,
his goods are at peace.
But when someone stronger
attacks him and overcomes him,
he takes from him his whole armor
on which he depended
and divides his plunder.
The one that is not with me is against me.
The one who does not gather with me scatters.”