Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Official Translation

Reading 1 - Hosea 6.1-6

“Come, and let us return to Yahweh;
for he has torn us to pieces,
but he will heal us;
he has injured us,
but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us.
On the third day he will raise us up,
and we will live before him.

Let us acknowledge the Lord.
Let us press on to know the Lord.
As surely as the sun rises,
the Lord will appear.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain that waters the earth.”

Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your love is like a morning cloud,
and like the dew that disappears early.
Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets;
I killed them with the words of my mouth.
For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Responsorial – Psalm 51.3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab Resp. Hosea 6:6

R. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.

R. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.

For you do not delight in sacrifice.
I would give a burnt offering, but you have no pleasure in it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

R. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.

Do well in your good pleasure to Zion.
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,
in burnt offerings and in holocausts.

R. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.

Gospel - Luke 18.9-14

Jesus spoke this parable
to those who were convinced
of their own righteousness,
and who despised all others.
“Two humans went up
into the temple to pray;
one was a Pharisee,
and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood
and prayed to himself like this:
‘God, I thank you,
that I am not like the rest of the humans:
extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers,
or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far away,
would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying,
‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”