Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Jeremiah 26.11-16, 24

Then the priests and the prophets
spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying,
“This man deserves death;
for he has prophesied against this city,
as you have heard with your own ears.”

Then Jeremiah spoke
to all the princes and to all the people, saying,
“The Lord sent me to prophesy
against this house and against this city
all the words that you have heard.
Now therefore amend your ways and your doings,
and obey the Lord your God’s voice,
and the Lord will repent of the evil
that he has pronounced against you.
But as for me, behold, I am in your hand:
do with me as is good and right in your eyes.
Only know for certain that, if you put me to death,
you will bring innocent blood on yourselves,
and on this city, and on its inhabitants;
for truthfully, the Lord has sent me to you
to speak all these words in your ears.”

Then the princes and all the people
said to the priests and to the prophets:
“This man is not worthy of death;
for he has spoken to us
in the name of the Lord our God.”

So the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan
was with Jeremiah, so that they would not
hand him over to the people to put him to death.

Responsorial – Psalm 69.15-16, 30-31, 33-34 Resp. 14c

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

Deliver me out of the mire; do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
and out of the deep waters.
Let not the flood waters overwhelm me,
nor let the deep swallow me up,
nor let the pit shut its mouth on me.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

But I am poor and sorrowful:
Your salvation, O God, protects me.
I will praise the name of God with a song,
and I will magnify him with praise.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

Let the poor see and rejoice:
seek God, and your soul shall live.
For the Lord has heard the poor:
and has not despised his prisoners.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

Gospel – Matthew 14.1-12

At that time, Herod the tetrarch
heard a report concerning Jesus,
and said to his servants,
“This is John the Baptist.
He is risen from the dead.
That is why these powers work in him.”

For Herod had laid hold of John,
and bound him and put him in prison
for the sake of Herodias,
his brother Philip’s wife.
For John said to him,
“It is not lawful for you to have her.”
Though he would have put him to death,
he feared the crowd,
because they counted him as a prophet.

But when Herod’s birthday came,
the daughter of Herodias danced among them
and pleased Herod.
Whereupon he promised with an oath
to give her whatever she should ask.
She, being prompted by her mother, said,
“Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

The king was worried, but for the sake of his oaths,
and of those who sat at the table with him,
he commanded it to be given,
and he sent and beheaded John in the prison.
His head was brought on a platter,
and given to the girl,
and she brought it to her mother.

His disciples came,
and took the body, and buried it,
and they went and told Jesus.

Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Jeremiah 26.1-9

In the beginning of the reign
of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
this word from the Lord came, saying,
“the Lord says:
Stand in the court of the Lord’s house,
and speak to all the cities of Judah,
which come to worship in the Lord’s house,
all the words that I command you to speak to them;
do not diminish a word.
It may be that they will listen,
and turn every man from his evil way;
that I may repent of the evil
which I intend to do to them
because of the evil of their actions.

You shall tell them that the Lord says
If you will not listen to me,
to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
to listen to the words of my servants the prophets,
whom I send to you,
urgently sending them to you,
though you have not listened;
then I will make this house like Shiloh,
and will make this city a curse
to all the nations of the earth.

The priests and the prophets and all the people
heard Jeremiah speaking
these words in the Lord’s house.
When Jeremiah had made an end
of speaking all that the Lord
had commanded him to speak to all the people,
the priests and the prophets and all the people
seized him, saying, “You shall surely die.”
Why have you prophesied in the Lord’s name, saying,
‘This house shall be like Shiloh,
and this city shall be desolate,
without inhabitant?’
All the people gathered around Jeremiah
in the Lord’s house.

Responsorial – Psalm 69.5, 8-10, 14 Resp. 14c

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me.

They are more than the hairs on my head,
those who hate me without a cause.
Those who want to cut me off are mighty,
but are my enemies wrongfully.
I have to restore what I did not take away.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me.

For your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons.
For the zeal of your house consumes me.
The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me.

But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord,
in an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me,
in the truth of your salvation.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me.

Gospel – Matthew 13.54-58

Coming into his own country,
Jesus taught the people in their synagogue,
so that they were astonished, and said,
“Where did he get this wisdom and the mighty works?
Is this not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother called Mary,
and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
Are not all of his sisters with us?
Where then did he get all this?”
They took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor,
except in his own country,
and in his own house.”
He did not do many mighty works there
because of their unbelief.

Wednesday of the Holy Week

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Isaiah 50.4-9a

The Lord God has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I may know how
to sustain with words him who is weary.
Morning after morning,
he has opened my ear to hear,
and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away backward.

I gave my back to the strikers,
and my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord God will help me;
therefore I have not been confounded:
therefore have I set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
He is near who justifies me;
who will bring charges against me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God will help me;
who shall condemn me?

Responsorial – Psalm 69.8-10, 21-22, 31+33-34 Resp. 14c

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none.
They also gave me gall for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

I will praise the name of God with a song,
and I will magnify him with praise.
Let the poor see and rejoice:
seek God, and your soul shall live.
For the Lord has heard the poor:
and has not despised his prisoners.

R. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me!

Gospel – Matthew 26.14-25

One of the Twelve,
who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests, and said,
“What are you willing to give me,
that I should betray him to you?”
They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of unleavened bread,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him,
“Where do you want us
to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him,
‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand.
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”

The disciples did as Jesus commanded them,
and they prepared the Passover.
Now when evening had come,
he was reclining at the table with the Twelve.
As they were eating, he said,
“Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
They were exceedingly sorrowful,
and each began to ask him, “It is not I, Lord, is it?”

He answered, “One who has dipped his hand with me in the dish,
Is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Human goes,
even as it is written of him,
but woe to that human through whom
the Son of Human is betrayed!
It would be better for that human
if he had not been born.”

Judas, who betrayed him, answered,
“It is not I, Rabbi, is it?”
He said to him, “So you said.”

Monday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time (I)

Official Translation

Reading 1 - Romans 11.29-36

Brothers and Sisters:
The gifts and the call of God are not regretted.

For as you also in times past did not obey God,
but now have obtained mercy,
through their disobedience;

So also now they have not obeyed,
(for your mercy)
so that they also may now be given mercy.

For God has gathered all in disobedience,
so that he can be merciful to all.

O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his advisor?
Or who has given to him first
that he could be repaid?

For from him, and through him, and in him, all things are:
to him be glory forever. Amen.

Responsorial - Psalm 69:30-31, 33-34, 36; Resp: 16

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

But I am poor and sorrowful:
Your salvation, O God, protects me.
I will praise the name of God with a song,
and I will magnify him with praise.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

Let the poor see and rejoice:
seek God, and your soul shall live.
For the Lord has heard the poor:
and has not despised his prisoners.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

For God will save Zion,
and the cities of Judah will be built up.
And they shall dwell there, and inherit it.
And the descendents of his servants shall possess it;
and those who love his name will dwell there.

R. Hear me, O Lord, according to the greatness of your love.

Gospel - Luke 14.12-14

When Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees,
on the Sabbath, to eat bread,
he said to the one who had invited him:
When you have a meal or a banquet,
Do not call your friends or your brothers
or your relatives, or your rich neighbors,
lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and you are repaid.

But when you put on a feast,
invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind,
and you shall be blessed, because they do not have the ability to repay you:
for you will be repaid in the resurrection of the just.