August 31, 2014

Reading

Jeremiah   20: 7-9

20:7 “You have led me away, O Lord, and I have been led away. You have been stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a derision all day long; everyone mocks me.

20:8 For I speak now as I have long spoken: crying out against iniquity and proclaiming devastation. And the word of the Lord has been made into a reproach against me and a derision, all day long.

20:9 Then I said: I will not call him to mind, nor will I speak any longer in his name. And my heart became like a raging fire, enclosed

Second Reading

Romans   12: 1-12

12:1 And so, I beg you, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, with the subservience of your mind.

12:2 And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

12:3 For I say, through the grace that has been given to me, to all who are among you: Taste no more than it is necessary to taste, but taste unto sobriety and just as God has distributed a share of the faith to each one.

12:4 For just as, within one body, we have many parts, though all the parts do not have the same role,

12:5 so also we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one is a part, the one of the other.

12:6 And we each have different gifts, according to the grace that has been given to us: whether prophecy, in agreement with the reasonableness of faith;

12:7 or ministry, in ministering; or he who teaches, in doctrine;

12:8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, in simplicity; he who governs, in solicitude; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness.

12:9 Let love be without falseness: hating evil, clinging to what is good,

12:10 loving one another with fraternal charity, surpassing one another in honor:

12:11 in solicitude, not lazy; in spirit, fervent; serving the Lord;

12:12 in hope, rejoicing; in tribulation, enduring; in prayer, ever-willing;

Gospel

Matthew 16: 17-21

16:17 And in response, Jesus said to him: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.

16:18 And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

16:19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound, even in heaven. And whatever you shall release on earth shall be released, even in heaven.”

16:20 Then he instructed his disciples that they should tell no one that he is Jesus the Christ.

16:21 From that time, Jesus began to reveal to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer much from the elders and the scribes and the leaders of the priests, and to be killed, and to rise again on the third day.