Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.

Deuteronomy 26: 16- 19

26:16 Today the Lord your God has instructed you to carry out these commandments and judgments, and to keep and fulfill them, with all your heart and with all your soul.

26:17 Today, you have chosen the Lord to be your God, so that you may walk in his ways, and keep his ceremonies and commandments and judgments, and obey his command.

26:18 Today, the Lord has chosen you, so that you may be his particular people, just as he has spoken to you, and so that you may keep all his precepts,

26:19 and so that he may cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which he has created, for the sake of his own praise and name and glory, in order that you may be a holy people for the Lord your God, just as he has spoken.”

Matthew 5: 43- 48

5:43	You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and you shall have hatred for your enemy.’
5:44	But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.
5:45	In this way, you shall be sons of your Father, who is in heaven. He causes his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and he causes it to rain upon the just and the unjust.
5:46	For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even tax collectors behave this way?
5:47	And if you greet only your brothers, what more have you done? Do not even the pagans behave this way?
5:48	Therefore, be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Ezekiel 18: 21- 28

18:21	But if the impious man does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and if he keeps all my precepts, and accomplishes judgment and justice, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
18:22	I will not remember all his iniquities, which he has worked; by his justice, which he has worked, he shall live.
18:23	How could it be my will that an impious man should die, says the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways and live?
18:24	But if a just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity in accord with all the abominations that the impious man so often does, why should he live? All his justices, which he has accomplished, shall not be remembered. By the transgression, in which he has transgressed, and by his sin, in which he has sinned, by these he shall die.
18:25	And you have said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Therefore, listen, O house of Israel. How could it be that my way is not fair? And is it not instead your ways that are perverse?
18:26	For when the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he shall die by this; by the injustice that he has worked, he shall die.
18:27	And when the impious man turns himself away from his impiety, which he has done, and accomplishes judgment and justice, he shall cause his own soul to live.
18:28	For by considering and turning himself away from all his iniquities, which he has worked, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.

Matthew 5: 20- 26

5:20	For I say to you, that unless your justice has surpassed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
5:21	You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not murder; whoever will have murdered shall be liable to judgment.’
5:22	But I say to you, that anyone who becomes angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. But whoever will have called his brother, ‘Idiot,’ shall be liable to the council. Then, whoever will have called him, ‘Worthless,’ shall be liable to the fires of Hell.
5:23	Therefore, if you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24	leave your gift there, before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then you may approach and offer your gift.
5:25	Be reconciled with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown in prison.
5:26	Amen I say to you, that you shall not go forth from there, until you have repaid the last quarter.

Esther 8: 1- 5, 12- 13, 19

8:1	Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was imminent, fled to the Lord.
8:2	And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.
8:3	And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.
8:4	My peril is close at hand.
8:5	I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.

8:12	Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.
8:13	Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.

8:19	O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”

Matthew 7: 7- 12

7:7	Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
7:8	For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
7:9	Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
7:10	or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
7:11	Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
7:12	Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Reading

Jonah   3: 1-10

3:1	And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:
3:2	Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.
3:3	And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.
3:4	And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
3:5	And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.
3:6	And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.
3:7	And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.
3:8	And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
3:9	Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”
3:10	And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke    11: 29-32

11:29	Then, as the crowds were quickly gathering, he began to say: “This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
11:30	For just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to this generation.
11:31	The queen of the South will rise up, at the judgment, with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, more than Solomon is here.
11:32	The men of Nineveh will rise up, at the judgment, with this generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And behold, more than Jonah is here.

Reading

Isaiah    55: 10-11

55:10	And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
55:11	so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   6: 7-15

6:7	And when praying, do not choose many words, as the pagans do. For they think that by their excess of words they might be heeded.
6:8	Therefore, do not choose to imitate them. For your Father knows what your needs may be, even before you ask him.
6:9	Therefore, you shall pray in this way: Our Father, who is in heaven: May your name be kept holy.
6:10	May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.
6:11	Give us this day our life-sustaining bread.
6:12	And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13	And lead us not into temptation. But free us from evil. Amen.
6:14	For if you will forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father also will forgive you your offenses.
6:15	But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.

Reading

Leviticus   19: 1-2, 11-18

19:1	The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
19:2	Speak to the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
19:11	You shall not steal. You shall not lie. Neither shall anyone deceive his neighbor.
19:12	You shall not commit perjury in my name, nor shall you pollute the name of your God. I am the Lord.
19:13	You shall not slander your neighbor, nor shall you oppress him by violence. The wages of a hired hand, you shall not delay with you until tomorrow.
19:14	You shall not speak evil of the deaf, nor shall you place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, for I am the Lord.
19:15	You shall not do what is unjust, nor shall you judge unjustly. You shall not consider the reputation of the poor, nor shall you honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge your neighbor justly.
19:16	You shall not be a detractor, nor a whisperer, among the people. You shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
19:17	You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reprove him openly, lest you have sin over him.
19:18	Do not seek revenge, neither should you be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens. You shall love your friend as yourself. I am the Lord.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    25: 31-46

25:31	But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty.
25:32	And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33	And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left.
25:34	Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35	For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;
25:36	naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’
25:37	Then the just will answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when have we see you hungry, and fed you; thirsty, and given you drink?
25:38	And when have we seen you a stranger, and taken you in? Or naked, and covered you?
25:39	Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit to you?’
25:40	And in response, the King shall say to them, ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.’
25:41	Then he shall also say, to those who will be on his left: ‘Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42	For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink;
25:43	I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not cover me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.’
25:44	Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
25:45	Then he shall respond to them by saying: ‘Amen I say to you, whenever you did not do it to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.’
25:46	And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just shall go into eternal life.”

Isaiah 58: 9- 14

58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.
58:10	When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.
58:11	And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.
58:12	And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.
58:13	If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,
58:14	then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27- 32

5:27	And after these things, he went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
5:28	And leaving behind everything, rising up, he followed him.
5:29	And Levi made a great feast for him in his own house. And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others, who were sitting at table with them.
5:30	But the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
5:31	And responding, Jesus said to them: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who have maladies.
5:32	I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah 58: 1- 9

58:1	Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2	For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.
58:3	“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.
58:4	Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.
58:5	Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?
58:6	Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.
58:7	Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.
58:8	Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.
58:9	Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.

Matthew 9: 14- 15

9:14	Then the disciples of John drew near to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast frequently, but your disciples do not fast?”
9:15	And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the groom mourn, while the groom is still with them? But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them. And then they shall fast.