July 18, 2014

Reading

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah    38: 1-8, 21-22

38:1	In those days Hezekiah became ill and was near death. And so, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet, entered to him, and he said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Put your house in order, for you shall die, and you shall not live.”
38:2	And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and he prayed to the Lord.
38:3	And he said: “I beg you, Lord, I beseech you, to remember how I walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and that I have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.
38:4	And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying:
38:5	“Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.
38:6	And I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
38:7	And this will be a sign for you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word, which he has spoken:
38:8	Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, which has now descended on the sundial of Ahaz, to move in reverse for ten lines.” And so, the sun moved backward by ten lines, through the degrees by which it had descended.
38:21	Now Isaiah had ordered them to take a paste of figs, and to spread it like plaster over the wound, so that he would be healed.
38:22	And Hezekiah said, “What will be the sign that I may go up to the house of the Lord?”

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   12: 1-8

12:1	At that time, Jesus went out through the ripe grain on the Sabbath. And his disciples, being hungry, began to separate the grain and to eat.
12:2	Then the Pharisees, seeing this, said to him, “Behold, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbaths.”
12:3	But he said to them: “Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
12:4	how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
12:5	Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbaths the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, and they are without guilt?
12:6	But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here.
12:7	And if you knew what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would never have condemned the innocent.
12:8	For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”