July 24, 2015

Reading

The Book of Exodus   20: 1-17

20:1	And the Lord spoke all these words:
20:2	“I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude.
20:3	You shall not have strange gods before me.
20:4	You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth.
20:5	You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
20:6	and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts.
20:7	You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold harmless one who takes the name of the Lord his God falsely.
20:8	Remember that you are to sanctify the day of the Sabbath.
20:9	For six days, you will work and accomplish all your tasks.
20:10	But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work in it: you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, your beast and the newcomer who is within your gates.
20:11	For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all the things that are in them, and so he rested on the seventh day. For this reason, the Lord has blessed the day of the Sabbath and sanctified it.
20:12	Honor your father and your mother, so that you may have a long life upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.
20:13	You shall not murder.
20:14	You shall not commit adultery.
20:15	You shall not steal.
20:16	You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor.
20:17	You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; neither shall you desire his wife, nor male servant, nor female servant, nor ox, nor donkey, nor anything that is his.”

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew    13: 18-23

13:18	Listen, then, to the parable of the sower.
13:19	With anyone who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, evil comes and carries away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the side of the road.
13:20	Then whoever has received the seed upon a rocky place, this is one who hears the word and promptly accepts it with joy.
13:21	But he has no root in himself, so it is only for a time; then, when tribulation and persecution occur because of the word, he promptly stumbles.
13:22	And whoever has received the seed among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the falseness of riches suffocate the word, and he is effectively without fruit.
13:23	Yet truly, whoever has received the seed into good soil, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, and so he bears fruit, and he produces: some a hundred fold, and another sixty fold, and another thirty fold.”