June 25, 2016

Lamentations 2: 2, 10- 14, 18- 19

2:2 BETH. The Lord has cast down, and he has not been lenient, with all the beauties of Jacob. In his fury, he has destroyed the fortifications of the virgin of Judah, and he has thrown them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and its leaders.

2:10 JOD. The elders of the daughter of Zion have become idle; they sit on the ground. They have sprinkled their heads with ashes. They have been wrapped with haircloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have cast their heads down to the ground.
2:11 CAPH. My eyes have exhausted their tears. My internal organs have become disturbed. My liver has been poured out on the earth, over the grief of the daughter of my people, when the little ones and the infants passed away in the streets of the town.
2:12 LAMED. They said to their mothers, “Where is the wheat and the wine?” when they fell like the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their lives into the bosoms of their mothers.
2:13 MEM. To what shall I compare you, or to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I equate you, so as to console you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your destruction is as great as the sea. Who will cure you?
2:14 NUN. Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you. And they have not laid open your iniquity, so as to provoke you to repentance. Yet they have seen for you false revelations and banishments.

2:18 SADE. Their heart cried out to the Lord from the walls of the daughter of Zion. Let tears run down like a torrent throughout the day and the night. Do not give rest to yourself, and do not allow the pupil of your eye to cease.
2:19 COPH. Rise up. Give praise in the night, in the first of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the sight of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him on behalf of the souls of your little ones, who have passed away from famine at the head of all the crossroads.

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 8: 5-17

8:5 And when he had entered into Capernaum, a centurion approached, petitioning him,
8:6 and saying, “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and badly tormented.”
8:7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8:8 And responding, the centurion said: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.
8:9 For I, too, am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
8:10 And, hearing this, Jesus wondered. And he said to those following him: “Amen I say to you, I have not found so great a faith in Israel.
8:11 For I say to you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and they shall sit at table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
8:12 But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
8:13 And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go, and just as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And the servant was healed at that very hour.
8:14 And when Jesus had arrived at the house of Peter, he saw his mother-in-law lying ill with a fever.
8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose up and ministered to them.
8:16 And when evening arrived, they brought to him many who had demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word. And he healed all those having maladies,
8:17 in order to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “He took our infirmities, and he carried away our diseases.”