June 25, 2022

Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Reading

Isaiah   61: 9-11

61:9 And they will know their offspring among the nations, and their progeny in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them: that these are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.

61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, and my soul will exult in my God. For he has clothed me with the vestments of salvation, and he has wrapped me in the clothing of justice, like a groom arrayed with a crown, and like a bride adorned with her jewels.

61:11 For as the earth brings forth its seedlings and the garden produces its seeds, so will the Lord God bring forth justice and praise in the sight of all the nations.

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.

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Luke     2: 41-51

2:41 And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the time of the solemnity of Passover.
2:42 And when he had become twelve years old, they ascended to Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast day.
2:43 And having completed the days, when they returned, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem. And his parents did not realize this.
2:44 But, supposing that he was in the company, they went a day’s journey, seeking him among their relatives and acquaintances.
2:45 And not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
2:46 And it happened that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, listening to them and questioning them.
2:47 But all who listened to him were astonished over his prudence and his responses.
2:48 And upon seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: “Son, why have you acted this way toward us? Behold, your father and I were seeking you in sorrow.”
2:49 And he said to them: “How is it that you were seeking me? For did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in these things which are of my Father?”
2:50 And they did not understand the word that he spoke to them.
2:51 And he descended with them and went to Nazareth. And he was subordinate to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart.