Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 23[a]
The Lord, Shepherd and Host
1 A psalm of David.
I
The Lord is my shepherd;[b]
there is nothing I lack.(A)
2 In green pastures he makes me lie down;
to still waters he leads me;
3 (B)he restores my soul.
He guides me along right paths[c]
for the sake of his name.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,(C)
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff comfort me.
II
Abandonment of Judah
17 Gather up your bundle from the land,
City living under siege!
18 For thus says the Lord:
Now, at this time
I will sling away the inhabitants of the land;
I will hem them in,
that they may be taken.
19 Woe is me! I am undone,
my wound is beyond healing.
Yet I had thought:
if I make light of my sickness, I can bear it.
20 My tent is ruined,
all its cords are severed.
My children have left me, they are no more:
no one to pitch my tent,
no one to raise its curtains.(A)
21 How stupid are the shepherds!
The Lord they have not sought;
For this reason they have failed,
and all their flocks scattered.(B)
22 Listen! a rumor! here it comes,
a great commotion from the land of the north:
To make the cities of Judah a desolation,
the haunt of jackals.
Prayer of Jeremiah
23 I know, Lord,
that no one chooses their way,
Nor determines their course
nor directs their own step.
24 Correct me, Lord, but with equity,
not in anger, lest you diminish me.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
on the tribes that do not call your name;
For they have utterly devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his home.(C)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. 17 So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. 18 Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers[a] engaged him in discussion. Some asked, “What is this scavenger trying to say?” Others said, “He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities,” because he was preaching about ‘Jesus’ and ‘Resurrection.’ 19 They took him and led him to the Areopagus[b] and said, “May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of?(A) 20 For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus. 22 Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:[c]
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’[d] What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,(B) 25 nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 He made from one[e] the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, 27 so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.(C) 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’[f] as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.(D) 30 God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31 because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”(E)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.