Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Chapter 2
Have You Paid Any Notice to My Servant Job?[a] 1 On another occasion the sons of God came forward to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan accompanied them. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “I have been roaming the earth and going back and forth in it.”
3 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you paid any notice to my servant Job? You will not find anyone like him on the entire earth. He is a good and righteous man who fears God and shuns evil. He still maintains his integrity, even though you incited me to ruin him without the slightest justification.”
4 Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin![b] A man will surrender everything he has to save his own life. 5 But now if you stretch forth your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, he will curse you to your face.” 6 The Lord said to Satan, “He is in your power, but you must spare his life.”
Job Did Not Utter a Single Sinful Word.[c] 7 Therefore, when Satan left the Lord’s presence, he afflicted Job with malignant sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Job took a potsherd to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.[d]
9 Then his wife said to him, “When will you give up persisting in your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. If we accept good things from God, should we not be willing to accept sorrows as well?” In all this, Job did not utter a single sinful word.
Psalm 26[a]
Prayer for the Righteous
1 Of David.
O Lord, come to my defense,
for I have lived a blameless life.
I have placed my trust in the Lord,
and never have I wavered in that regard.
2 Test me, O Lord, and try me;
probe my heart and my mind.
3 For your kindness[b] is before my eyes,
and I am constantly guided by your truth.
4 I do not sit in the company of deceivers,
nor do I associate with hypocrites.
5 I abhor the assembly of the wicked,
and I refuse to associate with evildoers.
6 I wash my hands in innocence[c]
and join the procession around your altar, O Lord,
7 giving voice to your praises
and proclaiming all your wondrous deeds.[d]
8 I love the house where you dwell, O Lord,
the place where your glory resides.[e]
9 Do not sweep my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with those who thirst for blood,[f]
10 whose hands carry out evil schemes,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.
11 Rather, I choose to walk in innocence;
redeem me and be merciful to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground;[g]
in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.
Chapter 1
Prologue[a]
1 In previous times, God spoke to our ancestors
in many and various ways
through the Prophets,[b]
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us
through his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things
and through whom he created the universe.
3 He is the reflection of God’s glory
and the perfect expression of his very being,[c]
sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Achieving purification from sins,
he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
4 So he became as far superior to the angels
as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
Christ Our Brother.[a] 5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But someone has offered this testimony somewhere:
“What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels,
yet crowned him with glory and honor
8 and put everything under his feet.”
Now in putting everything under his feet, he left nothing that is not subject to his control. Right now we do not yet see everything under his feet. 9 However, we do see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was completely fitting that he, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 Both the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all proceed from one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brethren;[b]
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.”
2 Some Pharisees came forward and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He replied, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and dismiss her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “It was because of the hardness of your hearts that he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the very beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, 8 and the two become one flesh.’ And so they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were again in the house, the disciples once more questioned Jesus about this. 11 He said to them, “If a man divorces his wife and marries another, he commits adultery against her. 12 In the same way, if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
13 Jesus Receives Little Children.[a] People were bringing little children to him so that he might touch them, and the disciples sternly rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus became aware of this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them. For it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up into his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.