Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 Even when he lies on his bed,[a]
he is hatching evil plots.
He commits himself to a wicked course
and refuses to reject evil.
6 [b]O Lord, your kindness extends to the heavens;
your faithfulness, to the skies.
7 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments, like the mighty deep;
you sustain both humans and beasts, O Lord.
8 How precious, O God, is your kindness![c]
People seek refuge in the shadow of your wings.
9 They feast on the abundance of your house,[d]
and you give them to drink from your delightful streams.
10 For with you is the fountain of life,[e]
and by your light we see light.
Call for Conversion
19 [a]I then gave consideration
as to how I would treat you as sons
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful heritage of all the nations.
Further, I thought that you would call me “Father” and never cease to follow me.
20 But like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband,
so you have been unfaithful to me,
O house of Israel, says the Lord.
21 A cry on the bare heights is heard,
the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children,
because they have perverted their ways
and forgotten the Lord, their God.
22 Return, you rebellious children,
and I will forgive your faithlessness.
Here we are! We are returning to you,
for you are the Lord, our God.
23 The hills are truly a delusion,
as is the tumult on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord, our God alone
is the salvation of Israel.
24 Ever since we were young,
Baal has devoured everything
for which our fathers toiled:
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame
and let our dishonor cover us.
For we have sinned against the Lord, our God,
we and our ancestors,
from our youth even to this very day,
and we failed to obey the voice of the Lord, our God.
Marriage and Celibacy among Christians[a]
Chapter 7
Christian Marriage.[b] 1 Now I will move on to the matters about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man to refrain from touching a woman. 2 However, to avoid the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 A husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise a wife should fulfill her conjugal obligations to her husband. 4 For a wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, a husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by mutual consent for a specified time so as to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you by taking advantage of your lack of self-control. 6 I suggest this not as a command but by way of concession. 7 I wish that all of you would be as I myself am. However, each person has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.