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| First Reading |
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Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, 'Ask the Lord your God for a
sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from
the heights above.' 'No,' Ahaz answered, 'I will not the Lord to
the test.'
Then Isaiah said:
Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Emmanuel,
a name with means, 'God-is-with-us'.
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| Responsorial Psalm |
| Psalm 39:7-11
| Response: |
Here I am, Lord!
I come to do your will. |
- You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.
- In the scroll of the book it stands written
that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law
in the depth of my heart.
- Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.
- I have not hidden your justice in my heart
but declared your faithful help.
I have not hidden your love and your truth
from the great assembly.
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| Second Reading |
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Hebrews 10:4-10
Bulls' blood and goats' blood are useless for taking away sins,
and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,
prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
then I said,
just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,
'God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.'
Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays
down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the
oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took
no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to
obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with
the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering
of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.
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| Gospel |
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Luke 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House
of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in and said to
here, 'Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.' She
was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this
greeting could mean, but the angel said to here, 'Mary, do not
be afraid; you have won God's favour. Listen! You are to conceive
and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and
will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of
Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.' Mary said to the
angel, 'But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?' 'The
Holy Spirit will come upon you,' the angel answered, 'and the power
of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child
will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your
kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son,
and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for
nothing is impossible to God.' 'I am the handmaid of the Lord,'
said Mary, 'let what you have said be done to me.' And the angel
left her.
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Back to Scripture Readings
Readings from The Jerusalem Bible © 1966 by Darton
Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday and Company Ltd.
Psalm © The Grail (England) published by HarperCollins.
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