31 July. Tuesday, Week 17

1st Reading: Jeremiah (14:17-22) Jeremiah laments his people’s destruction and begs God for mercy You shall say to my people this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter, my people, is struck down with a crushing blow, with a very grievous wound….

30 July. Monday, Week 17

1st Reading: Jeremiah (13:1-11) A warning, through the symbol of the discarded loincloth Thus said the Lord to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.” So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on…

28 July. Saturday, Week 16

1st Reading: Jeremiah (7:1-11) Words and ceremonies also demand social justice The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord….

27 July. Friday, Week 16

1st Reading: Jeremiah (3:14-17) Israel and Judah will be united and all nations will assemble at Jerusalem Return, O faithless children, says the Lord, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds after…

26 July. Thursday, Week 16

1st Reading: Jeremiah (2:1-2; 7-8; 12-13. The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. I brought you into…

24 July. Tuesday, Week 16

1st Reading: Micah (7:14-15, 18-20) Israel’s God is always faithful and forgiving Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when…

21 July. Saturday, Week 15

1st Reading: Micah 2:1-5) If rich people steal the lands of others, their own land will fall to their captors Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them…

20 July. Friday, Week 15

1st Reading: Isaiah (38:1-6, 21-22,) King Hezekiah is cured of a serious sickness; as a sign of full health God turns the sun’s rays backward In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord:…

19 July. Thursday, Week 15

1st Reading: Isaiah (26:7-9, 12, 16-19) A prayer of quiet confidence, awaiting the dawn of God’s justice The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s…

18 July. Wednesday, Week 15

1st Reading: Isaiah (10:5-7, 13-16) Assyria was used to punish Israel but later was discarded for interfering with God’s plans for his people Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the club in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him,…

17 July. Tuesday, Week 15

1st Reading: Isaiah (7:1-9) During a national crisis people must first turn to a deeper faith in God In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack…

16 July. Monday, Week 15

(Our Lady of Mount Carmel ) 1st Reading: Isaiah (1:10-17 ) Formal worship from people who oppress of the poor is spurned by God Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says…