Readings for Wednesday 3rd Week of Lent

First Reading
Dt 4:1, 5-9

Keep the commandments and your work will be complete.

The Optional Readings for the Third Week of Lent may be found on Saturday of this week.

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

Moses spoke to the people and said:
   “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
   which I am teaching you to observe,
   that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
   which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees
   as the LORD, my God, has commanded me,
   that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.
Observe them carefully,
   for thus will you give evidence
   of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
   who will hear of all these statutes and say,
   ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’
For what great nation is there
   that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
   whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
   that are as just as this whole law
   which I am setting before you today?

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
   not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
   nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
   but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20

R. :

R. (12a) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
   praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
   he has blessed your children within you.

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

He sends forth his command to the earth;
   swiftly runs his word!
He spreads snow like wool;
   frost he strews like ashes.

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
   his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
   his ordinances he has not made known to them.

R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Gospel Acclamation
See Jn 6:63c, 68c

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.

Gospel
Mt 5:17-19

Whoever keeps and teaches the law will be called great.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
   not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
   will pass from the law,
   until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
   and teaches others to do so
   will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
   will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.