Readings for Friday 20th Week in Ordinary Time

Year 2

First Reading
Ez 37:1-14

Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. I will bring you back from your graves, O my people Israel.

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

The hand of the LORD came upon me,
   and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD
   and set me in the center of the plain,
   which was now filled with bones.
He made me walk among the bones in every direction
   so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!
He asked me:
   Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.”
Then he said to me:
   Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:
   Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones:
   See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,
   cover you with skin, and put spirit in you
   so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.
I prophesied as I had been told,
   and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;
   it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
   and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the LORD said to me:
   Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,
   and say to the spirit:  Thus says the Lord GOD:
   From the four winds come, O spirit,
   and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.
I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;
   they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.
Then he said to me:
   Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They have been saying,
   “Our bones are dried up,
   our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”
Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD:
   O my people, I will open your graves
   and have you rise from them,
   and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
   when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
   O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
   and I will settle you upon your land;
   thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps. 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. :

R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say,
   those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe
And gathered from the lands,
   from the east and the west, from the north and the south.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

They went astray in the desert wilderness;
   the way to an inhabited city they did not find.
Hungry and thirsty,
   their life was wasting away within them.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

They cried to the LORD in their distress;
   from their straits he rescued them.
And he led them by a direct way
   to reach an inhabited city.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy
   and his wondrous deeds to the children of men,
Because he satisfied the longing soul
   and filled the hungry soul with good things.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

Year 1

First Reading
Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22

Naomi returned with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, to Bethlehem.

A reading from the Book of Ruth

Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land;
   so a man from Bethlehem of Judah
   departed with his wife and two sons
   to reside on the plateau of Moab.
Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,
   and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women,
   one named Orpah, the other Ruth.
When they had lived there about ten years,
   both Mahlon and Chilion died also,
   and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.
She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab
   because word reached her there
   that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her.

Naomi said, “See now!
Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god.
Go back after your sister-in-law!”
But Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge,
   your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Thus it was that Naomi returned
   with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth,
   who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab.
They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.


Responsorial Psalm
146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

R. :

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
   the sea and all that is in them.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

The LORD keeps faith forever,
   secures justice for the oppressed,
   gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
   The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
   but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
   your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!


Gospel Acclamation
Ps 25:4b, 5a

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Teach me your paths, my God,
guide me in your truth.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Mt 22:34-40

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
   they gathered together, and one of them,
   a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
   “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
   “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
   with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
   You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

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

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Then he kisses the book, saying quietly:

Through the words of the Gospel
may our sins be wiped away.


Gospel Reflections / Homilies




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