Daily Mass Readings for Friday, 12 March 2021
First Reading: Hosea 14: 2-10
2 Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy iniquity.
3 Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take away all iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the calves of our lips.
4 Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more: The works of our hands are our gods, for thou wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee.
5 I will heal their breaches, I will love them freely: for my wrath is turned away from them.
6 I will be as the dew, Israel shall spring as the lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus.
7 His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree: and his smell as that of Libanus.
8 They shall be converted that sit under his shadow: they shall live upon wheat, and they shall blossom as a vine: his memorial shall be as the wine of Libanus.
9 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him, and I will make him flourish like a green fir tree: from me is thy fruit found.
10 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 81: 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17
R. (11, 9a) For I am the Lord thy God: Hear, O my people.
6 He heard a tongue which he knew not.
7 He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in baskets.
8a Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee.
R. For I am the Lord thy God: Hear, O my people.
8bc I heard thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of contradiction.
9 Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken to me,
R. For I am the Lord thy God: Hear, O my people.
10 There shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange god.
11 For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
R. For I am the Lord thy God: Hear, O my people.
14 If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:
17 And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock.
R. For I am the Lord thy God: Hear, O my people.
Verse Before the Gospel: Matthew 4: 17
17 The Lord says, do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Gospel: Mark 12: 28-34
28 And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all.
29 And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
32 And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth, that there is one God, and there is no other besides him.
33 And that he should be loved with the whole heart, and with the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength; and to love one’s neighbour as one’s self, is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.
34 And Jesus seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
