First Reading

Book of Daniel (Dn 5: 1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28)

Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing.

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords,
with whom he drank.
Under the influence of the wine,
he ordered the gold and silver vessels
which Nebuchadnezzar, his father,
had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,
to be brought in so that the king, his lords,
his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.
When the gold and silver vessels
taken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in,
and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainers
were drinking wine from them,
they praised their gods of gold and silver,
bronze and iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly, opposite the lampstand,
the fingers of a human hand appeared,
writing on the plaster of the wall in the king’s palace.
When the king saw the wrist and hand that wrote, his face blanched;
his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints shook,
and his knees knocked.

Then Daniel was brought into the presence of the king.
The king asked him,

“Are you the Daniel, the Jewish exile,
whom my father, the king, brought from Judah?
I have heard that the Spirit of God is in you,
that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom.
I have heard that you can interpret dreams and solve difficulties;
if you are able to read the writing and tell me what it means,
you shall be clothed in purple,
wear a gold collar about your neck,
and be third in the government of the kingdom.”

Daniel answered the king:

“You may keep your gifts, or give your presents to someone else;
but the writing I will read for you, O king,
and tell you what it means.
You have rebelled against the Lord of heaven.
You had the vessels of his temple brought before you,
so that you and your nobles, your wives and your entertainers,
might drink wine from them;
and you praised the gods of silver and gold,
bronze and iron, wood and stone,
that neither see nor hear nor have intelligence.
But the God in whose hand is your life breath
and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify.
By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.

This is the writing that was inscribed:
MENE, TEKEL, and PERES.
These words mean:
MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;
TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;
PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Dn 3: 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67

Give glory and eternal praise to him.

“Sun and moon, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“All you winds, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“Fire and heat, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“Cold and chill, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Remain faithful until death, And I will give you the crown of life.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (Lk 21: 12-19)

You will be hated by all because of my name,but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.

Jesus said to the crowd:

“They will seize and persecute you,
they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Daniel (Dn 2: 31-45)

The last kingdom that shall never be destroyed, shall break in pieces all others, and it shall stand forever.

Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:

“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,
very large and exceedingly bright,
terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.
The head of the statue was pure gold,
its chest and arms were silver,
its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,
its feet partly iron and partly tile.
While you looked at the statue,
a stone which was hewn from a mountain
without a hand being put to it,
struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.
The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,
fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer,
and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace.
But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.

This was the dream;
the interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence.
You, O king, are the king of kings;
to you the God of heaven
has given dominion and strength, power and glory;
men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell,
he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all;
you are the head of gold.
Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours,
then a third kingdom, of bronze,
which shall rule over the whole earth.
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron;
it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others,
just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.
The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter’s tile and partly of iron,
mean that it shall be a divided kingdom,
but yet have some of the hardness of iron.
As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,
and the toes partly iron and partly tile,
the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
The iron mixed with clay tile
means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage,
but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
In the lifetime of those kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people;
rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms
and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.
That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain
without a hand being put to it,
which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold.
The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future;
this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure.”

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Dn 3: 57, 58, 59, 60, 61

Give glory and eternal praise to him.

“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“You heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

“All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever.”

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Remain faithful until death, And I will give you the crown of life.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (Lk 21: 5-11)

There will not be left a stone upon another stone.

While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said,

“All that you see here –
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”

Then they asked him,

“Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”

He answered,

“See that you not be deceived,

for many will come in my name, saying,

‘I am he,’

and

‘The time has come.’

Do not follow them!
When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end.”

Then he said to them,

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues
from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.