First Reading

The Book of Isaiah (Is 40: 25-31)

The Lord gives strength to the weary man.

To whom can you liken me as an equal?
says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things:
He leads out their army and numbers them,
calling them all by name.
By his great might and the strength of his power
not one of them is missing!
Why, O Jacob, do you say,
and declare, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10

O bless the Lord, my soul!

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.

Merciful and gracious is the Lord,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Behold, the Lord comes to save his people; blessed are those prepared to meet him.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 11: 28-30)

Come to me, all you who labor.

Jesus said to the crowds:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

The Book of Isaiah (Is 40: 1-11)

God comforts his people.

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice says,

“Cry out!”

I answer,

“What shall I cry out?”

“All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever.”

Go up onto a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 96: 1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13

The Lord our God comes with power.

Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all you lands.
Sing to the Lord; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.

Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The Lord is king;
he governs the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.

They shall exult before the Lord, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

The day of the Lord is near; Behold, he comes to save us.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (Mt 18: 12-14)

It is not the will of God that one of these little ones be lost.

Jesus said to his disciples:

“What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”

— The Gospel of the Lord.

First Reading

Book of Genesis (Gn 3: 9-15, 20)

I will put enmity between your offspring and the offspring of the woman.

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the Lord God called to the man and asked him,

“Where are you?”

He answered,

“I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”

Then he asked,

“Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”

The man replied,

“The woman whom you put here with me
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”

The Lord God then asked the woman,

“Why did you do such a thing?”

The woman answered,

“The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
on your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.”

The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.

— The word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 97 (98): 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.

The Lord has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.

Second Reading

Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians (Ep 1: 3-6, 11-12)

God chose us, in Christ, before the foundation of the world.

Brothers and sisters:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.

In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.

— The word of the Lord.

Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.

Alleluia.

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (Lk 1: 26-38)

Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said,

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

— The Gospel of the Lord.