FIRST READINGJob 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job said:
‘Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
“A man-child is conceived.”
‘Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?
Why were there knees to receive me,
or breasts for me to suck?
Now I would be lying down and quiet;
I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
with kings and counsellors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,
or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.
Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
‘Why is light given to one in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?
RESPONSORIAL PSALM 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8
Intret in conspectu tuo oratio mea, Domine.
R. (3) Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
O Lord my God, I call for help by day
and by night also I cry out before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence
and turn your ear to my loud crying.
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
For my soul is filled with trouble
and my life has come even to the brink of the grave.
I am reckoned among those that go down to the Pit
I am a man that has no help.
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
I lie among the dead,
like the slain that sleep in the grave
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your power.
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
You have laid me in the lowest Pit
in darkness and in the watery depths.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me
and all your waves are brought against me.
ALLELUIAMark 10:45
Filius hominis venit ut ministraret, et daret animam suam redemptionem pro multis.
The Son of man came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
GOSPELLuke 9:51-56
When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up,
he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
And he sent messengers ahead of him.
On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him;
but they did not receive him,
because his face was set towards Jerusalem.
When his disciples James and John saw it, they said,
‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven
and consume them?’
But he turned and rebuked them.
Then they went on to another village.
Readings from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Psalm text from the Alternative Service Book Liturgical Psalter, 1980.