The readings meet you in the ordinary place where faith is practiced. Stay with what Jesus says or does here, and let it ask for one honest response.
Today’s readings
First Reading
Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD. Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is close at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 9:2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9
I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish in your presence. The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished. The LORD has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness. The LORD will also be a high tower for the oppressed; a high tower in times of trouble.
Gospel
Luke 11:15-26
But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons." Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I by God's finger cast out demons, then God's Kingdom has come to you. "When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder. "He who is not with me is against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters. The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.' When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
A question for your journal
What line from today's readings do you want to carry into one ordinary hour?
Scripture text: World English Bible Catholic Edition, public domain. Reading citations are prepared for Come Aside from MIT-licensed citation metadata.
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