maronite readings

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others.
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

maronite readings – rosary,team

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.
But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God;
but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.

maronite readings – rosary,team

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say;
for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.’

maronite readings – rosary,team

‘No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.
Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness.
If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’

maronite readings – rosary,team

While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table.
The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

maronite readings – rosary,team

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed meto bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

maronite readings – rosary,team

A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’
But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’
When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.
The queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!
The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!

maronite readings – rosary,team

‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.”
When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.
Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’

maronite readings – rosary,team

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed.
But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’
Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven.
But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house.
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul.
Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

maronite readings – rosary,team