Weekly Bulletin for Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Divine Office

Order of service for Morning and Evening Prayer.

Services and Events

Opening Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading

Deuteronomy 4.1-2, 6-9
A reading from the book of Deuteronomy.

Moses spoke to the people; he said:
1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances
that I am teaching you to observe,
so that you may live to enter and occupy the land
that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2 You must neither add anything to what I command you
nor take away anything from it,
but keep the commandments of the LORD your God
with which I am charging you.
6 You must observe them diligently,
for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples,
who, when they hear all these statutes, will say,
‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’
7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it
as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?
8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances
as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
9 But take care and watch yourselves closely,
so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen
nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life;
make them known to your children and your children’s children.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 15
R Those who do what is right will dwell in the presence of the Lord.

1 Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
who may abide upon your holy hill?
2 Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right,
who speaks the truth from his heart. R
3 There is no guile upon his tongue;
he does no evil to his friend;
he does not heap contempt upon his neighbour.
4 In his sight the wicked are rejected,
but he honours those who fear the Lord. R
5 He has sworn to do no wrong
and does not take back his word.
6 He does not give his money in hope of gain,
nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
7 Whoever does these things
shall never be overthrown. R

Second Reading

James 1.17-27
A reading from the letter of James.

17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift,
is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 In fulfilment of his own purpose
he gave us birth by the word of truth,
so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved:
let everyone be quick to listen,
slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness
and rank growth of wickedness,
and welcome with meekness the implanted word
that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word,
and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers,
they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;
24 for they look at themselves and,
on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty,
and persevere,
being not hearers who forget
but doers who act –
they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious,
and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts,
their religion is worthless.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their distress,
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Acclamation

Alleluia! To the pure all things are pure. Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.

1 When the Pharisees and some of the scribes
who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus,
2 they noticed that some of his disciples
were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews,
do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,
thus observing the tradition of the elders;
4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it;
and there are also many other traditions that they observe,
the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him,
‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders,
but eat with defiled hands?’
6 Jesus said to them,
‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites,
as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them,
‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile,
but the things that come out are what defile.
21 For it is from within, from the human heart,
that evil intentions come:
fornication, theft, murder,
22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
23 All these evil things come from within,
and they defile a person.’

Closing Prayer

God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.