Daily Reading for Monday, January 21st, 2013

Reading 1, Hebrews 5:1-10

¹ Every high priest is taken from among human beings and is appointed to act on their behalf in relationships with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins;

² he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or who have gone astray, because he too is subject to the limitations of weakness.

³ That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.

⁴ No one takes this honour on himself; it needs a call from God, as in Aaron's case.

⁵ And so it was not Christ who gave himself the glory of becoming high priest, but the one who said to him: You are my Son, today I have fathered you,

⁶ and in another text: You are a priest for ever, of the order of Melchizedek.

⁷ During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence,

⁸ he learnt obedience, Son though he was, through his sufferings;

⁹ when he had been perfected, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation

¹⁰ and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 110:1, 2, 3, 4

¹ [Of David Psalm] Yahweh declared to my Lord, 'Take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool.'

² Yahweh will stretch out the sceptre of your power; from Zion you will rule your foes all around you.

³ Royal dignity has been yours from the day of your birth, sacred honour from the womb, from the dawn of your youth.

⁴ Yahweh has sworn an oath he will never retract, you are a priest for ever of the order of Melchizedek.