Daily Reading for Thursday, March 27th, 2014

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Reading 1, Jeremiah 7:23-28

²³ My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. In everything, follow the way that I mark out for you, and you shall prosper.

²⁴ But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubborn and wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better.

²⁵ From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, persistently sending them day after day.

²⁶ But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behaving worse than their ancestors.

²⁷ So you will tell them all this, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer you."

²⁸ Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that will neither listen to the voice of Yahweh its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

¹ Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh, acclaim the rock of our salvation.

² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music.

⁶ Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us!

⁷ For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today!

⁸ Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert,

⁹ when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!

Gospel, Luke 11:14-23

¹⁴ He was driving out a devil and it was dumb; and it happened that when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed.

¹⁵ But some of them said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he drives devils out.'

¹⁶ Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven;

¹⁷ but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Any kingdom which is divided against itself is heading for ruin, and house collapses against house.

¹⁸ So, too, with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? - since you claim that it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out.

¹⁹ Now if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own sons drive them out? They shall be your judges, then.

²⁰ But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares.

²¹ So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed;

²² but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.

²³ 'Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.