Daily Reading for Friday, June 27th, 2014

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Reading 1, Deuteronomy 7:6-11

⁶ For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; of all the peoples on earth, you have been chosen by Yahweh your God to be his own people.

⁷ 'Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples -- for indeed you were the smallest of all-

⁸ but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true to his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep his commandments,

¹⁰ punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay; and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.

¹¹ Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying down for you today.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10

¹ [Of David] Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being, his holy name;

² bless Yahweh, my soul, never forget all his acts of kindness.

³ He forgives all your offences, cures all your diseases,

⁴ he redeems your life from the abyss, crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;

⁶ Yahweh acts with uprightness, with justice to all who are oppressed;

⁷ he revealed to Moses his ways, his great deeds to the children of Israel.

⁸ Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger and rich in faithful love;

¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve, nor repay us as befits our offences.

Gospel, Matthew 11:25-30

²⁵ At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.

²⁶ Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

²⁷ Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸ 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.

²⁹ Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

³⁰ Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

Reading 2, First John 4:7-16

⁷ My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

⁸ Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹ This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.

¹⁰ Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.

¹¹ My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.

¹² No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.

¹³ This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit.

¹⁴ We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world.

¹⁵ Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

¹⁶ We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.