 First Reading: (Genesis 2: 18-25)
Responsorial Psalm: Â (Psalms 128:1-2, 3, 4-5)
Gospel: (Mark 7:24-30)
 First Reading: (Genesis 2:18-25)
Yahweh God said, ‘It is not right that the man should be alone. I shall make him a helper.’ So from the soil Yahweh God fashioned all the wild animals and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it.
The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild animals. But no helper suitable for the man was found for him. Then, Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep.
And, while he was asleep, he took one of his ribs and closed the flesh up again forthwith. Yahweh God fashioned the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man said: This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She is to be called Woman, because she was taken from Man.
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and they become one flesh. Now, both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame before each other.
Responsorial Psalm: Â (Psalms 128:1-2, 3, 4-5)
How blessed are all who fear Yahweh, who walk in his ways!
Your own labours will yield you a living, happy and prosperous will you be.
Your wife a fruitful vine in the inner places of your house. Your children round your table like shoots of an olive tree.
Such are the blessings that fall on those who fear Yahweh.
May Yahweh bless you from Zion! May you see Jerusalem prosper all the days of your life,
Gospel: (Mark 7:24-30)
He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not pass unrecognised.
At once a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell at his feet. Now this woman was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the devil out of her daughter.
And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to little dogs.’ But she spoke up, ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied, ‘but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.’
And he said to her, ‘For saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
