READING FOR THURSDAY OF FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

FIRST READING : (Hebrews 3:7-14 )

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: (Psalms 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11)

GOSPEL : (Mark 1:40-45)

FIRST READING : (Hebrews 3:7-14 )

That is why, as the Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today! Do not harden your hearts, as at the rebellion, as at the time of testing in the desert, when your ancestors challenged me, and put me to the test, and saw what I could do for forty years.

That was why that generation sickened me and I said, “Always fickle hearts, that cannot grasp my ways!” And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. Take care, brothers, that none of you ever has a wicked heart, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God.

Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we have been granted a share with Christ only if we keep the grasp of our first confidence firm to the end.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: (Psalms 95:6-7, 8-9, 10-11)

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

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! Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert, when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!

For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, “Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.”

Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest.

GOSPEL : (Mark 1:40-45)

A man suffering from a virulent skin- disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, “If you are willing, you can cleanse me.” Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, “I am willing. Be cleansed.” And at once the skin-disease left him and he was cleansed.

And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him, “Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them.”

The man went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him.