August 2 (1st Friday)

Gospel, Matthew 13:54-58

54

and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in

their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said,
'Where did the man get this wisdom and thesemiraculous powers?
55
This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called
Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude?
56
His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did
the man get it all?'
57
And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is
despised only in his own country and in his own house,'
58
and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

August 7 (1st Wednesday)

Gospel, Matthew 15:21-28
21

Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from that district and
started shouting, 'Lord, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is
tormented by a devil.'
23
But he said not a word in answer to her. And his disciples went and
pleaded with him, saying, 'Give her what she wants, because she keeps
shouting after us.'
24
He said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of
Israel.'
25
But the woman had come up and was bowing low before him. 'Lord,'
she said, 'help me.'
26
He replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to
little dogs.'
27
She retorted, 'Ah yes, Lord; but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall
from their masters' table.'
28
Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your
desire be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again.
22

August 14
Gospel, Matthew 18:15-20
15

'If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him
alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back
your brother.
16
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: whatever
the misdemeanour, the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to
sustain the charge.
17
But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if
he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a gentile or a tax
collector.

18

'In truth I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in
heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19
'In truth I tell you once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask
anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.
20
For where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them.'

August 21
Gospel, Matthew 20:1-16
1

'Now the kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak

to hire workers for his vineyard.
2
He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and
sent them to his vineyard.
3
Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the
market place
4
and said to them, "You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair
wage."
5
So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth
hour, he went out and did the same.
6
Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men
standing around, and he said to them, "Why have you been standing
here idle all day?"
7
"Because no one has hired us," they answered. He said to them, "You
go into my vineyard too."
8
In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, "Call the
workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and
ending with the first."
9
So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and
received one denarius each.
10
When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received
one denarius each.
11
They took it, but grumbled at the landowner saying,
12
"The men who came last have done only one hour, and you have
treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day's work in
all the heat."
13
He answered one of them and said, "My friend, I am not being unjust
to you; did we not agree on one denarius?
14
Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the lastcomer as much as I
pay you.
15
Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be
envious because I am generous?"
16
Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.'

August 28
Gospel, Matthew 23:27-32
27

'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like
whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are
full of the bones of the dead and every kind of corruption.
28
In just the same way, from the outside you look upright, but inside
you are full ofhypocrisy and lawlessness.
29
'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the
sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the upright,
30
saying, "We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the
prophets, had we lived in our ancestors' day."
31
So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the children of those
who murdered the prophets!
32
Very well then, finish off the work that your ancestors began.