Sunday 21st Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Send us Fan MailSunday, 25 August 2024Sunday 21st Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle BAntiphons on p 1192 and Readings on p 1194 of the Daily Missal and p 719 of the Sunday Missal Entrance AntiphonTurn your ear, O Lord, and answer me; save the servant who trusts in you, my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. First Reading: Joshua 24:1-2a.15-17.18bA reading from the Book of JoshuaIn those days: Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “If you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”The Word of the LordResponsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:1-2.15-22 (R. 8a)Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:R/. Taste and see that the Lord is good!I will bless the Lord at all times;praise of him is always in my mouth.In the Lord my soul shall make its boast;the humble shall hear and be glad.The Lord turns his eyes to the just,and his ears are open to their cry.The Lord turns his face against the wickedto destroy their remembrance from the earth.When the just cry out, the Lord hears,and rescues them in all their distress.The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;those whose spirit is crushed he will save.Many are the trials of the just man,but from them all the Lord will rescue him.He will keep guard over all his bones;not one of his bones shall be broken.Evil brings death to the wicked;those who hate the just man are doomed.The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.All who trust in him shall not be condemned.R/. Taste and see that the Lord is good! Second Reading: Ephesians 5:21-32A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians.Brothers and sisters: Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, a