Daily Readings For March 16

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Daily Readings Sunday/Festival Readings

Daily Readings for Saturday, March 16, 2024


Morning Psalm 43

1   Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
          against an ungodly people;
     from those who are deceitful and unjust
          deliver me!
2   For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
          why have you cast me off?
     Why must I walk about mournfully
          because of the oppression of the enemy?


3   O send out your light and your truth;
          let them lead me;
     let them bring me to your holy hill
          and to your dwelling.
4   Then I will go to the altar of God,
          to God my exceeding joy;
     and I will praise you with the harp,
          O God, my God.


5   Why are you cast down, O my soul,
          and why are you disquieted within me?
     Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
          my help and my God.

Morning Psalm 149

1   Praise the Lord!
     Sing to the Lord a new song,
          his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
2   Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
          let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
3   Let them praise his name with dancing,
          making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.
4   For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
          he adorns the humble with victory.
5   Let the faithful exult in glory;
          let them sing for joy on their couches.
6   Let the high praises of God be in their throats
          and two-edged swords in their hands,
7   to execute vengeance on the nations
          and punishment on the peoples,
8   to bind their kings with fetters
          and their nobles with chains of iron,
9   to execute on them the judgment decreed.
          This is glory for all his faithful ones.
     Praise the Lord!

First Reading Exodus 2:23-3:15

23After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." 11But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."

13But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" 15God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations."

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Gospel Reading Mark 9:14-29

14When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?" 17Someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so." 19He answered them, "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me." 20And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21Jesus asked the father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us." 23Jesus said to him, "If you are able! - All things can be done for the one who believes." 24Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 25When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!" 26After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. 28When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29He said to them, "This kind can come out only through prayer."

Evening Psalm 31

1   In you, O LORD, I seek refuge;
          do not let me ever be put to shame;
          in your righteousness deliver me.
2   Incline your ear to me;
          rescue me speedily.
     Be a rock of refuge for me,
          a strong fortress to save me.


3   You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
          for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,
4   take me out of the net that is hidden for me,
          for you are my refuge.
5   Into your hand I commit my spirit;
          you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.


6   You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
          but I trust in the LORD.
7   I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love,
          because you have seen my affliction;
          you have taken heed of my adversities,
8   and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
          you have set my feet in a broad place.


9   Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
          my eye wastes away from grief,
          my soul and body also.
10  For my life is spent with sorrow,
          and my years with sighing;
     my strength fails because of my misery,
          and my bones waste away.


11  I am the scorn of all my adversaries,
          a horror to my neighbors,
     an object of dread to my acquaintances;
          those who see me in the street flee from me.
12  I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
          I have become like a broken vessel.
13  For I hear the whispering of many —
          terror all around! —
     as they scheme together against me,
          as they plot to take my life.


14  But I trust in you, O LORD;
          I say, “You are my God.”
15  My times are in your hand;
          deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
16  Let your face shine upon your servant;
          save me in your steadfast love.
17  Do not let me be put to shame, O LORD,
          for I call on you;
     let the wicked be put to shame;
          let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.
18  Let the lying lips be stilled
          that speak insolently against the righteous
          with pride and contempt.


19  O how abundant is your goodness
          that you have laid up for those who fear you,
     and accomplished for those who take refuge in you,
          in the sight of everyone!
20  In the shelter of your presence you hide them
          from human plots;
     you hold them safe under your shelter
          from contentious tongues.


21  Blessed be the LORD,
          for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
          when I was beset as a city under siege.
22  I had said in my alarm,
          “I am driven far from your sight.”
     But you heard my supplications
          when I cried out to you for help.


23  Love the LORD, all you his saints.
          The LORD preserves the faithful,
          but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
24  Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
          all you who wait for the LORD.

Evening Psalm 143

1   Hear my prayer, O LORD;
          give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness;
          answer me in your righteousness.
2   Do not enter into judgment with your servant,
          for no one living is righteous before you.


3   For the enemy has pursued me,
          crushing my life to the ground,
          making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4   Therefore my spirit faints within me;
          my heart within me is appalled.


5   I remember the days of old,
          I think about all your deeds,
          I meditate on the works of your hands.
6   I stretch out my hands to you;
          my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.                    Selah


7   Answer me quickly, O LORD;
          my spirit fails.
     Do not hide your face from me,
          or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
8   Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,
          for in you I put my trust.
     Teach me the way I should go,
          for to you I lift up my soul.


9   Save me, O LORD, from my enemies;
          I have fled to you for refuge.
10  Teach me to do your will,
          for you are my God.
     Let your good spirit lead me
          on a level path.


11  For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life.
          In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.
12  In your steadfast love cut off my enemies,
          and destroy all my adversaries,
          for I am your servant.