Reading 1, Exodus 22:20-26

20 ‘You will not molest or oppress aliens, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.

21 You will not ill-treat widows or orphans;

22 if you ill-treat them in any way and they make an appeal to me for help, I shall certainly hear their appeal,

23 my anger will be roused and I shall put you to the sword; then your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans.

24 ‘If you lend money to any of my people, to anyone poor among you, you will not play the usurer with him: you will not demand interest from him.

25 ‘If you take someone’s cloak in pledge, you will return it to him at sunset.

26 It is all the covering he has; it is the cloak he wraps his body in; what else will he sleep in? If he appeals to me, I shall listen. At least with me he will find compassion!

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.

3 I call to Yahweh who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my foes.

4 With Death’s breakers closing in on me, Belial’s torrents ready to swallow me,

47 the God who gives me vengeance, and subjects whole peoples to me,

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Gospel, Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together

35 and, to put him to the test, one of them put a further question,

36 ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’

37 Jesus said to him, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

39 The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.’

Reading 2, First Thessalonians 1:5-10

5 because our gospel came to you not only in words, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with great effect. And you observed the sort of life we lived when we were with you, which was for your sake.

6 You took us and the Lord as your model, welcoming the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit in spite of great hardship.

7 And so you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia

8 since it was from you that the word of the Lord rang out — and not only throughout Macedonia and Achaia, for your faith in God has spread everywhere. We do not need to tell other people about it:

9 other people tell us how we started the work among you, how you broke with the worship of false gods when you were converted to God and became servants of the living and true God;

10 and how you are now waiting for Jesus, his Son, whom he raised from the dead, to come from heaven. It is he who saves us from the Retribution which is coming.

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