Reading 1, First Thessalonians 2:9-13

9 You remember, brothers, with what unsparing energy we used to work, slaving night and day so as not to be a burden on any one of you while we were proclaiming the gospel of God to you.

10 You are witnesses, and so is God, that our treatment of you, since you believed, has been impeccably fair and upright.

11 As you know, we treated every one of you as a father treats his children,

12 urging you, encouraging you and appealing to you to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and his glory.

13 Another reason why we continually thank God for you is that as soon as you heard the word that we brought you as God’s message, you welcomed it for what it really is, not the word of any human being, but God’s word, a power that is working among you believers.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12

7 Where shall I go to escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I scale the heavens you are there, if I lie flat in Sheol, there you are.

9 If I speed away on the wings of the dawn, if I dwell beyond the ocean,

10 even there your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast.

11 I will say, ‘Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me,’

12 even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day.

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 of hypocrisy 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.

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