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First reading: 2 Corinthians 6:4-10
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We prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 123(124):2-5,7-8
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Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
If the Lord had not been on our side
when men rose up against us,
then would they have swallowed us alive
when their anger was kindled.
Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
Then would the waters have engulfed us,
the torrent gone over us;
over our head would have swept
the raging waters.
Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
Indeed the snare has been broken
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed be God, a gentle Father
and the God of all consolation,
who comforts us in all our sorrows.
Alleluia!