Saint Charbel Makhlouf, Priest and Hermit

3Therefore, Moses went and explained to the people all the words of the Lord, as well as the judgments. And all the people responded with one voice: “We will do all the words of the Lord, which he has spoken.” 4Then Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And rising up in the morning, he built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5And he sent youths from the sons of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and they immolated calves as peace-offerings to the Lord. 6And so Moses took one half part of the blood, and he put it into bowls. Then the remaining part he poured over the altar. 7And taking up the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people, who said: “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8In truth, taking up the blood, he sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has formed with you concerning all these words.”

1A Psalm of Asaph. The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, and he has called the earth, from the rising of the sun even to its setting,

2from Zion, the brilliance of his beauty.

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5Gather his holy ones to him, you who order his covenant above sacrifices.

6And the heavens will announce his justice. For God is the judge.

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14Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High.

15And call upon me in the day of tribulation. I will rescue you, and you will honor me.

24He proposed another parable to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds amid the wheat, and then went away. 26And when the plants had grown, and had produced fruit, then the weeds also appeared. 27So the servants of the Father of the family, approaching, said to him: ‘Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how is it that it has weeds?’ 28And he said to them, ‘A man who is an enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Is it your will that we should go and gather them up?’ 29And he said: ‘No, lest perhaps in gathering the weeds, you might also root out the wheat together with it. 30Permit both to grow until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: Gather first the weeds, and bind them into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather into my storehouse.’ ”