Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

1In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

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3Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4They took for themselves wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years. 5Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband. 6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.

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14They lifted up their voices and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her. 15She said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.” 16Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

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22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

5Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,

whose hope is in the LORD, his God,

6who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them;

who keeps truth forever;

7who executes justice for the oppressed;

who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD frees the prisoners.

8The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.

The LORD raises up those who are bowed down.

The LORD loves the righteous.

9The LORD preserves the foreigners.

He upholds the fatherless and widow,

but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.

10The LORD will reign forever;

your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

34But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” 37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”