Friday of the 27th week of Ordinary Time

1:13Priests, gird yourselves and lament. Ministers of the altars, wail. Enter, ministers of my God, lie in sackcloth. For sacrifice and libation have passed away from the house of your God. 14Sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God. And cry out to the Lord: 15“Ah, ah, ah, the day!” For the day of the Lord is near, and it will arrive, like a devastation, before the powerful.

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2:1Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land be stirred up. For the day of the Lord is on its way; for it is near: 2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and whirlwinds. Like the morning reaching over the mountains, they are a numerous and strong people. Nothing like them has existed since the beginning, nor will exist after them, even in the years of generation upon generation.

2I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart. I will recount all your wonders.

3I will rejoice and exult in you. I will sing a psalm to your name, O Most High.

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6You have rebuked the Gentiles, and the impious one has perished. You have deleted their name in eternity and for all generations.

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16I will exult in your salvation. The Gentiles have become trapped in the ruin that they made. Their foot has been caught in the same snare that they themselves had hidden.

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8But the Lord remains in eternity. He has prepared his throne in judgment.

9And he will judge the whole world in equity. He will judge the people in justice.

15But some of them said, “It is by Beelzebub, the leader of demons, that he casts out demons.” 16And others, testing him, required a sign from heaven of him. 17But when he perceived their thoughts, he said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself will become desolate, and house will fall upon house. 18So then, if Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebub that I cast out demons. 19But if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your own sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. 20Moreover, if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then certainly the kingdom of God has overtaken you. 21When a strong armed man guards his entrance, the things that he possesses are at peace. 22But if a stronger one, overwhelming him, has defeated him, he will take away all his weapons, in which he trusted, and he will distribute his spoils. 23Whoever is not with me, is against me. And whoever does not gather with me, scatters. 24When an unclean spirit has departed from a man, he walks through waterless places, seeking rest. And not finding any, he says: ‘I will return to my house, from which I departed.’ 25And when he has arrived, he finds it swept clean and decorated. 26Then he goes, and he takes in seven other spirits with him, more wicked than himself, and they enter and live there. And so, the end of that man is made worse than the beginning.”