Thursday of the
Third Week in Lent

Epistle  •  Jeremias 7:1-7

[Let us pray to the Divine Physician, that the severe abstinence of the Lenten fast may cool the fever of our passions and assure our salvation.]

In those days the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord: and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda that enter in at these gates to adore the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place. Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord. For if you will order well your ways and your doings:

if you will execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt; I will dwell with you in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from the beginning and for evermore: saith the Lord almighty.

Gospel  •  Luke 4:38-44

  Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke.

[We must imitate the example of Jesus, and during Lent follow Him with the holy liturgy in His ministry of Redemption. Let us love to listen to the word of God: it will cure our souls and banish from them the devil who seeks to reign therein.]

At that time Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought Him for her. And standing over her, He commanded the fever: and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them.

And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to Him. But He, laying His hands on every one of them, healed them. And devils went out from many crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God; and rebuking them, He suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ.

And when it was day, going out He went into a desert place: and the multitudes sought Him, and came unto Him: and they stayed Him that He should not depart from them. To whom He said: To other cities also I must preach the Kingdom of God; for therefore am I sent. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

Epistle & Gospel of the Day