Thursday of the twenty-ninth week of Ordinary Time

For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man, ¹⁷That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that being rooted and founded in charity, ¹⁸You may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth: ¹⁹To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God. ²⁰Now to him who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us; ²¹To him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations, world without end. Amen.

¹A psalm for David. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright. ²Give praise to the Lord on the harp; sing to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. ⁴For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done with faithfulness. ⁵He loveth mercy and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. ¹¹But the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever: the thoughts of his heart to all generations. ¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. ¹⁸Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him: and on them that hope in his mercy. ¹⁹To deliver their souls from death; and feed them in famine.

℟ The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.

I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? ⁵⁰And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? ⁵¹Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. ⁵²For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. ⁵³The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.