Judg 11:29-39a; Matthew 22

The Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Readings on p.1182 and Antiphons on p 1167 of the Daily Missal.

Entrance Antiphon
Turn your eyes, O God, our shield; and look on the face of your anointed one; one day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

 

First Reading: Judges 11:29-39a

A reading from the Book of Judges

In those days:
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah,
and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh
and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead,
and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said,
“If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,
then whoever comes forth
from the doors of my house to meet me,
when I return victorious from the Ammonites,
shall be the Lord’s,
and I will offer him up for a burnt offering.”

So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites
to fight against them,
and the Lord gave them into his hand.
And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities,
and as far as Abel-keramim,
with a very great slaughter.
So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah;
and behold, his daughter came out to meet him
with timbrels and with dances;
she was his only child;
beside her, he had neither son nor daughter.
And when he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said,
“Alas, my daughter!
You have brought me very low,
and you have become the cause of great trouble to me;
for I have opened my mouth to the Lord,
and I cannot take back my vow.”

And she said to him, “My father,
if you have opened your mouth to the Lord,
do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth,
now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies,
on the Ammonites.”
And she said to her father,
“Let this thing be done for me;
let me alone two months,
that I may go and wander on the mountains,
and bewail my virginity,
I and my companions.”

And he said, “Go.”
And he sent her away for two months;
and she departed, she and her companions,
and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
And at the end of two months, she returned to her father,
who did with her according to his vow which he had made.

The Word of the Lord

 

 

 

 

 

 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 40:5.7-8a.8b-9.10 (R. see 8a.9a)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

R/. See, I have come, Lord, to do your will.

Blessed the man who has placed
his trust in the Lord,
and has not gone over to the proud
who follow false gods.

You delight not in sacrifice and offerings,
but in an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Then I said, “See, I have come.”

In the scroll of the book it stands written of me:
“I delight to do your will, O my God;
your instruction lies deep within me.”

Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.

R/. See, I have come, Lord, to do your will.

Please stand for the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.
Today, harden not your hearts,
but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia.

 

 

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

At that time:
Again Jesus spoke to the chief priests
and the elders of the people in parables, saying,
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king
who gave a marriage feast for his son
and sent his servants
to call those who were invited to the marriage feast,
but they would not come.

Again he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those who are invited,
Behold, I have made ready my dinner,
my oxen and my fat calves are killed,
and everything is ready;
come to the marriage feast.’
But they made light of it and went off,
one to his farm, another to his business,
while the rest seized his servants,
treated them shamefully, and killed them.
The king was angry,
and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers
and burned their city.

Then he said to his servants,
‘The wedding is ready,
but those invited were not worthy.
Go therefore to the streets,
and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’
And those servants went out into the streets
and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good;
so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

 “But when the king came in to look at the guests,
he saw there a man who had no wedding garment;
and he said to him,
‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’
And he was speechless.
Then the king said to the attendants,
‘Bind him hand and foot,
and cast him into the outer darkness;
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The Gospel of the Lord

 

Communion Antiphon
I am the living bread who came down from heaven, says the Lord. Whoever eats of this bread shall live forever.