The 16th of July, 2021 is Friday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time. The Bible scriptures for the holy mass readings for this day came from the Year 2021 of Liturgical Calendar.
Reading 1: EX 11:10-12:14
The first reading from the Book of Exodus.
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go out of his land.
Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.
For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh.
The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.’_”
Responsorial Psalm: PS 116:12-13, 15 and 16BC, 17-18
Response: I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
R: I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
Precious in Yahweh’s sight is the death of his saints.
I am your servant, the son of your servant girl.
R: I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on Yahweh’s name.
I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people.
R: I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
Gospel of the Day: MT 12:1-8
From the gospel verse according to Matthew.
At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered into God’s house and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Other Celebration
An optional celebration on this day is the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
