The 20th of July, 2022 is Wednesday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time. The Bible scriptures for the holy mass readings for this day came from the 2022 Liturgical Calendar.
Reading 1: JER 1:1, 4-10
The first reading from the Book of Jeremiah.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
Now Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.”
But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for you must go to whomever I send you, and you must say whatever I command you.
Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says Yahweh.
Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. Then Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Responsorial Psalm: PS 71:1-2, 3-4A, 5-6AB, 15 and 17
Response: My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day.
In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed.
Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
R: My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day.
Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked.
R: My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day.
For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth.
I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb.
R: My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day.
My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.
God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.
R: My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day.
Gospel of the Day: MT 13:1-9
From the gospel verse according to Matthew.
On that day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside.
Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach.
He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.
As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.
Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.
When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.
Others fell on good soil and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Other Celebration
An optional celebration on this day is the Memorial of Saint Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr.
