The 31st of March, 2023 is Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent. The Holy Bible verses for the mass readings for this day came from the Liturgical Calendar of the Year 2023.
Reading 1: JER 20:10-13
The first reading from the Book of Jeremiah.
For I have heard the defaming of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”
But Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they won’t prevail. They will be utterly disappointed because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which will never be forgotten.
But Yahweh of Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.
Sing to Yahweh! Praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 18:1-2A, 2BC-3, 4-5, 6
Response: In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
R: In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies.
R: In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.
R: In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
R: In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
Verse Before Gospel: JN 6:63C, 68C
From the good news according to John.
“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.”
“You have the words of eternal life.”
Gospel of the Day: JN 10:31-42
From the gospel scripture according to John.
Therefore the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”
The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’
If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me.
But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
They sought again to seize him, and he went out of their hand.
He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and he stayed there.
Many came to him. They said, “John indeed did no sign, but everything that John said about this man is true.”
Many believed in him there.
