The 4th of July, 2023 is Tuesday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time. The Bible scriptures for the holy mass readings for this day came from the Year 2023 of Liturgical Calendar.
Reading 1: GN 19:15-29
The first reading from the Book of Genesis.
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12
Response: For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.
For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth.
R: For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men in whose hands is wickedness; their right hand is full of bribes.
R: For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me.
My foot stands in an even place. In the congregations I will bless Yahweh.
R: For your loving kindness is before my eyes.
Gospel of the Day: MT 8:23-27
From the gospel verse according to Matthew.
When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves; but he was asleep.
The disciples came to him and woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord! We are dying!”
He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.
The men marveled, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Other Celebration
An optional celebration on this day is the Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal.
