The 12th of July, 2023 is Wednesday in the Fourteenth 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 41:55-57; 42:5-7A, 17-24A
The first reading from the Book of Genesis.
When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”
The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.
Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them.
He put them all together into custody for three days.
Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.
If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so.
They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”
Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”
They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.
He turned himself away from them, and wept.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19
Response: Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.
Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy!
R: Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.
Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
R: Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.
Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness, to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.
R: Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.
Gospel of the Day: MT 10:1-7
From the gospel verse according to Matthew.
He called to himself his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter; Andrew, his brother; James the son of Zebedee; John, his brother; Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus; Lebbaeus, who was also called Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans.
Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’_”