Friday 17 February 2023

1The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.2As they traveled east,they found a plain in the land of Shinar,and they lived there.3They said to one another,“Come, let’s make bricks,and burn them thoroughly.”They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.4They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city,and a tower whose top reaches to the sky,and let’s make a name for ourselves,lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower,which the children of men built.6The Lord said, “Behold,they are one people,and they all have one language,and this is what they begin to do.Now nothing will be withheld from them,which they intend to do.7Come, let’s go down,and there confuse their language,that they may not understand one another’s speech.”8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth.They stopped building the city.9Therefore its name was called Babel,because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.From there, the Lord scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

10The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.11The counsel of the Lord stands fast forever,the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.13The Lord looks from heaven.He sees all the sons of men.

14From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,15he who fashions all of their hearts;and he considers all of their works.

34He called the multitude to himself with his disciples and said to them,“Whoever wants to come after me,let him deny himself,and take up his cross, and follow me.35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it;and whoever will lose his life for my sakeand the sake of the Good News will save it.36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole worldand forfeit his life?37For what will a man give in exchange for his life?38For whoever will be ashamed of meand of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,the Son of Man also will be ashamed of himwhen he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

1He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you,there are some standing herewho will in no way taste death until they see God’s Kingdom come with power.”