First ReadingEphesians 2:1-10
From the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians
1You were made alivewhen you were dead in transgressions and sins,2in which you once walked according to the course of this world,according to the prince of the power of the air,the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.3We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh,doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind,and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.4But God, being rich in mercy,for his great love with which he loved us,5even when we were dead through our trespasses,made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him,and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;8for by grace you have been saved through faith,and that not of yourselves;it is the gift of God,9not of works, that no one would boast.10For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared before that we would walk in them.