31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year: B)
Date: Sunday, November 04th, 2018, 11:00
Old Testament: Ruth 1:1-18
Psalms: Ps. 146
1In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
2The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years,
5both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
7With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
9May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." Then she kissed them and they wept aloud
10and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."
11But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?
12Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me-even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-
13would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!"
14At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.
15"Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."
16But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
17Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Ruth 1:1-18 (NIV)
Epistle: Heb. 9:11-14
1Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
4When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them- the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
8the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
9The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.
Psalms 146 (NIV)
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
11When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.
12He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
13The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Hebrews 9:11-14 (NIV)
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.
33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34 (NIV)