Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
you come and visit us
often when we are not aware of your coming.
Make us aware of your presence,
that we may eagerly receive you
and be enriched by your visit.
Make us highly appreciate your hospitality
when you set for us the table
of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Lam 2:2, 10 –14, 18 –19

The Lord has consumed without pity
all the dwellings of Jacob;
He has torn down in his anger
the fortresses of daughter Judah;
He has brought to the ground in dishonor
her king and her princes.
On the ground in silence sit
the old men of daughter Zion;
They strew dust on their heads
and gird themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground.
Worn out from weeping are my eyes,
within me all is in ferment;
My gall is poured out on the ground
because of the downfall of the daughter of my people,
As child and infant faint away
in the open spaces of the town.
In vain they ask their mothers,
“Where is the grain?”
As they faint away like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
And breathe their last
in their mothers’ arms.
To what can I liken or compare you,
O daughter Jerusalem?
What example can I show you for your comfort,
virgin daughter Zion?
For great as the sea is your downfall;
who can heal you?
Your prophets had for you
false and specious visions;
They did not lay bare your guilt,
to avert your fate;
They beheld for you in vision
false and misleading portents.
Cry out to the Lord;
moan, O daughter Zion!
Let your tears flow like a torrent
day and night;
Let there be no respite for you,
no repose for your eyes.
Rise up, shrill in the night,
at the beginning of every watch;
Pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your little ones
Who faint from hunger
at the corner of every street.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 74:1b – 2, 3 – 5, 6 –7, 20– 21

R./ Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your flock which you built up of old,
the tribe you redeemed as your inheritance,
Mount Zion, where you took up your abode.
R./ Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Turn your steps toward the utter ruins;
toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine;
they have set up their tokens of victory.
They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees.
R./ Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the
sanctuary.
They set your sanctuary on fire;
the place where your name abides they have razed and profaned.
R./ Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Look to your covenant,
for the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of
violence.
May the humble not retire in confusion;
may the afflicted and the poor praise your name.
R./ Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Gospel Reading Introduction
          At a mere Word of Jesus the health of the centurion's servant is restored in response to the marvelous faith of the pagan centurion. He is a model of faith to all of us. His faith makes him worthy to take his place at the table of the kingdom.

Gospel Reading: Mt 8:5 –17

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him
and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at
home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will
come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am
not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word
and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to
authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’
and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and
to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this,
he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say
to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you,
many will come from the east and the west, and will recline
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom
of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out
into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding
of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as
you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very
hour his servant was healed.

Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law
lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left
her, and she rose and waited on him.

When it was evening, they brought him many who were
possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word
and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah
the prophet:
He took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.