And you, son of man, take for yourself a sword, sharp as ?a barber’s razor?. Take it for yourself, and you must cause it to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them. 2 A third you must burn with fire in the midst of the city at ?the completion? of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike it with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them. 3 And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem…
+ DAILY PRAYER +
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!
In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 92:8-15
Psa 92:8 But you, O LORD, are on high forever.
Psa 92:9 For behold, your enemies, O LORD,
for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
Psa 92:10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have poured over me fresh oil.
Psa 92:11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
Psa 92:12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Psa 92:13 They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
Psa 92:14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
Psa 92:15 to declare that the LORD is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Reading for Friday July 17th Ezekiel 5
5 “And you, son of man, take for yourself a sword, sharp as ?a barber’s razor?. Take it for yourself, and you must cause it to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them. 2 A third you must burn with fire in the midst of the city at ?the completion? of the days of the siege, and you must take a third, and you must strike it with the sword around it, and a third you must scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword behind them. 3 And you must take from these a few in number, and you must tuck them in your hem. 4 And from them again you shall take some, and you must throw them in the middle of the fire, and you must burn them with fire; from it a fire will go out to all of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem in the midst of the nations where I have put her, and countries are around her. 6 But she has rebelled against my regulations to the point of wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they rejected my regulations, and as for my statutes, they did not walk in them. 7 Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because of your commotion more than the nations that are around you—you did not walk in my statutes, and you did not do my regulations, and according to the regulations of the nations that are around you, you did not do. 8 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Look! I, ?even I?, am against you, and I will execute judgment in the midst of you before the eyes of the nations, 9 and I will do with you that which I have not done, and which I will not do again, because of all of your detestable things. 10 Therefore parents will eat children in the midst of you, and children will eat their parents, and I will execute judgment in you, and I will scatter your entire remnant to every wind. 11 Therefore ?as surely as I live?, ?declares? the Lord Yahweh, ?Surely? because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, ?now indeed I? will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion. 12 A third of you will die because of the plague, and because of the famine they will perish in the midst of you, and a third will fall through the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every direction of the wind, and I will draw the sword behind them. 13 And my anger will come to an end, and I will place my rage on them, and I will relent, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my passion ?when I fully vent my rage against them?. 14 And I will make you into a desolate place and into a disgrace among the nations that surround you before the eyes of ?every one who passes by?. 15 And it will be an object of taunting and an object of mockery, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you whenever I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in furious punishments! I, Yahweh, have spoken! 16 When I send my arrows of deadly famine against them, which will be as destruction that I will send in order to destroy you, I will increase famine against you, and I will break ?the supply of food? for you. 17 And I will send against you famine and fierce animals, and they will make you childless; and plague and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, Yahweh, I have spoken!”
Lord’s Prayer
Daily Prayer
Merciful God, for freedom You have set us free through Christ’s liberating death and resurrection. In this freedom, teach us to live in the fruit of the Spirit given us in our Baptism that we may bear in our bodies the fulfillment of the Law as we love our neighbors as ourselves; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Concluding Prayer
Heavenly Father, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts to direct and rule us to do Your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
