St John Vianney

Word of the Lord addressed to Jeremiah:
    Thus speaks the Lord, the God of Israel:
Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.
    Thus speaks the Lord:
Zion, your wound is incurable,
and your injury is deep.
    No one defends your cause to heal your ulcer;
there is no remedy to heal it.
    All your lovers have forgotten you,
no one searches for you.
Yes, I have struck you like an enemy
– a severe correction!
Because of your many faults,
your sins have kept increasing.
    Why do you cry out because of your wound?
Your pain is incurable.
Because of your many faults,
your sins have kept increasing:
that is why I have inflicted this on you.

    Thus speaks the Lord:
Behold, I will restore the tents of Jacob,
I will have compassion for his dwellings;
the city will be rebuilt on its ruins,
the fortress will be restored in its rightful place.
    Thanksgiving will flow from it
with shouts of joy.
Far from diminishing his sons, I will multiply them;
far from bringing them low, I will glorify them.
    They will be as before,
their community will stand before me,
for I will punish all their oppressors.
    Jacob will have as master one of his own,
a leader that comes from himself.
I will allow him to approach and he will have access to me.
For who, indeed, has ever dared on his own to draw near to me?
– says the Lord.
    You shall be my people,
and I will be your God.

        – Word of the Lord.

The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
and all the kings of the earth, his glory:
when the Lord rebuilds Zion,
when he appears in his glory,
he will turn to the prayer of the despoiled,
he has not despised their prayer.

Let this be written for the coming age,
and the people yet to be created will sing to their God:
"From the heights, his sanctuary, the Lord has leaned down;
from heaven he looks upon the earth
to hear the groaning of the captives
and to set free those doomed to die."

The children of your servants shall find a dwelling,
and before you their descendants shall remain.
The name of the Lord shall be proclaimed in Zion
and his praise in all Jerusalem,
at the assembling of kingdoms and peoples
who will come to serve the Lord.

One may choose between the two following texts.

1. (for Year A - 2026, where the Gospel below [Mt 14, 22-36] was read the previous day)

At that time,
    some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem
and approached Jesus and said to him:
    "Why do your disciples break
the tradition of the elders?
Indeed, they do not wash their hands
before eating."
    Jesus called the crowd and said to them:
"Listen and understand this well!
    It is not what goes into the mouth
that makes someone unclean;
but what comes out of the mouth,
that is what makes someone unclean."
    Then the disciples came to him and said:
"Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized
when they heard this statement?"
    He replied:
"Every plant
that my Father in heaven has not planted
will be uprooted.
    Let them be!
They are blind guides of the blind.
If a blind person guides a blind person,
both will fall into a pit."

         – Let us acclaim the Word of God.

or

2. (to be used preferably in Years B and C)

Jesus had fed the crowd in the wilderness.
    Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat
and go on ahead of him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
    After sending them away,
he went up the mountain by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was there alone.
    The boat was already a considerable distance from the land,
it was being battered by the waves,
because the wind was against them.

    Toward the end of the night, Jesus came toward them
walking on the sea.
    When the disciples saw him walking on the sea,
they were terrified.
They said:
"It's a ghost."
Filled with fear, they began to cry out.
    But immediately Jesus spoke to them:
"Take heart! It is I; do not be afraid!"
    Peter then spoke up:
"Lord, if it is you,
command me to come to you on the waters."
    Jesus said to him:
"Come!"
Peter got out of the boat
and walked on the water to go toward Jesus.
    But seeing the force of the wind, he became afraid
and, beginning to sink, he cried out:
"Lord, save me!"
    Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand, caught him
and said to him:
"You of little faith,
why did you doubt?"
    And when they got into the boat,
the wind died down.
    Then those who were in the boat
worshipped him and said to him:
"Truly, you are the Son of God!"

    After the crossing, they landed at Gennesaret.
    The people of that place recognized Jesus;
they sent word to all that region,
and they brought to him all who were sick.
    They begged him to let them simply
touch the fringe of his cloak,
and all who touched it were saved.

         – Let us acclaim the Word of God.