Weekly Readings

Praise the Lord, my soul!

Praise his holy name, all that is within me.

2 Praise the Lord, my soul,

and never forget all the good he has done:

3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,

the one who heals all your diseases,

4 the one who rescues your life from the pit,

the one who crowns you with mercy and compassion,

5 the one who fills your life with blessings

so that you become young again like an eagle.

6 The Lord does what is right and fair

for all who are oppressed.

7 He let Moses know his ways.

He let the Israelites know the things he had done.

8 The Lord is compassionate, merciful, patient,

and always ready to forgive.

9 He will not always accuse us of wrong

or be angry with us forever.

10 He has not treated us as we deserve for our sins

or paid us back for our wrongs.

11 As high as the heavens are above the earth—

that is how vast his mercy is toward those who fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west—

that is how far he has removed our rebellious acts from himself.

13 As a father has compassion for his children,

so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

20 Praise the Lord, all his angels, 

you mighty beings who carry out his orders 

and are ready to obey his spoken orders.

21 Praise the Lord, all his armies,

his servants who carry out his will.

22 Praise the Lord, all his creatures

in all the places of his empire.

Praise the Lord, my soul!

3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. 4 Before the creation of the world, he chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence. 5 Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this 6 so that the kindness [a] he had given us in his dear Son would be praised and given glory.

7 Through the blood of his Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of his overflowing kindness. 8 He poured out his kindness by giving us every kind of wisdom and insight 9 when he revealed the mystery of his plan to us. He had decided to do this through Christ. 10 He planned to bring all of history to its goal in Christ. Then Christ would be the head of everything in heaven and on earth. 11 God also decided ahead of time to choose us through Christ according to his plan, which makes everything work the way he intends. 12 He planned all of this so that we who had already focused our hope on Christ would praise him and give him glory.

13 You heard and believed the message of truth, the Good News that he has saved you. In him you were sealed with the Holy Spirit whom he promised. 14 This Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive our inheritance. We have this guarantee until we are set free to belong to him. God receives praise and glory for this.

27 While Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd shouted, “How blessed is the mother who gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you.”

28 Jesus replied, “Rather, how blessed are those who hear and obey God’s word.”