Daily Reading for Saturday, June 25th, 2022

Reading 1, Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19

² The Lord pitilessly engulfed all the homes of Jacob; in his fury he tore down the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he threw to the ground, he desecrated the kingdom and its princes.

¹⁰ Mute, they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The young girls of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are worn out with weeping, my inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at the destruction of my young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city.

¹² They keep saying to their mothers, 'Where is some food?' as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as they breathe their last on their mothers' breasts.

¹³ To what can I compare or liken you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, young daughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your ruin: who can heal you?

¹⁴ The visions your prophets had for you were deceptive whitewash; they did not lay bare your guilt so as to change your fortunes: the visions they told you were deceptive.

¹⁸ Cry then to the Lord, rampart of the daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; allow yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!

¹⁹ Up, cry out in the night-time as each watch begins! Pour your heart out like water in Yahweh's presence! Raise your hands to him for the lives of your children (who faint with hunger at the end of every street)!

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 74:1-2, 3-5, 5-7, 20-21

¹ [Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?

² Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.

³ Come up to these endless ruins! The enemy have sacked everything in the sanctuary;

⁴ your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems

⁵ never known before. Their axes deep in the wood,

⁶ hacking at the panels, they battered them down with axe and pick;

⁷ they set fire to your sanctuary, profanely rased to the ground the dwelling-place of your name.

²⁰ Look to the covenant! All the hiding-places of the land are full, haunts of violence.

²¹ Do not let the downtrodden retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.

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