Daily Reading for Thursday, February 20th, 2025

Reading 1, Genesis 9:1-13

¹ God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Breed, multiply and fill the earth.

² Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea; they are placed in your hands.

³ Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything,

⁴ with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it.

⁵ And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life.

⁶ He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created.

⁷ Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!'

⁸ God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons,

⁹ 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come,

¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth.

¹¹ And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.'

¹² 'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:

¹³ I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 102:16-18, 19-21, 29, 22-23

¹⁶ when Yahweh builds Zion anew, he will be seen in his glory;

¹⁷ he will turn to hear the prayer of the destitute, and will not treat their prayer with scorn.

¹⁸ This shall be put on record for a future generation, and a people yet to be born shall praise God:

¹⁹ Yahweh has leaned down from the heights of his sanctuary, has looked down from heaven to earth,

²⁰ to listen to the sighing of the captive, and set free those condemned to death,

²¹ to proclaim the name of Yahweh in Zion, his praise in Jerusalem;

²² nations will gather together, and kingdoms to worship Yahweh.

²³ In my journeying my strength has failed on the way;