Daily Readings for August 28, 2018

1st READING

Paul exhorts once again the Thessalonian community to stand firm in the face of attacks from the world. Today’s social engineers are unhappy with Catholic moral teaching and attempt to break it down at every opportunity. Let us trust in the Holy Spirit and on His strength to withstand adversity, and present what we believe and why we believe it.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17

1 We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, 2 not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. 14 To this end he has also called you through our Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

P S A L M

Psalm 96:10, 11-12, 13

R: The Lord comes to judge the earth.

10 Say among the nations: the Lord is king. He has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity. (R) 11 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; 12 let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! Then shall all the trees of the forest exult (R) 13 before the Lord, for he comes; for he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy. (R)  

GOSPEL

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Augustine, one of the giants of the Church — a giant in intellect (the most quoted source in the Catechism of the Catholic Church) and a giant in pastoral works. His Confessions is the first known autobiography, an extraordinary revelation of the inner life of a man who began as a heretic and ended up as one of the Church’s outstanding bishops and theologians.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. 

Matthew 23:23-26

23 Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. 24 Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”