Daily Liturgy
Wed, Oct 04
Reading 1: Nehemiah 2:1-8
In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, I picked up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.
The king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.”
Then I was very much afraid.
I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?”
Then the king said to me, “What is your request?”
So I prayed to the God of heaven.
I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build it.”
The king said to me (the queen was also sitting by him), “How long will your journey be? When will you return?”
So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time for him.
Moreover I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;
and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.”
The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me.
Psalm: Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.
Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows in that land,
we hung up our harps.
For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs.
Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill.
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you;
if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Gospel: Luke 9:57-62
As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.”
Jesus said to him,
“The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another,
“Follow me!”
But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him,
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.”
Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.”
But Jesus said to him,
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
