Lectionary Readings
Book of Common Prayer - 1979
Sunday, July-22-2012
Proper 11

The Collect

Proper 11
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion, we beseech thee, upon our infirmities, and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, mercifully give us for the worthiness of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Preface of the Lord's Day

Old Testament Reading

Isaiah 57:14-21
¹⁴And one shall say, " Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people." ¹⁵For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: " I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. ¹⁶For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made. ¹⁷For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. ¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners. ¹⁹" I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near," Says the LORD, " And I will heal him." ²⁰But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ²¹" There is no peace," Says my God, "for the wicked." -- NKJV

Psalm

Psalm 22:22-30

22Praise the LORD, you that fear him; *
     stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
     all you of Jacob's line, give glory.
23For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
     neither does he hide his face from them; *
     but when they cry to him he hears them.
24My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
     I will perform my vows in the presence of those who
     worship him.
25The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
     and those who seek the LORD shall praise him: *
     "May your heart live for ever!"
26All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
     the LORD, *
     and all the families of the nations bow before him.
27For kingship belongs to the LORD; *
     he rules over the nations.
28To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down
     in worship; *
     all who go down to the dust fall before him.
29My soul shall live for him;
     my descendants shall serve him; *
     they shall be known as the LORD'S for ever.
30They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
     the saving deeds that he has done.

New Testament Reading

Ephesians 2:11-22
¹¹Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands- ¹²that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. -- NKJV

Gospel Reading

Mark 6:30-44
³⁰Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. ³¹And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. ³²So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. ³³But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. ³⁴And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. ³⁵When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. ³⁶Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat." ³⁷But He answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?" ³⁸But He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they found out they said, "Five, and two fish." ³⁹Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. ⁴¹And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. ⁴²So they all ate and were filled. ⁴³And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. ⁴⁴Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men. -- NKJV