First Reading

Reading from the book of Isaiah 

Isaiah 58, 1-9

Thus says the Lord:
“Shout aloud and do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Denounce to my people their crimes,
to the house of Jacob their sins.

They seek me day after day and want to know my will,
`as if they were a people who practiced justice
and respected the judgments of God.
They ask me for just sentences
and long to have God near.
They say to me every day:
‘Why do we fast, if you do not see?
Why do we mortify ourselves, if you do not notice?’

It is because on the day you fast
you find ways to do business
and oppress your workers.
You fast, yes, only to quarrel and fight,
to strike with ruthless fists.

That is not the fast that makes your voice heard in heaven.
Is this the fast that pleases me?
Is this the mortification that I accept from man:
to bow your head like a bulrush
and lie on sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast and a day pleasing to the Lord?

The fast I desire from you is this, says the Lord:
To break unjust chains
and lift oppressive yokes;
to free the oppressed
and break every yoke;
to share your bread with the hungry
and open your house to the homeless poor;
to clothe the naked
and not turn your back on your own kin.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn
and your wounds will heal quickly;
justice will go before you
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry out, and he will say: ‘Here I am’ ”.

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 

Matthew 9, 14-15

At that time, the disciples of John came to Jesus and asked him: “Why do your disciples not fast, while we and the Pharisees do fast?” Jesus replied to them: “How can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast”.