First Reading

Reading from the prophecy of Hosea 

Hosea 6:1-6

Thus says the Lord:
«In their affliction, my people will seek me
and they will say to one another: ‘Come, let us return to the Lord;
he has torn us to pieces and he will heal us;
he has struck us and he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us,
and on the third day, he will raise us up
and we will live in his presence.

Let us strive to know the Lord;
as certain as the dawn is his coming
and his judgment arises like the light;
he will come down upon us like early rain,
like spring rain that soaks the earth’.

What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
Your love is like morning mist,
like dew at dawn that evaporates.
Therefore I have struck you through the prophets
and slain you with my words.
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings».

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke 

Luke 18:9-14

At that time, Jesus told this parable about some who trusted in themselves as being righteous and regarded others with contempt: «Two men went up to the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other, a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing erect, prayed like this to himself: ‘God, I thank you because I am not like other men: thieves, unjust, adulterers; nor even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay tithes on all my income.’The tax collector, however, stayed at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven. All he did was beat his breast, saying: ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’I tell you, this one went down to his home justified, and not the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted’.