First Reading

Reading from the letter of the Apostle Saint Paul to the Galatians

Galatians 3, 1-5

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you so that you do not obey the truth, when we have clearly presented to you Jesus Christ crucified?

I only want to ask you one thing: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by doing what the law of Moses commands or by believing in the Gospel? Are you so foolish that, having begun by the Spirit, you now want to finish by merely human works? Have you received so many favors in vain? I hope not.

Let us see: when God gives you the Holy Spirit and works wonders among you, does he do it because you have fulfilled what the law of Moses commands, or because you have believed in the Gospel?

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke

Luke 11, 5-13

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend who comes to him at midnight and says to him: ‘Please lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come on a journey and I have nothing to offer him’. But he answers from inside: ‘Do not bother me. I cannot get up and give them to you, because the door is already closed and my children and I are in bed’. If the other keeps knocking, I assure you that, although he will not get up and give them to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistent knocking, he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”