Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.

Moses spoke to the people, saying: “This day the Lord, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.

Thus says the Lord God: If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the Lord.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding.

Thus says the Lord:/ Just as from the heavens/ the rain and snow come down/ And do not return there/ till they have watered the earth,/ making it fertile and fruitful,/ Giving seed to the one who sows/ and bread to the one who eats,/ So shall my word be/ that goes forth from my mouth;/ It shall not return to me void,/ but shall do my will,/ achieving the end for which I sent it.

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.

Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin ­entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned [—for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.

The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.