July 23, 2026 Have a good day! ----- Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time ----- ☆ Gospel: Matthew 13:10-17 And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you say things to them in the form of stories? And he said to them in answer, To you is given the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Because whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have more; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. For this reason I put things into the form of stories; because they see without seeing, and give ear without hearing, and the sense is not clear to them. And for them the words of Isaiah have come true, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you: For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well. But a blessing be on your eyes, because they see; and on your ears, because they are open. For truly, I say to you that prophets and upright men had a desire to see the things which you see, and saw them not; and to have knowledge of the words which have come to your ears, and they had it not. ----- ☆ Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, I still keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young, and your love when you became my bride; how you went after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase: all who made attacks on him were judged as wrongdoers, evil came on them, says the Lord. And I took you into a fertile land, where you were living on its fruit and its wealth; but when you came in, you made my land unclean, and made my heritage a disgusting thing. The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets of the Baal, going after things without value. Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water. ----- ◇ Daily Readings July 23, 2026 https://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072326.cfm ☆ The Bible in Basic English BBE https://www.biblestudytools.com/bbe/ ◇ The Holy Bible[King James Version] https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/kj/index.htm ◇ Abiding Radio Instrumental (BGM) https://www.abidingradio.org/listen/ -----