FIRST READING: Psalm 126

1. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

3. The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. 4. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. 5. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. 6. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

SECOND READING: Isaiah 43

16. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17. who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18. Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21. the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

GOSPEL READING: John 12:1-8

1. Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5. “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii {Three hundred denarii would be nearly a year's wages for a laborer} and the money given to the poor?” 6. (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)

7. Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”