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This year, we are reading through all four Gospels.

Join us as we invite God to plant seeds of faith in our lives through His Holy Word.

Hey there, Sprouts.

Welcome back to the Catholic Sprouts podcast where we are reading our way through the Gospels this school year.

We are on day 23, and we are reading from the Gospel of Matthew beginning at chapter 12.

Together, we will be reading verses 1 through 21, and among other things, we will be hearing the story of the chosen servant.

Now, today I am reading from the new American translation of the Bible. I encourage you to follow along and take notes as you listen. But also remember that God's holy word is alive and

active. So let's pray together today that our hearts can be open to receive his sacred word. In the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

A reading from the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 12, verses 1 through 22.

At that time, Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, see, your disciples are

doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what David did when

he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he

nor his companions, but only the priests, could lawfully eat. Or have you not read in the law that on

the Sabbath, the priests serving in the temple, violate the Sabbath and are innocent. I say to you, something greater than

the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have

condemned these innocent men. For the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.

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