A reading from the letter to the Hebrews.

Brothers and sisters, God is not unjust so as to overlook your work

and the love you have demonstrated for his name

by having served and continuing to serve the Holy Ones.

We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same

eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish but

imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.

When God made the promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear,

he swore by himself and said, I will indeed bless you and multiply you.

And so, after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise. Now, men swear by someone greater than themselves, for for them an oath serves as a

guarantee and puts an end to all argument.

So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability

of his purpose, he intervened with an oath, so that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie,

we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.

This we have as an anchor for the soul, sure and firm, which reaches

into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming

high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks to be to God.

The Lord will remember his covenant forever.

The Lord will remember his covenant forever. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart

in the company and assembly of the just. Great are the works of the Lord exquisite in all their

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