August 14, 2003, Memorial of St. Maximilian Colby, priest and martyr.

A reading from the book of Deuteronomy.

Moses said to the people,

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?

But to fear the Lord your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve

the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the

Lord which I enjoin on you today for your own good. Think, the heavens, even the highest heavens,

belong to the Lord your God, as well as the earth and everything

on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the Lord was so attached to them as to choose you their

descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done. Circumcise your hearts,

therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked. For the Lord your God is the God of Gods, the Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome,

who has no favourites, accepts no bribes, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,

and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien,

for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. The Lord your God shall you fear,

and him shall you serve. Hold fast to him and swear by his name. He is your glory, he your God,

who has done for you those great and terrible things

which your own eyes have seen.

Your ancestors went down to Egypt, 70 strong,

and now the Lord your God has made you

as numerous as the stars of the sky.

The Word of the Lord.

The responsorial psal Psalm, the response is,

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