August 9th, 2004, Friday of the 18th week in ordinary time.

A reading from the book of the prophet Naham.

See, upon the mountains there advances the bearer of good news, announcing peace.

Celebrate your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows.

For never more shall you be invaded by the scoundrel.

He is completely destroyed.

The Lord will restore the vine of Jacob, the pride of Israel.

Though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined the tendrils.

Woe to the bloody city, all lies, full of plunder, whose looting never stops.

The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of wheels, horses agallop, chariots bounding,

cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear,

the many slain, the heaping corpses, the endless bodies to stumble upon.

I will cast filth upon you, disgrace you, and put you to shame.

Till everyone who sees you runs from you saying,

Nineveh is destroyed, who can pity her?

Where can one find any to console her?

The Word of the Lord.

The Responsorial Psalm. The word of the Lord. The responsorial psalm.

The response is,

it is I who deal death and give life.

Close at hand is the day of their disaster,

and their doom is rushing upon them.

...