January 21st, 2025.

Memorial of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr.

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 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 of 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.

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