July 27, 2006, Monday of the 17th week in ordinary time.

A reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah.

The Lord said to me,

Go buy yourself a linen loincloth.

Wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water. I bought the loin cloth,

as the Lord commanded, and put it on. A second time, the word of the Lord came to me thus.

Take the loin cloth, which you bought and are wearing and go now to the Parath.

There hide it in a cleft of the rock.

Obedient to the Lord's commandment, I went to the Parah and buried the loincloth.

After a long interview, the Lord said to me,

Go now to the para and fetch the loin claw, which I told you to hide there. Again, I went to the parra,

sought out and took the loin claw from the place where I had hit it.

But it was rotted, good for nothing.

Then the message came to me from the Lord.

Thus says the Lord.

So also, I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem,

this wicked people, who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,

and follow strange gods to serve and adore them.

Shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins,

so had I made the whole house of Israel.

And the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord.

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