July 29th, 2004. Memorial of St. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. A reading from the book of the

prophet Jeremiah. The Lord said to me, go buy yourself a linen loin cloth. 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 Parra and buried the loincloth. After a long interview, the Lord said to me,

Go now to the para and fetch the loincloth, which I told you to hide there. Again, I went to the parah,

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.

To be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty,

but they did not listen. The word of the Lord. The responsorial psalm, the response is,

you have forgotten God who gave you birth.

You were unmindful of the rock that begot you.

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