November 23, 2004, Saturday of the 33rd week in ordinary time.

A reading from the book of Revelation,

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.

Here are my two witnesses.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies.

In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.

They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their

prophesying.

They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage

war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,

which has the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, where indeed their Lord was crucified.

Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not

allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them, and be glad

and exchange gifts, because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.

But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them.

When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, come up here. So they went

up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. The word of the Lord. The responsorial

psalm. The response is, Blessed be the Lord, my rock.

Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.

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