October 6, 2003, Friday of the 26th week in ordinary time.

A reading from the book of the prophet Baruch.

During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed.

Justice is with the Lord our God, and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah

and citizens of Jerusalem, that we with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets and with

our ancestors have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed Him.

We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord

set before us.

From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until the present day we

have been disobedient to the Lord our God,

and only too ready to disregard his voice.

And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses his servant,

at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt

to give us the land flowing with milk and honey,

cling to us even today.

For we did not heed the voice of the Lord our God,

and all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,

but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart,

served other gods, and did evil in the sight of a Lord our God.

A word of a Lord.

The Responsorial Psalm, the response is,

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

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