A reading from the book of the prophet Baruch. During the Babylon 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 our 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 this 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. In all his words, all the

prophets whom he sent, to each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart,

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

The Word of the Lord.

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

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

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled

your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the corpses of your servants

as food to the birds of heaven, the flesh of the faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem.

And there is no one to bury them. We have become the reproach of our neighbors, the scorch and derision of those around us.

O Lord, how long?

Will you be angry forever?

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