A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans.

Brothers and sisters,

sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey its desires.

And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness,

but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life.

And the parts of your bodies to God as weapons has raised from the dead to life,

and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons of righteousness.

For sin is not to have any power over you,

since you are not under the law but under grace.

What then, shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? Of course not.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as an obedient slave,

you are slaves of the one who you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that though you were once slaves of sin, you have been become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.

Freed from sin, you become slaves of righteousness.

The word of the Lord.

Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Our help is in the name of the Lord. Had not the Lord been with us, let Israel say, had not the Lord been with us when men rose up against

us.

Then would they have swallowed us alive when their fury was inflamed against us.

Our help is in the name of the Lord. Then would the waters have overwhelmed us,

the torrents would have swept over us, over us then would have swept the raging waters.

Blessed be the Lord who did not leave us a prey to their teeth. Our help is in the name of the Lord. We were rescued like a bird

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