Instructions for Living

Instructions for a life pleasing to God
~ from Micah

Reading for Mass, Monday 20 July 2020

Micah 6:1-4, 6-8

 

Listen to what the Lord is saying:

 

Stand up and let the case begin in the hearing of the mountains

and let the hills hear what you say.

 

Listen, you mountains, to the Lord’s accusation,

give ear, you foundations of the earth,

for the Lord is accusing his people,

pleading against Israel:

 

My people, what have I done to you,

how have I been a burden to you? Answer me.

I brought you out of the land of Egypt,

I rescued you from the house of slavery;

I sent Moses to lead you,

with Aaron and Miriam.

 

– ‘With what gift shall I come into the Lord’s presence

and bow down before God on high?

Shall I come with holocausts,

with calves one year old?

Will he be pleased with rams by the thousand,

with libations of oil in torrents?

Must I give my first-born for what I have done wrong,

the fruit of my body for my own sin?’

 

– What is good has been explained to you, man;

this is what the Lord asks of you:

only this, to act justly,

to love tenderly

and to walk humbly with your God.