7^th Sunday in Easter: “Exaudi Domine vocem meam…”

Introit: Hearken, O Lord, unto my voice which has called out to you, alleluia; my heart declared to you: “Your countenance have I sought; I shall ever seek your countenance, O Lord; do not turn your face from me, alleluia, alleluia.” The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

 Watchword from the gospel of the evangelist St. John 12:32  Jesus says: When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34  ¹ “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  ³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.  ³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.  ³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

From the epistle to the Ephesians 4:2b-16  Be patient, bearing with one another in love.  ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit– just as you were called to one hope when you were called–  ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  ⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  ⁸ This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”  ⁹ (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  ¹⁰ He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)  ¹¹ It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,  ¹² to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.  ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The holy Gospel according to the evangelist St.Matthew 13 (This is for the theme of this Sunday: Prayer for the unity of the Church).  ¹ Jesus Christ told another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  ³² Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”  ³³ He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”