Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 10:1-10.
The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame, came to test him with subtle questions.
She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested.
King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her.
When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s great wisdom, the palace he had built,
the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters, his banquet service, and the holocausts he offered in the temple of the LORD, she was breathless.
“The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king.
“Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes, I have discovered that they were not telling me the half. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard.
Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom.
Blessed be the LORD, your God, whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel. In his enduring love for Israel, the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice.”
Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Psalms 37(36):5-6.30-31.39-40.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act
And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.
The mouths of the just utter wisdom; their tongues speak what is right.
God’s teaching is in their hearts; their steps do not falter.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.
The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:14-23.
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
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When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.
From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Commentary of the day : Saint John of the Cross
«A pure heart create for me, O God » (Ps 51[50],12)
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Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 8:22-23.27-30.
Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel, and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,
he said, “LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below; you keep your covenant of kindness with your servants who are faithful to you with their whole heart.
“Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!
Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant, utter before you this day.
May your eyes watch night and day over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.
Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they offer in this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon.

Psalms 84:3.4.5.10.11.
My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.
As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God!
Happy are those who dwell in your house! They never cease to praise you. Selah
O God, look kindly on our shield; look upon the face of your anointed.
Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Better the threshold of the house of my God than a home in the tents of the wicked.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:1-13.
Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’
Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘ (meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”
Commentary of the day : Saint Thomas Aquinas
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”

Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 8:1-7.9-13.
At the order of Solomon, the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the Israelites, came to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD’S covenant from the city of David (which is Zion).
All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month).
When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark;
they carried the ark of the LORD and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent. (The priests and Levites carried them.)
King Solomon and the entire community of Israel present for the occasion sacrificed before the ark sheep and oxen too many to number or count.
The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple.
The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above.
There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites at their departure from the land of Egypt.
When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD
so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the LORD’S glory had filled the temple of the LORD.
Then Solomon said, “The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud;
I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever.”

Psalms 132(131):6-7.8-10.
“We have heard of it in Ephrathah; we have found it in the fields of Jaar.
Let us enter God’s dwelling; let us worship at God’s footstool.”
“Arise, LORD, come to your resting place, you and your majestic ark.
Your priests will be clothed with justice; your faithful will shout for joy.”
For the sake of David your servant, do not reject your anointed.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:53-56.
After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
Commentary of the day : Saint Cyril of Alexandria
“As many as touched him were healed”