Readings

1st Reading
Song of Songs 8:6-7

 Set me as a seal on your heart,
  set me as a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as death;
  its jealousy lasting as the power of death;
it burns like a blazing fire,
a flame of Yahweh Himself.
Love no flood can quench,
  no torrents drown.
Psalm
Ps. 33:2-22,34:2-9		 In hope we wait for the Lord
  for He is our help and our shield.
Our hearts rejoice in Him,
  for we trust in His holy name.
O Lord, let your love rest upon us,
  even as our hope rests in you.
 
I will bless the Lord at all times;
  His praise will be ever on my lips.
My soul will glorify the Lord,
  that the poor may hear and be glad.
 
Magnify the Lord with me;
  let us exalt his name together.
I seek the Lord, who answers me,
  and delivers me from all my fears.
 
They who look to Him are radiant with joy,
  their faces never clouded with shame.
When the poor cry out, the Lord hears
  and saves them from distress.
 
The Lord’s angel encamps and patrols
  to keep safe those who fear Him.
Oh taste and see the goodness of the Lord!
  Blessed is the one who finds shelter in Him!

2nd Reading
1 John 4:7-12
Beloved, let us love one another,
  because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
  God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
  not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us,
  we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
  and his love is brought to perfection in us.

Gospel
Matthew 22:35-40

  
One of the Pharisees, a scholar of the law, tested Jesus by asking,
  “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
  “You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”