Catholic Daily Reading 7th March 2012

"And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them."
Jeremiah 18.18-20

"Thou wilt bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me: for thou art my protector.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.
For I have heard the blame of many that dwell round about. While they assembled together against me, they consulted to take away my life.
But I have put my trust in thee, O Lord: I said: Thou art my God.
My lots are in thy hands. Deliver me out of the hands of my enemies; and from them that persecute me."
Psalm 31.5-6,14,15-16

"And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart and said to them:
Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes: and they shall condemn him to death.
And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified: and the third day he shall rise again.
Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him.
Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.
And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can.
He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.
And the ten, hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren.
But Jesus called them to him and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and that they that are the greater, exercise power upon them.
It shall not be so among you: but whosoever is the greater among you, let him be your minister.
And he that will be first among you shall be your servant.
Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a redemption for many."
Matthew 20.17-28