First Reading

Beloved:

Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,

handed on by your ancestors,

not with perishable things like silver or gold

but with the precious Blood of Christ

as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.

He was known before the foundation of the world

but revealed in the final time for you,

who through him believe in God

who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,

so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified yourselves

by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love,

love one another intensely from a pure heart.

You have been born anew,

not from perishable but from imperishable seed,

through the living and abiding word of God, for:

"All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flower of the field;

the grass withers,

and the flower wilts;

but the word of the Lord remains forever."

This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.