NEW TESTAMENT (Second Reading)

A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans

Brothers and Sisters:

What then shall we say to this? 

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son 

     but handed him over for us all, 

     how will he not also give us 

     everything else along with him? 

Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? 

It is God who acquits us. Who will condemn? 

It is Christ [Jesus] who died, rather, 

     was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, 

     who indeed intercedes for us. 

What will separate us from the love of Christ? 

Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, 

     or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly

     through him who loved us. 

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, 

     nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, 

     nor future things, nor powers, nor height, 

     nor depth, nor any other creature 

     will be able to separate us 

     from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Word of the Lord