First Reading

Joshua 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17

7And the Lord said to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that, just as I was with Moses, so also am I with you. 8Now instruct the priests, who are carrying the ark of the covenant, and say to them, ‘When you will have entered into a part of the water of the Jordan, stand still in it.’” 9And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Approach to here, and listen to the word of the Lord your God.” 10And again, he said: “By this shall you know that the Lord, the living God, is in your midst, and that he shall scatter in your sight, the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Hivite and the Perizzite, likewise the Girgashite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite. 11Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you through the Jordan. 12Prepare twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13And when the priests who are carrying the ark of the Lord, the God of the entire earth, will have placed the steps of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are lower will run down and pass away, and those that are approaching above will stand together in a mass.” 14And the people departed from their tents, so that they might cross the Jordan. And the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant were advancing before them. 15And as soon as they entered into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in a portion of the water, (now the Jordan, since it was the time of the harvest, had filled the banks of its channel,) 16the descending waters stood still in one place, and, swelling up like a mountain, they were seen from far away, from the city that is called Adam, even as far as the place of Zarethan. But those that were lower ran down into the Sea of the Wilderness, (which is now called the Dead Sea,) until they entirely passed away. 17Then the people advanced opposite Jericho. And the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord were standing, fully-dressed, upon dry soil in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over, through the channel that was dried up.
Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 113

1Alleluia. At the departure of Israel from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people: 2Judea was made his sanctuary; Israel was made his power. 3The sea looked, and it fled. The Jordan was turned back again. 4The mountains exulted like rams, and the hills like lambs among the sheep. 5What happened to you, O sea, so that you fled, and to you, O Jordan, so that you were turned back again? 6What happened to you, O mountains, so that you exulted like rams, and to you, O hills, so that you exulted like lambs among the sheep?
Gospel

Matthew 18:21–19:1