Have the rulers known for a truth that this is the Christ? But we know this man whence He is: but when the Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is. Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying: You both know Me, and you know whence I am: and I am not come of Myself; but He that sent Me is true, Whom you know not. I know Him, because I am from Him, and He hath sent Me. They sought therefore to apprehend Him: and no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. But of the people many believed in Him.
Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent.
Prayer.
O God, Who grantest to the just the reward of their merits, and to sinners pardon, by means of fasting, have mercy on Thy supplicants, that the confession of our guilt may enable us to receive the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE. Isaias i. 16-19.
Thus saith the Lord God: Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from My eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse Me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool. If you be willing, and will hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land, saith the Lord Almighty.
GOSPEL. John ix. 1-38.
At that time: Jesus passing by, saw a man who was blind from his birth: and His disciples asked Him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent Me, whilst it is day: the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When He had said these things, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon his eyes, and said to him: Go, wash in the
