While they were eating, he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it. This is my body.”

Then he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour?

When they had finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought aromatic spices so that they might go and anoint him.

Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.

And he will go as forerunner before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

“And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age – although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month!

She exclaimed with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb!

Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

So the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; everything was just as they had been told.

She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Just then some men showed up, carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus.

Then astonishment seized them all, and they glorified God. They were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen incredible things today.”

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for Jesus, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them.

When morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:

To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either.