The New Law «written not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh» ( 2 Cor 3,3) Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12:1-8.

Book of Exodus 11:10.12:1-14.
Although Moses and Aaron performed various wonders in Pharaoh's presence, the LORD made Pharaoh obstinate, and he would not let the Israelites leave his land.
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs.
None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.
"This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first--born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."



Psalms 116(115):12-13.15-16bc.17-18. 
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12:1-8.
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."

The New Law «written not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh» ( 2 Cor 3,3)

My brethren, consider the great mystery of the harmony and the difference of the two Laws and two peoples. The people of old celebrated Passover, not in the full light of day but in the shadow of that which was to come (Col 2,17), and fifty days after the Passover celebration… God gave it the Law written by his own hand on Mount Sinai… God came down on Mount Sinai in the midst of the fire, striking with terror the people who were standing far off, and with his finger he wrote the Law on stone, not in the heart (Ex 31,18). On the other hand, when the Holy Spirit came down to earth, the disciples were all assembled together in the same place and, instead of terrifying them from the height of the mountain, he entered the house where they had gathered (Acts 2,1f.). From the heights of heaven came an enormous noise like that of a strong wind approaching, but this noise did not frighten anybody.

You have heard the sound, see the fire, too. For on the mountain these two phenomena are to be distinguished: the noise and the fire. On Mount Sinai the fire was surrounded by smoke, but here, to the contrary, it has a shining clarity: “There appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted.” Was this a fire that stirred up fear? Not at all: “they came to rest on each one of them”… Listen to this tongue speaking and understand that it is the Spirit that writes not on stone but in the heart. Therefore the “Law of the Spirit of life”, written in the heart and not on stone, this Law of the Spirit of life which is in Jesus Christ, in whom the Passover has been celebrated in all truth (1Cor 5,7), “has set you free from the Law of sin and death” (Rm 8,2).