First Reading: A reading from the prophet Amos 7:12-15

Go, prophesy to my people.

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Amos, 'Go away, seer; get back to theland of Judah; earn your bread there, do your prophesying there. We want no more prophesying in Bethel; this is the royal sanctuary, the national temple'. I was no prophet, neither did I belong to any of the brotherhoods of prohets', Amos replied to Amaziah. 'I was a shepherd, and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock, and the Lord who said, "Go, propheesy to my people Israel."'

This is the word of the Lord

Second Reading: A reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians Eph 1:3-4

Before the world was made, he chose us in Christ.

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love inhis presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ, for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

And it is in him that we were claimed as God's own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chose to be, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it: and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.

This is the word of the Lord.

Gospel Reading: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark Mk 6:7-13

He called the Twelve, and began to send them out.

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff - no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added. 'Do not take a spare tunic'. And he said to them, 'If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. and if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them'. So they set off to preach repentence: and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

The Gospel of the Lord.