Study Desk

‘Father,' the son said, ‘I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.'

The servant said to himself, ‘My master is going to dismiss me from my job. What shall I do? I am not strong enough to dig ditches, and I am ashamed to beg.

So he called out, ‘Father Abraham! Take pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool off my tongue, because I am in great pain in this fire!'

The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.

Before he left, he called his ten servants and gave them each a gold coin and told them, ‘See what you can earn with this while I am gone.'

He said to him, ‘You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you! You know that I am a hard man, taking what is not mine and reaping what I have not planted.

Jesus said, "Watch out; don't be fooled. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am he!' and, ‘The time has come!' But don't follow them.

Who is greater, the one who sits down to eat or the one who serves? The one who sits down, of course. But I am among you as one who serves.

Peter answered, "Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you and to die with you!"

After a little while a man noticed Peter and said, "You are one of them, too!" But Peter answered, "Man, I am not!"

They all said, "Are you, then, the Son of God?" He answered them, "You say that I am."

John spoke about him. He cried out, "This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.'"

John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: "I am not the Messiah."

"Who are you, then?" they asked. "Are you Elijah?" "No, I am not," John answered. "Are you the Prophet?" they asked. "No," he replied.

John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "I am ‘the voice of someone shouting in the desert: Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!'"

He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals."

This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.'

And he said to them, "I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man."

Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again."

"I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.