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Gospel Reading - Guardian angels

¹About that time the disciples came to Jesus to ask which of them would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven!

²Jesus called a small child over to him and set the little fellow down among them, ³and said, “Unless you turn to God from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁴ Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁵And any of you who welcomes a little child like this because you are mine is welcoming me and caring for me. ⁶But if any of you causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose his faith,^a it would be better for you to have a rock tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea.

⁷“Woe upon the world for all its evils.^b Temptation to do wrong is inevitable, but woe to the man who does the tempting. ⁸So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Better to enter heaven crippled than to be in hell with both of your hands and feet. ⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. Better to enter heaven with one eye than to be in hell with two.

¹⁰“Beware that you don’t look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels have constant access^c to my Father. ¹¹And I, the Messiah,^d came to save the lost.

¹²“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? ¹³And if he finds it, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine others safe at home! ¹⁴Just so, it is not my Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.

1. Literally, “to stumble.”
2. Literally, “because of occasions of stumbling.”
3. Or “do always behold.”
4. Literally, “the Son of Man.” Verse 11 is left out of many manuscripts, some ancient.