Then Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this, since I am an old man, and my wife is getting older?"

Mary asked the angel, "How can this happen, since I have not had relations with a man?"

and she loudly exclaimed, "How blessed are you among women, and how blessed is the infant in your womb!

How blessed is this woman for believing that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled!"

How was it that he went into the house of God, took the Bread of the Presence and ate it, which was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and then gave some of it to his companions?"

Then Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "How blessed are you who are destitute, because the kingdom of God is yours!

How blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be satisfied! How blessed are you who are crying now, because you will laugh!

"How blessed are you whenever people hate you, avoid you, insult you, and slander you because of the Son of Man!

"But how terrible it will be for you who are rich, because you have had your comfort!

How terrible it will be for you who are full now, because you will be hungry! How terrible it will be for you who are laughing now, because you will mourn and cry!

"How terrible it will be for you when everyone says nice things about you, because that's the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets!"

How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you don't see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

How blessed is anyone who is not offended by me!"

So pay attention to how you listen, because to the one who has something, more will be given. However, from the one who doesn't have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him."

The people who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.

"Go home and tell what God has done for you." So the man left and kept proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

When the woman saw that she couldn't hide, she came forward trembling. Bowing down in front of him, she explained in the presence of all the people why she had touched Jesus and how she had been instantly healed.

Jesus answered, "You unbelieving and perverted generation! How much longer must I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here!"

"How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible it will be for you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that happened in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

Then turning to his disciples in private, he told them, "How blessed are the eyes that see what you see!

So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him!"

Now, if Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.

As Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and told him, "How blessed is the womb that gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you!"

But he said, "Instead, how blessed are those who hear God's word and obey it!"

"How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give a tenth of your mint, spices, and every kind of herb, but you neglect justice and the love of God. These are the things you should have practiced, without neglecting the others.

How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You love to have the places of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted in the marketplaces.

How terrible it will be for you! You are like unmarked graves people walk on them without realizing it."

Jesus said, "How terrible it will be for you experts in the Law, too! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you don't even lift a finger to ease those burdens.

How terrible it will be for you! You build monuments for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them!

How terrible it will be for you experts in the Law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn't go in yourselves, and you kept out those who were trying to go in."

When people bring you before synagogue leaders, rulers, or authorities, don't worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,

That's how it is with the person who stores up treasures for himself rather than with God."

Consider the crows. They don't plant or harvest, they don't even have a storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!

Consider how the lilies grow. They don't work or spin yarn, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.

Now if that's the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you you who have little faith?

How blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching for him when he comes! I tell all of you with certainty, he himself will put on an apron, make them sit down at the table, and go around and serve them.

How blessed they will be if their master comes in the middle of the night or near dawn and finds them awake!

How blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing this when he comes!

"I've come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze!

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, yet you don't know how to interpret the present time?"

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you people were unwilling!

Look! Your house is left vacant to you. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, "How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

When Jesus noticed how the guests were choosing the places of honor, he told them a parable.

Now one of those eating with him heard this and told him, "How blessed is the person who will eat in the kingdom of God!"

"Now, salt is good. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can its flavor be restored?

"Then he came to his senses and said, "How many of my father's hired men have more food than they can eat, and here I am starving to death!

"So he called for each of his master's debtors. He asked the first, "How much do you owe my master?'

Then he asked another debtor, "How much do you owe?' The man replied, "A hundred containers of wheat.' The manager told him, "Get your bill and write "80."'

Jesus told his disciples, "It is inevitable that temptations to sin will come, but how terrible it will be for the person through whom they come!

So when Jesus saw how sad he was, he said, "How hard it is for rich people to get into the kingdom of God!

They said, "How blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

Then he asked them, "How can people say that the Messiah is David's son?

So David calls him "Lord.' Then how can he be his son?"

Now while some people were talking about the Temple how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God he said,

"How terrible it will be for those women who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days! because there will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

So he went off and discussed with the high priests and the Temple police how he could betray Jesus to them.

The Son of Man is going away, just as it has been determined, but how terrible it will be for that man by whom he is betrayed!"

Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word from the Lord, and how he had told him, "Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times."

because the time is surely coming when people will say, "How blessed are the women who couldn't bear children and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!'

So the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, following close behind, saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

They answered him, "The events involving Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in what he said and did before God and all the people, and how our high priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and had him crucified.

Then Jesus told them, "O, how foolish you are! How slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!

Then the two men began to tell what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him when he broke the bread in pieces.

He told them, "This is how it is written: the Messiah was to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,