After the birth of every Jewish child, the mother goes to the temple
to cleanse herself and dedicate the child to the Lord.
Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience this joy by opening his heart
to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every morning from 7 am
Consideration
Two people are standing in the temple, ready to pronounce the word of welcome. The first is Simeon who says that he has now seen the light and may die. The second is Hanna, an old woman. She addresses the child and recognises his liberation. Then it may also end for her. The Lord had appeared. They, these two people, could now disappear. But how does it continue? We heard it in the Scripture readings of the past weeks. He will be contradicted in the street as well as in the temple. He is not so welcome: He is too bright, too honest, too open, too radical. This human child is not so welcome in the shelter of our often small, sometimes fanatical own truth. Because He turns it upside down. Because He exposes our twists and turns. To all, however, who do accept Him, He gives the ability to be children of God. If we may be among these chosen ones, our encounter with Christ will be a festive one. Then we can call Lent a feast for children, even for grown-ups! (Frans De Maeseneer)
FIRST READING Mal. 3,1-4
The Lord whom you are expecting enters his sanctuary.
From the Prophet Malachi
This is what the Lord God says:
I will send my messenger before me
to prepare the way before Me.
And forthwith the Lord cometh into his sanctuary,
the Lord whom ye seek, the angel of the covenant,
for whom ye look longingly.
Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.
But who can bear the day of His coming?
Who will stand when He appears?
For He is like the fire of the smelter, like the lye of the bleachers.
He sets himself down to melt the silver and to purify it,
to purify the Levites and to purify them, like gold and silver,
so that they can again offer sacrifices to the Lord in the proper
offerings to the Lord in the proper manner.
Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will again please the Lord,
as in the past, in the years gone by.
Interludium Ps. 24(23), 7, 8, 9, 10
The Lord of the heavenly powers,
He is the King of glory!
Gates, lift up your cornices,
open, ancient doors :
the King of glory must enter.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, the strong, the mighty,
the Lord, the hero of the battle.
Gates, lift up your cornices,
open ancient doors:
the King of glory must enter.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of the heavenly powers,
He is the King of glory.
SECOND READING Hebrews 2, 14-18
He had to become like his brothers in everything.
From the letter to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters,
The children of one family
share the same flesh and blood ;
that is why Jesus wanted to share our existence
in order that through his death
to dethrone the prince of death, the devil, and to set free
those who, because of the fear of death,
were subjected to unfreedom all their lives.
For it is not the angels whose fate He cares about
but the descendants of Abraham.
Hence He had to become like His brothers in everything,
in order that as a compassionate and faithful High Priest he might
to look after their interests before God
and to atone for the sins of the people.
Because He Himself has stood the test of suffering,
He can help all who are tried.
ALLELUIA Lk. 2, 32
Alleluia.
A light that shines for the Gentiles,
a glory to your people Israel.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 2, 22-40
My eyes have beheld your salvation.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
When the time came
Mary and the child, according to the Law of Moses, were to be
Moses to be cleansed,
His parents took Jesus to Jerusalem
Jesus to Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord,
according to the precept of the Lord’s Law:
Every first-born male child
must be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer a sacrifice according to the provisions of the Lord’s
to offer a sacrifice,
namely a pair of turtles or two young pigeons.
Now there lived in Jerusalem a certain Simeon,
a law-abiding and devout man
who expected the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit rested upon him.
He had received a divine word from the Holy Spirit
that death would not come upon him
until he had seen the Lord’s anointed.
Driven by the Spirit, he had come to the temple.
When the parents brought the child Jesus into the temple
to fulfil the commandment of the Law,
Simeon took the child in his arms
and proclaimed God’s praise with the words :
“Thy servant, Lord, letst Thou now go in peace according to Thy word :
my eyes have now beheld thy salvation
which thou hast prepared for all nations;
a light that shines for the Gentiles,
a glory to thy people Israel.”
His father and mother were amazed at what was said of Him.
Then Simeon pronounced a blessing on themand he said to Mary, his mother :
“Behold this child is destined to the fall or resurrection of many in Israel,
to be a sign that is refuted,
so that the disposition of many hearts may be made manifest ;
and your own soul shall be pierced by a sword.”
There was also a pofetes, Hanna,
a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was very old
And after her youth she had lived seven years with her husband.
Now she was an eighty-four year old widow.
She dwelt continually in the temple
and served God day and night by fasting and prayer.
At this moment she came nearer,
thanked God and spoke about the child to all those
who were expecting the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When they had fulfilled all the requirements of the Lord’s law,
they returned to Galilee, to their city Nazareth.
The child grew up and increased in strength ;
He was filled with wisdom
and the grace of God rested upon him.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On Care of the Common Home
69. While we can make responsible use of things, we are called to recognise that the other living creatures have a value of their own before God and “by their very existence bless and praise the Lord”, because the Lord finds his joy in his works. Precisely because of his unique dignity and because he is endowed with reason, the human being is called to respect creation with its inner laws, since “the Lord by wisdom founded the earth” (Spr. 3, 19) . Today the Church does not simplistically say that the other creatures are entirely subject to the welfare of the human being, as if they had no value in themselves and we could not dispose of them at will. Thus, the bishops of Germany explained that with regard to other creatures, “one could speak of the priority of being over being ‘useful'”. The Catechism questions in a very direct and penetrating way what would be a wrong anthropocentrism: “Every creature has its own goodness and perfection (…). The different creatures, willed according to their own being, reflect in their own way the infinite wisdom and goodness of God. Therefore, man must respect each creature’s own goodness to avoid a disordered use of things.”
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Recitals from Liturgical Suggestions for the Weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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