In 1528 he was the founder of the Order of Regular Clerics of Somasca
She died 8 February 1947. Sanctified in 2000
Invitation
May I hereby call 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 that joy
by opening his heart to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
With the second creation story begins the next section of the book of Genesis, which runs until the story of the tower of Babel. The second creation story is much older than the first: Tenth century versus sixth century. Even someone not versed in the Bible notices the difference: According to the first, plants are created on the third day, but further we read that the garden of Eden is not laid out until after the creation of man; the name of God in the first story is Elohim (God as in many places in the Middle East: El), in the second story Yahweh-Elohim. One sees this even in the translations when comparing them. The editor overlooks these “contradictions” when he links the two stories.
FIRST READING Gen. 2, 4b-9.15-17
God placed the man He had sculpted in the garden.
From the Book of Genesis
When God the Lord made the earth and the heavens,
there were no wild plants on the earth
and no field crops grew,
for God had not yet sent down rain upon the earth
and there was no man yet to cultivate the ground,
to bring up the water of the earth
and irrigate the earth’s soil.
Then God the Lord modelled man from dust,
taken from the earth,
and He breathed into his nose
the breath of life:
Thus man became a living being.
Then God the Lord laid out a garden in Eden,
somewhere in the east,
and in it He placed the man whom He had sculpted.
God the Lord caused all kinds of trees to sprout from the ground,
alluring to behold and delicious to eat;
among them was the tree of life
in the midst of the garden
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Then God the Lord brought man into the garden of Eden,
to cultivate it and to manage it.
And God the Lord gave man this commandment :
“Of all the trees of the garden ye may eat freely ,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat,
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou must die.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 104(103), 1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30
Glorify, my soul, the Lord!
Glorify, my soul, the Lord, how great art Thou,
Lord my God! With glory and splendor
art Thou clothed, thy robe is pure light.
All the animals wait upon Thee
that Thou mayest feed them in their time.
What Thou dost scatter before them they gather, they are satisfied when
Thou openest thy hand.
Do Thou take away their spirit, they perish,
and return to the earth.
But sendest Thou thy spirit, then comest life again,
Thou preparest a new creation.
ALLELUIA cf. Acts 16, 14b
Alleluia. Make our hearts receptive,
Lord, and that we may hear the word of your Son.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 7, 14-23
What comes from man, that defiles man.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
At that time Jesus called the people back to Himself and spoke to them :
“Listen all to Me and want to understand :
Nothing can taint man
what comes into him from outside.
“But what comes out of man
that defiles man.
“If anyone has ears to hear, he listens.”
After He withdrew from the people
and had come home
his disciples asked Him questions about the parable.
He answered them :
“Do ye also yet understand so little?
“Do you not realize
that whatever comes into man
from without cannot taint him,
because it comes not into his heart but into his belly
and finds its way into a certain place?”
Thus He declared all food to be pure. “But,
-said He –
that which comes out of man,
that defiles man.
“For from within, from the heart of men
come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, blasphemy, pride, levity.
“All these evil things come from within
and defile man.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
75. We cannot support a spirituality that forgets God the Almighty and the Creator. In this way, we would end up worshipping other powers of the world or putting ourselves in the Lord’s place, so much so that we even have the pretence of submerging the reality created by Him without knowing limits. The best way to show the human being its place and put an end to its pretence of being an absolute ruler of the earth is to again hold up the figure of a Father as Creator and sole ruler of the world, because otherwise the human being will tend to impose its own laws and its own interests on reality.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation, ©
Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007. Considerations from Liturgical suggestions
for the weekdays and Sundays Laudato Si Official English translation
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