The pilgrimage to Lourdes attracts millions of visitors every year.
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.
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
The dialogue between Adam and Eve on the one hand and God on the other clearly shows that God holds man accountable. But man cannot justify his own sin before God. He wants to exonerate himself and cite causes of various kinds, but this only makes him more confronted with his own smallness and lousiness. God continues to care for his people in spite of everything, no matter how badly they sin: ‘And God made clothes of skins for man, and he put them on’.
FIRST READING Gen. 3, 9-24
God the Lord expelled man from the garden of Eden;
he had to go and cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.
From the Book of Genesis
God the Lord called man and asked him :
“Where art thou?”
He replied :
“I heard thy thunder in the garden ,
and then I became afraid, because I am naked ;
therefore I hid myself.”
But God the Lord said :
“Who told thee that thou art naked?
“Hast thou sometimes eaten of the tree
which I have forbidden thee?”
Man replied :
“The woman whom Thou hast given me as a companion ,
she gave me of that tree,
and then I ate.”
Thereupon God the Lord asked the woman :
“How hast thou been able to do that?”
The woman said :
“The serpent tempted me ,
and then I ate.”
God the Lord then said to the serpent :
“Because thou hast done this ,
thou art cursed among all domestic animals
and among all wild beasts !
“On thy belly shalt thou crawl and dust shalt thou eat ,
all the days of thy life !
“Enmity I put between thee and woman,
between thy offspring and hers.
“It shall threaten thy head
and thou its heel!”
And to the woman He said :
“Very heavy will I make
the burdens of thy pregnancy :
with pain shalt thou bear children.
“To thy husband shall thy desire go forth ,
though he rule over thee.”
And to the husband He said :
“Because thou hast listened to thy wife
and have eaten of the tree
which I had forbidden you ,
the ground shall be cursed because of thee !
“Toiling thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life.
“Thistles and thorns it shall bring forth,
with field crops thou must feed.
“In sweat thou shalt work for thy bread,
till thou return to the ground
from which thou art taken :
Thou art dust,
and to dust thou returnest.”
Man called his wife Eve,
for she became the mother of all the living.
And God the Lord made clothes of skins
for man and his wife
and He put them on.
And God the Lord said :
“Now that man in the knowledge of good and evil
has become like one of Us, I want to prevent
that he pluck any more from the tree of life ;
by eating thereof, he would live forever !”
Therefore, God the Lord expelled him from the garden of Eden,
and he had to go and cultivate the ground
from which he had been taken.
He thus expelled man from the garden,
and on the east side of the garden of Eden
He placed the kerubs and the flame of the rolling sword,
to guard the way to the tree of life.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 90(89), 2, 3-4, 5-6, 12-13
You, Lord, have always been our refuge
for every generation anew.
Before the mountains were born,
before the earth was brought forth,
art Thou, God, from everlasting to everlasting.
That which is mortal perishes again to dust,
Thou sayest :Return, child of man !
To Thee a thousand years are one day,
as yesterday that is already past,
an hour of sleep in the night.
Our life breaks down like a dream in the morning,
brief as grass on the field.
In the morning it germinates and sprouts,
in the evening it withers.
Teach us to value our days
and so come to wisdom of heart.
Let go, Lord, how long wilt Thou torment us?
Surely be merciful to thy servants.
ALLELUIA Phil. 2, 15-16
Alleluia.
Shine like stars in the universe,
and hold fast the word of life.
Alleluia
GOSPEL Mk. 8, 1-10
The people ate until they were satiated.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
When in those days again many people were gathered together
and they did not have food to eat,
Jesus called his disciples to him and spoke to them :
“I have compassion on these people ,
because they have been staying with Me for three days
so that they are now without food.
“If I let them go home without food
they will succumb on the way ;
some of them have come from far away.”
His disciples answered Him :
” Where can anyone here, in such a lonely place
get bread to satiate them?”
He asked them : “Then how many loaves do you have?”
“Seven,” they replied.
He ordered the people to sit down on the ground.
Then He took the seven loaves,
and after the thanksgiving prayer He broke them
and gave them to his disciples to put before the people ;
and they did so.
They also had some fish :
After blessing them, He said
that they should serve those too.
The people ate until they were satisfied
and to the remaining chunks they collected seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.
Then He sent them home.
Immediately He set sail with his disciples
and came into the region of Dalmanúta.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
78. At the same time, Judeo-Christian thought de-mythologised nature. Without ceasing to admire it for its brilliance and immensity, it no longer attributed a divine character to it. Thus, once again, our obligation towards it is further underlined. A return to nature should not be at the expense of the freedom and responsibility of the human being, who is a part of the world with the task of using its own capacities to protect it and develop its potential. If we recognise the value and fragility of nature and at the same time the capacities given to us by the Creator, it enables us today to put an end to the modern myth of unlimited material progress. A fragile world with a human being to whom God entrusts its care appeals to our intelligence to recognise how we should direct, exercise and limit our power.
To be continued
The Bible text in this publication is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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