Religious mendicant order founded in 1233 based on a shared vision of Mary.
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 power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
One must juxtapose the story of the tower of Babel with the Pentecost story: The many languages and the one language. The tower of Babel is the tower of hubris, recalling the paradise story. Overconfident man clashes not only with God but also with his fellow man. However, when man speaks the language of the Bible, the Pentecost miracle happens, and all speak the same language.
FIRST READING Gen. 11, 1-9
That city is called Babel because confusion arose there in the language of all men.
From the book of Genesis
All the people on earth spoke one language
and used the same words.
After they had moved away from the east ,
they found a plain in Sinear and settled there.
They said to each other:
“Come, let us make tiles and harden them in the fire.”
The tiles they used as building blocks
with asphalt as mortar.
Now they said:
“Let us build a city with a tower
whose spire reaches to heaven:
Then we shall have the name
and we shall not be scattered over the face of the earth.”
When the Lord came down to behold the city
and the tower that the people built,
He said:
“Now they are one people
and they all speak the same language.
“What they are doing now is only a beginning;
later none of their plans will
can be stopped.
“Let us descend
and bring confusion to their language,
so that one no longer understands what the other says.”
And the Lord drove them from there in all directions,
all over the earth, and the building of the city came to an end.
That’s why that city is called Babel,
for God has brought confusion there
into the language of all men
and scattered them thence over all the earth’s surface.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 33(32), 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Blessed are the people who have the Lord as God,
the nation chosen by Him to be his inheritance.
Plans of nations God overturns,
foils what nations plot.
Eternal remains the plan of the Lord,
what He has planned is for all generations.
Blessed are the people who have the Lord as God,
the nation chosen by Him for his inheritance.
High from heaven God looks down,
looks down on the sons of men.
Sharply He watches from the place where He dwells
on all the inhabitants of the earth.
He has formed the hearts of all
and watches their doings.
ALLELUIA 2 Tim. 1, 10b
Alleluia.
Our Savior Christ Jesus has destroyed death,
and raised up imperishable life
through the gospel.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 8:34-9:1
Whoever loses his life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel
shall save it.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
At that time
Jesus, besides his disciples, had the people come to him,
and spoke to them:
“Whoever wants to be my follower
must follow Me by denying himself
and taking up his cross.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
“But whoever loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
will save it.
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world
if at the cost of his own life?
“Yet what could a man give in exchange for his life ?
“If anyone is ashamed of Me and my words
before this adulterous and sinful generation,
even the Son of Man will be ashamed of him,
when He, accompanied by the holy angels,
comes into the glory of his Father.”
And further, He spoke to them :
“Verily, I say unto you :
Among those here present there are those
who will not experience death ,
until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
The message of every creature in the harmony of creation
84. Insisting that the human being is the image of God should not make us forget that every creature has a function and none is superfluous. All of the material universe is a language of God’s love, of his immoderate affection for us. Soil, water, mountains, everything is affection from God. The history of one’s own friendship with God always develops in a geographical space that takes on a very personal meaning, and each of us keeps in his memory places whose memory does him great good. Those who grew up among the mountains or sat next to a stream to drink as a child, or those who played in a square of their neighborhood, when they return to those places, they feel called to recover their own identity.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue 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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