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 except,
can experience that joy by opening his heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
The burning bush has been a symbol of man’s experience of God for centuries. The experience of God’s nearness has two essential, seemingly opposite characteristics. On the one hand, we experience a greater diffidence, a shudder before the awe-inspiring God (translated here in : “Come no closer”; “He covered his face”). On the other hand, we also experience a wondrous attraction that seizes us, fascinates us, and for this very reason invites us to come closer. It is good that in our own lives we try to discover these two elements.
FIRST READING Ex. 3, 1-6. 9-12
The angel of the Lord appeared in a fire
that flared up out of a thorn bush.
From the book of Exodus
In those days
Moses herded the flock of his father-in-law Jitro,
the priest of Midian.
Once he drove the flock far into the desert
and came to the mountain of God, the Horeb.
Then the angel of the LORD appeared to him
in a fire that flared up from a thorn bush.
Moses watched and saw that the thorn bush
was ablaze and yet not burning.
He thought:
“I am going out to investigate that strange phenomenon.
How come that thorn bush isn’t burning?”
The LORD saw him approach to look.
And from within the bramble, God called out to him:
“Moses, Moses.”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then the LORD spoke:
“Come no nearer, take off thy sandals ,
for the place where thou standest is holy ground.”
And He continued:
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
Then Moses covered his face
for he dared not look up to God.
Also, God spoke to Moses:
“The lamentation of the Israelites has now come to Me
and I have also seen
how much the Egyptians oppress them.
So go there, I am sending you to Pharaoh.
Thou must lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
But Moses spoke to God:
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
and that I should lead the Israelites out of Egypt?”
God answered him:
“I will assist you, and this is the sign
that it is I who send thee :
When thou hast led the people out of Egypt ,
ye shall worship Me on this mountain.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 103(102), 1-2, 3-4, 6-7
The Lord is merciful and benevolent.
Glorify, my soul, the Lord,
His holy Name from the depth of thy being!
Glorify, my soul, the Lord!
forget not his benefits!
It is He who forgives you your debts,
who heals thee from thy afflictions.
It is He who saves you from destruction,
who surrounds you with his favor and mercy.
The Lord is just in all He does,
He brings justice to the oppressed.
He made His ways known to Moses,
He showed His works to the sons of Israel.
ALLELUIA Ps. 95(94), 8ab
Alleluia.
Listen today to the voice of the Lord
and be not obstinate.
Alleluia
GOSPEL Mt. 11, 25-27
These things have You, Father,
hid from the wise and prudent,
but revealed to children.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
At some point Jesus took the floor and spoke:
“I praise Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast kept these things
hid them from the wise and prudent ,
but revealed them to children.
Yes, Father, so it has pleased Thee.
All things have been given into My hands by My Father.
No one knows the Son unless the Father,
and no one knows the Father unless the Son
and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
235. The Sacraments are a privileged way in which nature is taken up by God to become a means of mediating supernatural life. Through our worship of God, we are invited to embrace the world on a different plane. Water, oil, fire and colours are taken up in all their symbolic power and incorporated in our act of praise. The hand that blesses is an instrument of God’s love and a reflection of the closeness of Jesus Christ, who came to accompany us on the journey of life. Water poured over the body of a child in Baptism is a sign of new life. Encountering God does not mean fleeing from this world or turning our back on nature. This is especially clear in the spirituality of the Christian East. “Beauty, which in the East is one of the best loved names expressing the divine harmony and the model of humanity transfigured, appears everywhere: In the shape of a church, in the sounds, in the colours, in the lights, in the scents”. For Christians, all the creatures of the material universe find their true meaning in the incarnate Word, for the Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation. “Christianity does not reject matter. Rather, bodiliness is considered in all its value in the liturgical act, whereby the human body is disclosed in its inner nature as a temple of the Holy Spirit and is united with the Lord Jesus, who himself took a body for the world’s salvation”.
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 Weekdays and Sundays.
Laudato Si Official English translation
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