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.
Opening Word
Seeds and yeast:
These are the images Jesus presents to us today.
What sometimes starts very small comes to fullness in God.
The sometimes unsuspected power of growth
lies in God’s mercy to us.
For God’s power shows itself in caring.
That is why He sends us the Spirit,
who comes to the aid of our littleness,
who stirs in us the power of growth,
the Spirit who intercedes for us with God,
even when weeds grow in our lives
or we don’t know how to pray.
So today, let us gather gratefully
around Him who wants to be for us:
Merciful and good, patient, mild and trustworthy.
FIRST READING Wis. 12, 13.16-19
You offer where sin is sinned the opportunity for repentance.
From the book of Wisdom
Besides Thee there is no other God
who cares for all,
no other God before whom Thou shouldst make true
that Thou didst not judge unjustly.
Thy power is the ground of Thy justice,
and because Thou dost rule over all,
treat Thou all also with gentleness.
Where one does not believe in Thy utter power ,
there Thou showest Thy power
and with those who have experienced it,
Thou takest away all grounds for pride.
Thou, however, who hast power,
with great gentleness thou dost pronounce thy judgment
and Thou governest us with much mercy,
for Thou canst show Thy power whenever Thou wilt.
By so doing Thou hast taught Thy people
that the righteous should be a friend of men,
and thou hast given hope to thy children
that Thou, where there is sin,
provide the opportunity for repentance.
Responsorial Ps. 86(85), 5-6, 9-10, 15-16a
Refrain
Thou art good and gracious, Lord.
Thou art good and gracious, Lord,
merciful to every one who calls upon Thee.
Listen then, Lord, to my prayer,
heed my pleading voice.
One day the nations, Your creatures, will come again
to worship Thee, to praise Thy Name.
For great art thou, Lord, and great is thy creation,
Thou art the only God.
Thou, Lord my God, art merciful and good,
patient, mild and trustworthy.
Watch over me then, have mercy on me,
and grant thy servant thy strength.
SECOND READING Rom. 8:26-27
The Spirit pleads for us with inexpressible sighs
From the letter of the holy apostle Paul to the Christians of
Rome
Brothers and sisters,
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness.
For we do not even know how we ought to pray,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with unspeakable sighs.
And He who searches the hearts,
knows what the Spirit is after,
for He pleads for the saints according to God’s purpose.
Verse for the Gospel Mt. 11:25
Alleluia.
Blessed art Thou, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast revealed the secrets of the kingdom to children.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt. 13, 24-43 or 24-30
Let both grow up together to the harvest.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time, Jesus held out this parable to the crowd:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man
who had sown good seed in his field ;
but while the people slept, his enemy came,
sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
“When the culms had shot up and set fruit ,
the weeds also were seen.
“Now the servants went to their master and said to him:
Lord, surely you have sown good seed in your field?
“‘Then how is it that there are weeds on it?
“He answered them:
This is the work of an enemy.
“The servants said to him:
Wilt Thou then that we glean it together?
“But he said:
Nay, I fear that when you gather the weeds ,
pull out the wheat with it.
“Let both grow together until the harvest,
and at harvest time I will tell the reapers:
First gather up the weeds
and bind them in bushels to burn ;
but store up the wheat in my barn.”
Another parable Jesus held out to them:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed ,
which a man sowed in his field.
“That may be the very smallest seed ,
but when it has sprouted,
it is bigger than the other garden crops;
it becomes a tree,
so that the birds come and nest in its branches.”
Yet another parable Jesus told them:
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast ,
which a woman processed into three measures of flour,
until these were fermented in their entirety.”
All this Jesus spoke to the people in parables
and without parables He taught them nothing,
so that in fulfillment
the word spoken by the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will reveal
what has been hidden from the foundation of the world;”
Then He let the crowd go and returned home.
His disciples now came to Him and said:
“Explain to us the parable of that weed in the field.”
He answered them:
“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;
the field is the world;
the good seed, those are the children of the Kingdom;
the weeds the children of evil,
and the enemy who sowed it is the devil.
“The harvest is the end of the world
and the reapers are the angels.
“As now the weeds are gathered together
and burned in the fire,
so shall it be at the end of the world.
“The Son of Man will send forth his angels
and they shall gather out of his kingdom
all who tempt to sin and commit iniquity,
to cast them into the furnace of fire
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Then shall the righteous in their Father’s kingdom
shine like the sun.
“He who has ears, he will listen.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
239. For Christians, believing in one God who is trinitarian communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation. Saint Bonaventure went so far as to say that human beings, before sin, were able to see how each creature “testifies that God is three”. The reflection of the Trinity was there to be recognized in nature “when that book was open to man and our eyes had not yet become darkened”. The Franciscan saint teaches us that each creature bears in itself a specifically Trinitarian structure, so real that it could be readily contemplated if only the human gaze were not so partial, dark and fragile. In this way, he points out to us the challenge of trying to read reality in a Trinitarian key.
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