Clara of Assisi (1193-1253)
The first woman to follow Francis (1182-1226)
Invitation
May I draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel
This invitation wants to share with you the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, without except
can experience that joy by opening his or her heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
The core of our faith is no vague force, no cosmic energy, no commercial or theoretical treatise, no set of commandments or prohibitions. The core of our faith is Someone who makes himself surprisingly known as a person: As the God who remains ever faithful to his covenant. If we choose him as the only God, we choose true life, true freedom. For Israel, that freedom will be regularly compromised once the people live in the Promised Land. Not so much because they do not keep God’s ten commandments, but because they break the first and most important one: Because they no longer see him as the unique and totally different God.
FIRST READING Deut. 4, 32-40
God, the Lord, has loved your fathers
and has chosen your descendants.
From the book of Deuteronomy
In those days Moses spoke to the people:
“Go after the ancient times that have gone before you,
from the day that God created mankind on the earth,
but look from one end of the heavens
to the other: Has anything so great ever happened or been heard?
or has anything like it ever been heard?
“Did the people ever hear a God speak out of the fire, as you did
like you, and so preserved life?
“Or has a God of another people ever tried to
come to select a people by trials,
by signs and wonders, by wars,
by a strong hand and uplifted arm,
by great and terrifying deeds,
as the Lord your God did before your very eyes
in Egypt.
“You have been permitted to contemplate that,
to come to the recognition that the Lord your God is ;
there is none other but Him.
“From heaven He has made His voice heard by you
to show you the way
and on earth, He has shown you that great fire,
from which you have heard him speak.
“For He loved your fathers
and chose your descendants
therefore He
brought you out of Egypt with great power.
“He has driven out nations, greater and mightier than you,
driven out before you;
He has brought you into his land
and gave it to you in possession, just as it is today.
“Therefore acknowledge this day and impress it upon your hearts :
The Lord is God in heaven above
and on earth below;
there is no other.
“Keep his precepts and commandments,
which I give you this day.
“Then you and your children will be happy and live long
in the land which the Lord your God is giving you forever.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 77(76), 12-13, 14-15, 16, 21
Your works, O Lord, I cannot forget.
Your works, O Lord, I cannot forget,
The wonders you have done before.
Your works always come to my mind,
I reflect on all Your intrusions.
My God, awesome are all Your ways,
no god is as mighty as our God.
For You are the God who works miracles,
who among the nations hast shown thy power.
Your arm has given freedom to your people,
the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
Thus hast thou led thy people like a flock.
By the hand of Moses and Aaron.
ALLELUIA H John 15:15b
Alleluia.
I have called you friends, says the Lord
for I have told you all things
that I have heard from the Father.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt 16,24-28
What can a man give in exchange for his life?
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
“Whoever wants to be my follower,
let him follow me by denying himself
and take up his cross.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
“But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world..,
except at the cost of his own life?
“Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?
“For the Son of man
will come in the glory of his Father,
“accompanied by his angels,
and then he will repay each one according to his deeds.
“Truly I say to you:
There are some among those here present,
who will not experience death
before they see the Son of Man.
They will see the Son of Man coming in his kingly power”.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On Care for the Common Home
11. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories that transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon, or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason”. His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care for all that exists. His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister’”. Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it affects the choices which determine our behavior. If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
Continued on
The biblical text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations of the liturgical suggestions for the week and on Sunday
Laudato Si Official English translation
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