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. Everyone, no one except,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
The prayer meetings of Christians in the first century were rather sparsely populated: A house to gather in was more than enough for them. Yet Paul writes very explicitly to go beyond the boundaries of one’s own small circle in prayer: He instructed Christians to pray for all people, including those in authority…at a time when these were not so sympathetic to young Christianity. With however few Christians we gather sometimes, with however few we are sometimes today to celebrate Eucharist, in intercessory prayer, in solidarity with all, we bring all humanity before God.
FIRST READING 1 Tim. 2:1-8
I ask you to make prayers for all people.
From the holy apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy
Dear one,
First of all, I ask you
to offer prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings
for all men, for kings and all high places,
that we may quietly and peacefully
live a godly and dignified life in all respects.
This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,
who wants all men to be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth.
For God is one,
One is also the mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave Himself as a ransom for all:
At the appointed time He gave His testimony.
And of this, I am appointed herald and apostle
– I speak the truth, I do not lie –
to instruct the nations in the true faith.
So I want
that in every place where the congregation meets to pray,
men raise their hands in a spirit of godliness,
which excludes hatred and strife.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 28(27), 2, 7, 8-9
Blessed be the Lord, who has heard my supplications.
Hear my supplications, when I call upon You,
lift my hands to Your sanctuary.
Blessed the Lord, who has heard my supplications,
the Lord, my strength and my shield.
The Lord is a strong power for his people,
and to his anointed a safe fortress.
Save, Lord, your people and bless your inheritance ;
guard them and bear them forever.
ALLELUIA Mt 11, 25
Alleluia.
I praise Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast these things
revealed to children.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 7, 1-10
Even in Israel, I did not find such great faith.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
At that time Jesus,
after finishing his teaching to the listening people,
went to Capernaum.
There was a centurion there, who had a servant
to whom he was greatly indebted;
that servant was sick and was dying.
Because the centurion heard of Jesus,
he sent some of the elders of the Jews to Him
asking them to come and heal his servant.
Coming to Jesus, they urgently appealed for His help.
They said:
“He deserves Thou to grant him this favour,
for he loves our people
and he has built the synagogue for us at his own expense.”
At that, Jesus went with them.
But when He was not far from the house,
had the hundred-man tell Him through friends:
“Lord, make no further effort;
I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof.
Therefore I also thought I had no claim to it
to come to Thee personally.
But a word from Thee is sufficient
to cause my servant to be healed.
For though I myself am a subordinate,
I again have men under me:
And to one I say, Go, and he goes,
and to another: Come, and he cometh,
and to my servant, do this, and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, He stood amazed at him.
He turned and said to the people following Him:
“I say to you:
even in Israel, I have not found such great faith.”
When the people who had been sent returned to the house,
they found the servant healthy again.
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Laudato Si
Encyclicof
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
49. It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems that especially affect the excluded. Yet they are the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days, they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question that gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile. This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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