Freed slave who became bishop of Rome in 217.
murdered by pagan mob in 230
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 excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration,
“Happy who listen to God’s Word”: That is the essence of today’s first reading. We need to put the apocalyptic imagery and Jewish particularism in a broader context. What matters is that God loves all people – including the pagans, the unbelievers of the time. He will judge everyone, at the hour when the world and humanity will be completed in Him. Let’s not get too curious and start guessing and guessing when that will be. Then we ignore what Jesus teaches us: Important is not the time when the Lord comes, but whether we are vigilant. Whether we live our lives in such a way that we are ready to stand before Him.
FIRST READING Joel 4:12-21
Strike the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
From the prophet Joel
Thus speaks the LORD:
“The nations must move,
go up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit
to administer justice to all the nations around.
Strike the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Begin to tread,
for the press tub is full,
the bins overflow;
so great is their anger.
Droves, droves
into the valley of judgment,
for near is the day of the LORD
in the valley of judgment.
The sun and moon darken,
the stars lose their light.
The LORD roars from Zion,
from Jerusalem He makes His voice resound:
Heaven and earth tremble.
But to his people the LORD is a refuge,
to the sons of Israel a fortress.
Then you will acknowledge,
that I, the LORD, am your God,
I, who dwell on Zion, my holy mountain.
Then shall Jerusalem be holy ground,
no strangers pass through it any more.
And it shall come to pass, in that day,
that the mountains drip with grape wet,
that the hills flow with milk,
that all the watercourses of Judah
have an abundance of water,
for out of the temple of the LORD shall spring forth a spring,
which will irrigate the valley of the acacia.
Egypt will become a desert,
Edom a barren wilderness,
for their acts of violence against the people of Judah,
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
But Judah will always remain inhabited
as well as Jerusalem, from generation to generation.
Their blood I will avenge:
I will not let it be shed with impunity.
I, the LORD, continue to dwell on Zion.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 97(96), 1-2, 5-6, 11-12
Be glad in the Lord, ye pious.
The Lord is king, the earth may rejoice,
glad are the lands around the sea.
Dark clouds form his bodyguard,
law and justice bear his throne.
Mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
the ruler of all the world.
The heavens proclaim his holiness
and all nations behold his glory.
Ever light comes to the pious
happiness for the upright in heart.
Be glad in the Lord, ye pious,
glorify his holy Name.
ALLELUIA 1 Sam. 3,9; John 6,69b
Alleluia.
Speak Lord, your servant listens ;
your words are words of eternal life.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 11, 27-28
Happy the womb that bore Thee!
Rather happy ones who listen to the word of God.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
At that time Jesus was speaking.
Then a woman from the crowd raised her voice and called out to Him:
“Happy the womb that bore Thee
and the breasts that fed You.”
But He spoke:
“Rather happy
who listen to the word of God and keep it.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
75. We cannot support a spirituality that forgets God the Almighty and the Creator. In this way, we would end up worshipping other powers of the world or putting ourselves in the Lord’s place, so that we would even have the pretence of walking underfoot the reality created by Him without knowing limits. The best way to show the human being its place and put an end to its pretence of being an absolute ruler of the earth is to again hold up the figure of a Father as Creator and sole ruler of the world, because otherwise the human being will tend to impose its own laws and its own interests on reality.
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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