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.
Opening word
As children of the same Father, we gather together
to remember the Lord’s death and resurrection.
We thank God for entrusting us to each other.
Together we form one big family.
Sometimes there are tensions in that family:
We seek the main place
and desire to be important.
Then let us convert to Jesus
and love and serve one another,
as He has shown us.
FIRST READING Mal. 1, 14b-2, 1-2b.8-10
Thou hast departed from the way and by thy teaching caused many to stumble.
From the prophet Malachi
“I am a great king
– says the Lord of heavenly powers –
and my Name is feared among the nations.
“Therefore to you, priests, this decree applies:
When ye listen not
and when ye care not for the glory of my Name
– thus speaks the Lord of heavenly powers -,
then I cause a curse to come upon you,
then I curse the blessings given to you.
“Thou hast departed from the way
and by thy teaching have caused many to stumble;
thou hast destroyed the covenant with Levi.
-so speaks the Lord of heavenly powers.
“Therefore I will see to it
that thou shalt be reviled and despised among all the people ,
because thou hast not walked in my ways
and in your teaching have looked at men’s eyes.
“Have we not all one father?
“Did not one God create us?
“Why then do we deceive one another
and thereby violate the covenant,
made with our fathers?”
Responsorial Ps. 131(130), 1, 2, 3
Refrain
Lord, keep my heart in peace with You.
My heart is not haughty, Lord,
my eyes do not look conceited.
Nor do I strive for great deeds
Higher than I can reach.
The storms are calm within me
and peaceful is my spirit.
Like a child on a mother’s lap,
so safe do I feel.
Take refuge, Israel, in the Lord
from now on forever.
SECOND READING 1 Thess. 2, 7b-9.13
With the gospel, we would have gladly given our own lives.
From the holy apostle Paul’s first letter to the Christians
of Thessalonica
Brothers and sisters,
We have been gentle with you
like a mother who nurtures and cherishes her children.
We were so affectionately affectionate to you,
that with the Gospel of God
our own lives;
so dear were you to us.
Surely you remember, brothers and sisters,
our trouble and effort.
While we were preaching to you the gospel of God,
we worked day and night
so as not to be a burden to any of you.
And therefore we thank God without ceasing
that you received the divine word of preaching
from us and accepted it,
not as a word of men,
but as what it is indeed:
The word of God;
and it remains effective in you who believe.
Verse for the Gospel Mt 23, 9b and 10b
Alleluia.
Ye have one Father, the heavenly one;
Thou hast one teacher, the Christ.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt 23, 1-12
They themselves do not act according to their words.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time, Jesus spoke to the people and to his disciples:
“In the chair of Moses
The scribes and Pharisees took their seats.
“Therefore do and keep everything they say to you ,
but do not act according to their works
for they themselves do not act according to their words.
“They make bundles of heavy, almost unbearable burdens
and lay them upon men’s shoulders,
but they themselves will not lift a finger at it.
“Everything they do ,
they do to get noticed by people;
for they make their prayer belts wide
and their tassels large,
they lust for the place of honour at meals
and the principal seats in the synagogues,
they like to be greeted in the marketplace
and want to be called ‘rabbi’ by people.
“But thou must not let thyself be called a rabbi.
“Ye have but one Master, and ye are all brothers and sisters.
“And call none of you on earth ‘father’;
ye have but one Father, the heavenly one.
“Nor let any of you be called ’teacher’;
ye have but one teacher, the Christ.
“Whoever is the greatest among you must be your servant.
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled
and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
97. The Lord could invite others to pay attention to the beauty that is in the world because He Himself was in constant contact with nature and paid to it an attention full of affection and wonder. Crossing every corner of His land, He stopped to contemplate the beauty sown by His Father and invited His disciples to realise that things contain a divine message: “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields; they are white, ripe for harvest” (Jn 4:35) . “The kingdom of heaven resembles a mustard seed, which someone sowed in his field. True, this is the smallest seed, but when it has sprouted, it is greater than the other garden crops: it becomes a tree” (Mt 13:31-32) .
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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