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 this joy by opening his heart
to the healing effect of God’s word.
Available every day
CONSIDERATION
The Book of Wisdom begins with an appeal to the (pagan) judges of the earth. Deviance and duplicity are punished, God sees through the hearts of men. Above all, it is justice that is to be pursued. The judges – but also we – are invited to learn to think like God, to seek Him in simplicity of heart. This is the guiding principle that applies to all Christians: We are righteous when we subordinate ourselves to God’s word, and put it into practice. The intervening psalm plays beautifully into this first reading, with verses from Psalm 139.
FIRST LECTURE Wis. 1, 1-7
Wisdom is a spirit of lovingkindness ;
The spirit of the Lord fills the earth.
Beginning of the book of Wisdom
Love justice, ye judges of the earth!
Be mindful of the Lord
and seek Him in goodness and simplicity of heart.
For He will be found by those who do not test Him,
He reveals Himself to those who do not distrust Him.
Double-minded thoughts remove from God,
and he who tests his strength
will be smitten by it.
In a false mind there is no place for wisdom:
It cannot dwell in a body enslaved by evil.
For the spirit of holy discipline
abhors all insincerity,
wants nothing to do with sinful schemes,
and withdraws when iniquity approaches.
Wisdom is indeed a spirit of humanity,
but it does not leave the language of the slanderer unpunished.
God himself sees through the hearts of men,
is an undeceived observer
of what lives in their innermost being,
and hears what their tongue says.
For the Spirit of the Lord fills the earth,
and his voice is known in all the universe.
INTERLUDIUM Ps 139(138), 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10
Lead me, O Lord, by the paths of trial.
Thou knowest me, O Lord, and thou seest me,
Thou seest me where I walk or stand.
From afar thou knowest my thoughts,
Thou knowest what I am doing or resting,
Thou seest all my ways.
Lord, before the word is even on my tongue
Thou knowest what I am about to say.
Whithersoever I turn Thou art on guard,
Thy hand is always upon my shoulder.
Thy knowledge is too wonderful for me,
so high in the sky that I cannot comprehend it.
Where would I ever escape thy Spirit?
Where could I hide from thy face?
Though I ascend into heaven, thou art already there,
though I descend into the realm of the dead, Thou art there.
Though I borrow the wings of the dawn
and I go down across the sea :
Thy hand is there to guide me,
there also Thou dost hold me firmly.
ALLELUIA John 17, 17b, a
Alleluia.
Your word is truth, Lord,
Consecrate us to You in the truth.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 17, 1-6
If your brother turns to you seven times a day
with the words: I am sorry, then you must forgive him.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
“That there will be annoyances is inevitable,
but woe to the man by whose doing they come.
It would be better for him
if a millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea,
than that he should give occasion to one of these little ones to sin.
Beware of this.
If thy brother hath sinned, rebuke him;
then if he is sorry, forgive him.
Even if he transgresses against you seven times a day,
but seven times he turns to you with the words:
I am sorry,
then you must forgive him.”
The apostles now said to the Lord:
“Give us more faith.”
The Lord replied:
“If thou hadst faith like a mustard seed,
you would say to that mulberry tree:
Untie your roots from the ground and plant yourself in the sea,
and it would obey you.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On Care of the Common Home
105. There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power means “an increase of ‘progress’ itself”, an advance in “security, usefulness, welfare and vigour; …an assimilation of new values into the stream of culture”, as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such. The fact is that “contemporary man has not been trained to use power well”, because our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience. Each age tends to have only a meagre awareness of its own limitations. It is possible that we do not grasp the gravity of the challenges now before us. “The risk is growing day by day that man will not use his power as he should”; in effect, “power is never considered in terms of the responsibility of choice which is inherent in freedom” since its “only norms are taken from alleged necessity, from either utility or security”. But human beings are not completely autonomous. Our freedom fades when it is handed over to the blind forces of the unconscious, of immediate needs, of self-interest, and of violence. In this sense, we stand naked and exposed in the face of our ever-increasing power, lacking the wherewithal to control it. We have certain superficial mechanisms, but we cannot claim to have a sound ethics, a culture and spirituality genuinely capable of setting limits and teaching clear-minded self-restraint.
To be continued
The Bible text in this edition is taken from De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Contemplations from Liturgical Suggestions for Weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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