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
Each of us was given the gift of life by God,
each in his or her completely unique way.
With talents of our own, sometimes striking,
but often especially valuable just in the small.
Those who remain faithful to that loving gift from the Father
and continues to share it with others,
will find that God allows it to bear fruit.
Let us then open ourselves today
To his many gifts to us,
to his abiding and unfailing love
that can bring us to fruitfulness.
To this end, let us first turn to God,
in order to become receptive to his grace.
FIRST READING Spr. 31:10-13,19-20,30-31
Praise her for the fruit of her hands.
From the book of Proverbs
A strong woman, who will find her?
Her value exceeds
above that of precious corals.
Her husband’s heart trusts in her
and his gains will not escape him.
She brings him good, not evil,
all the days of her life.
She chooses wool and linen carefully
and her hands work it with pleasure.
She stretches out her hands to the spinning skirt
and she holds the weaving spool in her fingers.
She opens her hand to the needy
and stretches out her arms to the deprived.
Covetousness is deceptive,
beauty is fleeting,
but a woman who fears the Lord,
she is to be praised.
Praise her for the fruit of her hands
and praise her at the gates
for her works.
RESPONSORIAL Ps.128(127), 1-2, 3, 4-5
Refrain
Happy who fear God.
Happy who fear God,
Go the way of the Lord.
Ye shall eat the fruit of your own labour,
content and prosperous shalt thou be.
Your wife inside your house
is like a richly laden vine.
And like olive branches around the trunk,
so are thy children around thy table.
Yes, so is every man blessed
who gives honour to the Lord.
You bless the Lord from Zion;
may Thou see Jerusalem prosperous
while thy days last.
SECOND READING I Thess. 5, 1-6
The day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
From the holy apostle Paul’s first letter to the Christians
of Thessalonica
Brothers and sisters,
It makes no sense
writing to you about time and hour.
Ye yourselves know very well,
that the day of the Lord comes
like a thief in the night.
While they say:
“Peace and safety reign”,
just then destruction suddenly overwhelms them
like woe to a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, you do not live in darkness,
so that the day would surprise you like a thief.
Ye are all children of light, children of the day.
We do not belong to night and darkness.
Let us therefore not sleep like the others,
but watch and be sober.
Verse for the Gospel John 15, 4a and 5b
Alleluia.
abide in Me, and I will abide in you, says the Lord;
he who abides in Me bears much fruit.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt 25:14-30
Over little art thou faithful; enter into the joy of thy Lord.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
At that time, Jesus held out this parable to his disciples:
“A man, on his departure for a foreign country,
called his servants to him to entrust them with his property.
“To one he gave five talents,
To another two, to a third one,
each according to his ability.
“Then he departed.
“The one who had been given the five talents,
immediately went to work with it and earned five more.
“Similarly, the one who had been given two
earned two more.
“But the one who had been given one,
went to dig a hole in the ground
and hide his lord’s money.
“A long time later, the lord of the servants came back
and held reckoning with them.
“The one who had been given the five talents,
stepped forward
and offered five more talents saying:
Lord, five talents hast thou entrusted to me;
behold, five talents have I earned with it.
“His master spoke to him:
Excellent, good and faithful servant,
over little art thou faithful,
over much will I appoint thee.
“Enter into the joy of thy lord.
“Now the one of the two talents stepped forward and said:
Lord, two talents hast thou entrusted to me;
behold, two talents have I earned with it.
“His master spoke to him:
Excellent, good and faithful servant,
over little art thou faithful,
over much will I appoint thee.
“Enter into the joy of thy lord.
“Finally, the one of one talent also stepped forward and said:
Lord, I have experienced that thou art a hard man,
who reaps where thou hast not sown
and bring in where thou hast not scattered.
“Therefore I was afraid
and went to hide thy talent in the ground.
“Here thou hast thy property back.
“But his master answered him:
Poor and lazy servant,
surely you knew that I reap where I have not sown,
and bring in where I have not sown?
That is why you should have deposited my money with the bankers,
then when I arrived
have recovered my property with interest.
“So take that talent away from him
and give it to whoever has the ten talents.
“For to every one who has shall be given,
even be given in abundance;
but he who has not, to him shall still be taken away
even what he has.
“And cast that unprofitable servant out into the darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
111. Ecological culture cannot be reduced to a set of urgent and partial responses to the problems of environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources and pollution. It should be a different outlook, a thinking, a politics, an educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality that shape an existence in the face of advancing technology. Otherwise, even the best ecological initiatives may end up being locked within the same globalised logic. Simply looking for a technical remedy for every environmental problem that arises means isolating issues that are in reality interconnected, and hiding the true and deepest problems of the world system.
To be continued
The Bible text in this edition 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