Two major groups who had given their lives
for Christ in Asia between 1798 and 1861
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
With visible pleasure, the author of the first book of the Maccabees recounts the successive misadventures of the archenemy king Antiochus. The icing on the cake is, of course, the news of the humiliating defeat of his electoral troops by the Jews. Antiochus is described as being overcome by a deep depression. For the author, the confession of his misdeeds is also a tribute to God. Hence also Psalm 9 as a victorious psalm of reply.
FIRST READING I Makk. 6, 1-13
Because of all the evil I have done to Jerusalem,
I am perishing in sorrow and misery.
From the First Book of the Maccabees
In those days King Antiochus
on his journey through the higher regions,
heard about a city in Elam in Persia,
which was famous for its riches, its silver and gold.
Its temple had to be very rich
and in possession of the golden shields,
helmets, breastplates and weapons
that the Macedonian king Alexander,
the son of Philip, the first king of the Greeks,
had left there.
So King Antiochus went there
and tried to take the city and plunder it,
but he did not succeed,
because his intention had become known to the inhabitants.
They rose up in arms against the king and he had to flee.
Deeply disappointed Antiochus returned to Babylon.
He was still in Persia, when he came to know that the armies that had gone to the land of Judah had been defeated ;
even Lysias, who had advanced at the head of a strong army,
had to take refuge from the Jews.
The Jews, by virtue of their arms, their force, and the great spoils, won over the defeated armies, had become a formidable force.
The abomination that he had erected on the altar of burnt offering in Jerusalem
they had torn down
and they had rebuilt the high walls around the temple;
they had also walled up his city of Bet-Sur.
When king Antiochus heard about this, he was astonished ;
horrified, he threw himself upon his bed
and became ill with grief,
because it had not gone as he had wished.
So he lay there for many days
he was prey to repeated attacks of great melancholy.
When he thought he was going to die,
he summoned all his friends and said to them:
“Sleep has departed from my eyes
and my heart is broken with sorrow.
“I said to myself :
What a torment my existence has become
and what a flood of sorrow has come upon me,
and yet I was so gentle and loved in spite of my power.
“But now I remember all the evil
I have done to Jerusalem
by confiscating all the silver and gold tableware
and by having the inhabitants of Judah exterminated for no reason.
“That must be the reason why these calamities afflict me
and I perish in sorrow and misery on foreign soil.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 9, 2-3, 4, 6, 16b, 19
In the gate of Zion’s city I will praise You, Lord,
and rejoice for your help.
I will give you thanks, Lord, from all my heart
and recount all your wonders.
Rejoicing and exulting in what Thou doest
I will sing your name, Most High.
For all my adversaries have fled,
stumbled and fallen before Thee.
Thou hast threatened the heathen,
struck down the sinners,
Thou hast blotted out their name for ever.
The heathen were cast into their own pit,
their foot was caught in the snare they set for me.
The poor are not forgotten forever,
never is the hope of the needy put to shame.
ALLELUIA I John 2, 5
Alleluia.
He who keeps the word of the Lord
in him truly the love of God is complete.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk 20, 27-40
The Lord is not a God of the dead, but of the living.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
At that time some of the Sadducees,
who denied the resurrection
came to Jesus with the question :
“Master, we see it written by Moses:
If anyone has a married brother who dies childless,
then his brother must take the brother’s wife
to give his brother an offspring.
“Now once there were seven brothers.
“The first married and died childless.
“The second and third took the wife
and in the same way all seven died
without leaving any children.
“The last one also died of the woman.
“To whom is she the wife at the resurrection?
“All seven have had her as their wife.
Jesus spoke to them:
“The children of this world
marry and are given in marriage,
but those who are judged worthy
partake of the other world
and the resurrection from the dead,
do not marry and are not given in marriage.
“For they can die no more
because they are like angels ;
and, as children of the resurrection, they are children of God.
“That the dead rise,
Moses also indicated
where it concerns the bramble,
in that he mentions the Lord:
’the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
“Surely the Lord is not a God of the dead but of the living
for before Him all are alive.”
Some of the scribes remarked :
“Master Thou hast said well.”
So they dared not ask Him any more.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the Care of the Common Home
117. Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for “instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature”.
To be continued
The Bible text in this edition is taken from De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Recitals from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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