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
When some Christians pay attention only to God and neglect their neighbour, they must be scrapping half the gospel. But right now, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. People often identify Christianity with love and attention to neighbour and rarely talk about God. Our task is to hold these two poles and never separate them. Then we too will not be far from the Kingdom of God.
FIRST READING Hos. 14, 2-10
We shall never again say to the creation of our hands : Thou art our God !
From the Prophet Hosea
Thus speaks the Lord :
“Repent, Israel, unto the Lord thy God ,
for over thy guilt thou art stumbled.
“Come with your words as a gift,
Repent unto the Lord, and say unto Him :
Surely you forgive all fault ;
accept also our good will :
We will give our words as sacrificial animals.
“Assur cannot save us ;
we will no longer ride on horses
And to the manufacture of our hands
we shall never again say : Thou art our God.
“Thou, Lord, art indeed the one
With whom the orphan finds mercy.
“I wish to heal them of their infidelity
And give them my love with all my heart.
“My wrath has turned away from them.
“I want to be to Israel as the dew :
Like a lily it will blossom
and he will shoot roots, as on the Lebanon.
“His shoots will sprout,
its splendour equals that of the olive tree,
its fragrance that of the Lebanon.
“They will again sit in its shade ;
they shall be able to grow corn,
they shall blossom like the vine
and be renowned like the wine of the Lebanon.
“Then what have I to do with the idols, Ephraim?
“It is I who hear him
and who looks after him.
“I am like an evergreen cypress :
To Me your fruits are due.
“Who is so wise that he realises this,
who is so wise that he can realise this ?
“Indeed, straight are the ways of the Lord :
The righteous walk them ,
but rebels fall down in them.”
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 81(80), 6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11, ab,14, 17
I am the Lord, your only God,
hear then, my people, when I warn you!
Now I hear a voice, which I have never heard :
I have taken the burden from your shoulders.
Thy hands left the carrying baskets ;
Ye have called Me, I have delivered you.
Out of thunderclouds I answered thee,
at Meriba I tested thee.
Hear then, my people, when I warn you,
Israel, listen to Me!
Never should there be a foreign god with you,
worship no gods from other lands.
For I am the Lord, your only God,
who led you out of Egypt.
Ah, now if only my people listened to Me,
if only Israel walked in My paths;
then I would feed my people with wheat flour,
saturate them with honey from the rock.
VERS FOR THE GOSPEL Ps. 95(94), 8ab
Listen today to the voice of the Lord,
and be not obstinate.
GOSPEL Mk. 12, 28b-34
The Lord our God is the only Lord; thou shalt love Him with all thy heart.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
In those days a scribe approached Jesus
and put to Him the question :
“What is the very first commandment?”
Jesus replied :
“The first is :
Hear, Israel !
“The Lord our God is the only Lord.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
“The second is this:
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“There is no other commandment more primal than these two.”
Then the scribe said to Him :
“Right Master, rightly thou hast said :
He is the only One and there is no other besides Him ;
and love Him with all his heart,
all his mind and all his strength
and love thy neighbour as thyself
that is above all fire and casualties.”
Seeing that Jesus had spoken wisely, He told him :
“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask Him another question.
_____________________________________________________________
Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
220. This conversion involves several attitudes that go together to initiate generous and loving care. In the first place, it implies gratitude and disinterestedness, that is, a recognition of the world as a gift received from the Father’s love, a recognition that brings as a consequence a disinterested willingness to renounce and generous gestures, even if no one sees or acknowledges them: “Let not your left hand know what your right hand does … and your Father who sees in secret will repay it to you” (Mt 6:3-4) . It also implies the loving awareness that one is not separate from other creatures, but forms a magnificent universal communion with the other beings of the universe. For a believer, one does not look at the world from outside, but from within, recognising the bonds by which the Father has united us with all beings. Moreover, because ecological conversion grows the special capacities God has given each believer, it leads him to develop his creativity and enthusiasm to solve the world’s dramas, offering himself to God “as a living, holy sacrifice” (Rom. 12, 1) . He interprets his own superiority not as a reason for personal glory or irresponsible domination, but as another capacity that in turn imposes on him a heavy responsibility stemming from his faith.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue 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
______________________________________________________