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
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday
and Holy Week begins.
You can already sense this in this Sunday’s readings.
Jesus compares his death
to a grain of wheat falling into the earth,
dies and brings forth new fruit.
The image of the grain of wheat
is the image of a person who gives himself for others.
It is an image of love.
In this hour, let us unite ourselves
with the gift of life of Jesus
and with all those who follow Jesus
by giving their lives for others.
FIRST READING Jer. 31:31-34
I will make a new covenant and think no more of their sins.
From the prophet Jeremiah
A time is coming
– word of God from the Lord –
That I will make a new covenant with Israel.
Not a covenant as I made with their forefathers,
when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of Egypt.
For that covenant they broke,
even though I was their master
– divine speech of the Lord -.
This is the new covenant
which I will make with Israel in the future:
I put My law in their innermost being,
I graft it into their hearts.
I will be their God
and they will be my people.
Then no one will have to preach to anyone else:
Get to know the Lord.
For everyone, great and small, will then know Me
– God’s word from the Lord -.
Then I will forgive their transgressions,
I think no more of their sins.
Responsorial Ps. 51(50), 3-4, 12-13, 14-15
Refrain
Create in me a pure heart, my God.
God, have mercy on me in your mercy,
Deliver my sinfulness in Your mercy.
Wash my guilt utterly from me,
cleanse me from all my sins.
Create in me a pure heart, my God,
give me again a resolute spirit.
Will not cast me away from your face,
do not take away your Holy Spirit from me.
Give me again the opulence of your blessing,
make me strong in generosity.
Then I will teach the erring your ways,
bring all the guilty back to Thee.
SECOND READING Hebrews 5, 7-9
Christ taught obedience and became the cause of eternal salvation.
From the letter to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters,
In the days of his mortal life
Christ, under loud cries and weeping
offered up prayers and supplications to God
Who could save Him from death.
For His piety He was heard:
though He was God’s Son,
He learned obedience in the school of suffering;
and when He had reached the end,
to all who obey Him, He became,
became the cause of eternal salvation.
Verse for the gospel John 12, 26
Praise and honour be to You, Lord Jesus.
If anyone wants to serve Me, he must follow Me, says the Lord;
Where I am, there shall My servant also be.
Praise and honour be to You, Lord Jesus.
GOSPEL Jn 12:20-33
When the grain of wheat dies in the earth, it brings forth much fruit.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John
Among those
who went up to worship on the occasion of the feast
were also some Greeks.
These now accosted Philip of Bethsaida in Galilee
and asked him:
“Lord, we would like to speak to Jesus.”
Philip went to tell Andrew
and finally Andrew and Philip
conveyed the message to Jesus.
Jesus, however, answered them:
“The hour has come ,
that the Son of Man be glorified.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you:
if the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth ,
it remains alone;
but when it dies ,
it brings forth much fruit.
“Whoever loves his life loses it;
but he who hates his life in this world ,
shall keep it for eternal life.
“If anyone wants to serve Me, he must follow Me;
where I am, there shall My servant also be.
“If anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him.”
“Now my soul is moved.
“What should I say?”
“Father, save Me from this hour?”
“But that is precisely why I have come to this hour.”
“Father, glorify thy Name.”
Then a voice came from heaven:
“I have glorified Him
and will glorify Him again.”
The people who stood there listening,
said it had thundered.
Others said:
“An angel spoke to Him.”
But Jesus spoke;
“Not because of Me was that voice
but because of you.
“Now there is judgment upon the world,
now shall the prince of this world be cast out;
and when I shall be lifted up from the earth ,
I will draw all unto Me.”
By this He indicated
which death He would die.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic by
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
229. We need to feel again that we need each other, that we have a responsibility towards others and the world, that it is worth being good and honest. For too long we have been in a moral decline by playing games with ethics, goodness, faith, honesty, and the time has come to recognise that this cheerful superficiality has served us to little. This destruction of every foundation of social life ends up pitting us against each other to defend our own interests, causes the emergence of new forms of violence and cruelty and prevents the development of a true culture of caring for the environment.
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
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