Saint Boniface was an Anglo-Saxon missionary born in 672 or 675.
Murdered in Dokkum on 5 June 754 or 755.
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
Once again, it shows how well Jesus knew the scriptures. Reverting to a quotation from the book of Exodus, He serves as an answer to the Sadducees, who want to trap Him. The Sadducees represent a rational, sceptical current within Judaism of those days. They seek to ridicule the resurrection. First and foremost, Jesus argues, the resurrection belongs to God, and not to the imagination of a human being. Moreover, the Sadducees’ question makes no sense: once risen, man will have no other need but to praise and serve God.
FIRST READING 2 Tim. 1, 1-3. 6-12
Remember to kindle the fire of God’s grace which is in you, by the laying on of my hands.
Beginning of the holy apostle Paul’s second letter to
Timothy
From Paul,
apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy,
his beloved child.
Grace, mercy and fear to you
because of God the Father and our Lord Christ Jesus !
It is with gratitude to God,
whom I, like my ancestors
seek to serve with a pure conscience,
that I mention your name in my prayers,
without ceasing, day and night.
Do not forget to kindle the fire of God’s grace
which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God
has not given us a spirit of fearfulness,
but a spirit of strength, love and contemplation.
So do not be ashamed to bear witness to our Lord.
Nor be ashamed of me, his prisoner.
Bear your part in suffering for the Gospel
through the power of God, who has saved us
and called us with a holy calling,
not by virtue of our merits
but according to the free decree of his grace.
His grace,
granted to us from all eternity in Christ Jesus,
is now made manifest by the appearance of our Saviour,
Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death
and lit up imperishable life through the gospel.
Of this gospel
am I appointed as herald and apostle and teacher.
Therefore, I must also undergo this new trial,
but I am not ashamed of it
for I know Whom I have placed my trust in,
and I am convinced that He is able to preserve
to keep intact what has been entrusted to me
until the great day.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 123(122), 1-2a, 2bcd
To You, Lord, I lift up my eyes.
To You, Lord, I lift up my eyes,
To You, who dwell in heaven.
Like the slave’s eye,
focused on the hand of his master.
Like the eye of the maidservant,
fixed on her mistress;
so our eye turns to the Lord our God
Until He cares for us.
ALLELUIA 2 Tim. 1, 10b
Alleluia.
Our Saviour Christ Jesus has destroyed death ,
and lit up imperishable life
through the gospel.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 12, 18-27
God is not a God of the dead but of the living.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
In those days Sadducees came to Jesus;
these held that there was no resurrection.
They therefore put to Him the following question :
“Master, we see written by Moses :
If one’s brother dies
and leaves a wife but no children ,
then his brother must take that wife
to give him an offspring.
“Now once there were seven brothers.
“The first one took a wife
but left no children at his death.
“Then the second took her
but he too died without children.
“So it went with the third; in short,
none of the seven left children.
“Last of all, the woman also died.
“At the resurrection, when they rise ,
whose wife will she be then?
“Surely all seven have had her for a wife.”
Jesus replied :
“Art thou not in error ,
precisely because you know neither Scripture nor God’s power?
“When men rise from the dead ,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are as angels in heaven.
“And as for the dead ,
hast thou not read in the book of Moses,
where it is about the bramble,
how God said to him :
I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?
“He is not a God of the dead but of the living.
“Ye are in great error.”
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APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION LAUDATE DEUM
FROM THE HOLY FATHER
POPE FRANCISCUS
TO ALL PEOPLE
OF GOOD WILL
60. May those who participate in the Conference be strategists who are able to
consider the common good and the future of their children more than
with the short-term interests of particular countries or companies. May they in this way
demonstrate the nobility of politics and not its disgrace. To the
rulers, I can only repeat this question: ‘Why would anyone at this stage
want to cling to power just to be remembered for his
inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary?”
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 Deum Official English translation