Invitation
May I draw your attention to
The daily reading of the Gospel
This invitation seeks to convey the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception
can experience that joy by opening his or her heart
to the healing power of the Word of God.
Available every day
Consideration
What sacrifice can we offer God? The sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving because Jesus is God’s mercy incarnate. It is not about sacrificing “something” but about sacrificing ourselves, our own lives for the benefit of others. We can offer God our gracious faith and realise in that moment that we often have little to sacrifice. Jesus stands in the line of the great prophets. Radically living the Word of God will be our sacrifice.
FIRST READING Isa 38:1-6,21-22,7-8
I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.
From the prophet Isaiah
In those days, Hezekiah became deathly ill.
The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos,
came to him and said
“Thus says the Lord:
Put order in your house ,
for you will die
you will no longer live.
Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall
and prayed to the Lord:
“Ah Lord
remember how I have lived before you
with a faithful and pious heart,
and how I have done what pleased You.
And Hezekiah wept with tears.
Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:
“Go to Hezekiah and tell him :
Thus speaks the Lord, the God of your father David :
I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears.
“Well, I will add fifteen years to your life;
I will deliver you and this city
from the clutches of the king of Assur;
I will take this city under My care.
Then Isaiah commanded to bring a cake of figs
and put it on the tumour:
Then it would heal.
And Hezekiah asked:
“By what sign shall I see ,
that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”
Isaiah replied:
“This is the sign that the Lord will give you
that you may know
that he keeps his word.
The shadow ,
which came from the steps of Achaz by the sun,
I will make him go back ten steps.
And the sun returned in the sundial the ten steps
That it had already descended.
INTERLUDIUM Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12abcd, 16
You take me away from the abyss of death
and you take my sins away from you.
I spoke : in the prime of my life
I come before the gate of the kingdom of the dead
stripped of the rest of my years.
I spoke : I shall never see the Lord again,
no man shall I see again.
My dwelling on earth will be cast down
and thrown down like a shepherd’s tent.
The weavers will roll up my life
and cut me off from the warp.
Only by Your grace can I live,
only through You will my spirit find courage again.
You can heal me, preserve my life.
GOSPEL Mt 12:1-8
The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
Jesus went through the cornfields on the Sabbath;
And his disciples were hungry
And they began to pluck ears of corn and eat them.
The Pharisees saw this and said to Him:
“Your disciples are doing something there that is not lawful on the Sabbath”.
He answered them:
“Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry?
“How he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, which neither he nor his companions
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests?
“Or have you not read in the Law?
That the priests violate the Sabbath every Sabbath in the temple
and yet they are not guilty?
“Yet I tell you :
Here is more than the temple.
“If only
…would you understand what it means …:
I prefer mercy to sacrifice ,
then you would not have condemned these innocents.
“For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.”
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To be continued
Every morning at 1 am
The Bible text of this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
Netherlands Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations of liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
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