Patron saint of Peru, North and South America and the Philippines.
She devoted herself to orphans, the elderly and the sick.
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
One of the most poignant texts in Ezekiel was the scene of the desecration of the temple by the dead bodies. This is answered in the vision of the barren bones coming back to life. It is one of Ezekiel’s most poignant texts. The conclusion of the vision makes the meaning clear. Tomb is metaphor for exile. This is not yet about the resurrection of the dead but the return of Israel to the Land of Promise.
FIRST READING Ez. 37:1-14
Dry bones, I am going to bring my spirit upon you
and you shall live.
From the Prophet Ezekiel
In those days the hand of the Lord laid itself upon me :
In a strong wind He took me up
and He placed me in the midst of a valley
And this valley was full of bones.
In every direction He guided me along the bones :
It was an awful lot
and all the surface of the valley was covered with them ;
dry they were and barren.
Then the Lord spoke to me :
“Son of man ,
can these bones be brought to life?”
I replied :
“Lord God, You know.”
Thereupon He commanded me :
“Then prophesy over those bones
and address them as follows :
Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord.
“Thus speaks God the Lord :
Bones, here present :
I am going to put my spirit over you and you shall live !
“I will put muscle over you again, with flesh I will cover you
and I will put a skin over you
and my spirit I pour out on you and you shall live.”
And I prophesied exactly as I was commanded
And while I was prophesying
I heard a murmur and it was very strong :
The bones were moving towards each other
just as they belonged together.
And before my eyes
the bones covered themselves with muscles and flesh
and a skin stretched over them ;
but there was no spirit in them yet.
And again the Lord spoke to me :
“Prophesy to the spirit ; prophesy, child of man ,
and speak to the spirit :
Thus speaks the Lord God :
Come, spirit, from the four winds
and blow upon these fallen ones
That they may live again.”
And I prophesied as He had commanded :
And the spirit blew upon the fallen ones
and they began to live ;
they raised up on their legs :
An army it was, immeasurably great !
He spoke to me :
“Son of man ,
these bones are the house of Israel.
“They keep saying : Our bones are withered,
our hopes are gone, we are finished!
“Prophesy therefore and speak to them :
Thus speaks God the Lord :
I am going to open your graves ;
in multitudes I will bring you out of your graves
and bring you to the soil of Israel.
“And then when I have opened your graves
and carried you out of your graves in multitudes
ye shall know that I am the Lord.
“My spirit I will pour out on you and you will live;
I will establish thee on thy own ground
and ye shall know that I, the Lord am:
What I say, that I accomplish!”
Thus reads the Lord’s word of God.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 107(106), 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Bring thanks to the Lord, for He is gracious,
merciful is He always.
Let every one say so whom God has redeemed,
whom He has delivered out of the hand of the enemy ;
Or whom He brought back from distant lands,
from east or west, from north or south.
They wandered about in the barren desert,
they found no way to habitable places.
They were hungry and thirsty ;
they were near death.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their distress
and He delivered them from their misery.
He led them along a safe path,
so that they found a dwelling place.
They should thank the Lord for his goodness,
for all His benefits towards people.
Because He quenched the thirsty,
satiated the hungry.
ALLELUIA Ps. 145(144), 13cd
Alleluia.
True is God in all His words
And holy in all He does.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mt 22:34-40
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
all your soul and all your mind.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
At that time when the Pharisees learned
That Jesus had gagged the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them, a lawgiver,
asked Jesus to put Him to the test :
“Master, what is the main commandment in the Law ?”
He answered him :
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.
“This is the main and first commandment.
“The second, equivalent to it :
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“On these two commandments hangs all the Law and the Prophets.”
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On brotherhood and social friendship
14. They are the new forms of cultural colonisation. Let us not
forget that “the peoples who alienate themselves from their own tradition and through the
mania to imitate, imposed violence, an inexcusable nonchalance
or apathy tolerate having their souls torn out, at the same time as their
mental physiognomy also their moral consistency and ultimately their
lose ideological, economic and political independence”. A
efficient way to foster historical consciousness, critical thinking, the
commitment to justice and pathways to integration is to
to erode or distort the meaning of big words.
Today, what do some expressions like democracy mean,
freedom, justice, unity? They have been manipulated and deformed to
use them as instruments of domination, as designations with no
content that can serve to justify any action whatsoever.
To be continued
Every morning at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays.
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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