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
‘Effeta’ Jesus tells us today,
which means ‘open up’.
In this hour, He invites us
to be open to the Good News.
This celebration brings food for our faith,
healing for our weakness
and encouragement for our lives.
Let us focus on the Lord,
who comes to be present in our midst
and wants to be hope and strength in our lives.
FIRST READING Isa 35:4-7a
The ears of the deaf shall be opened and the tongue of the dumb shall rejoice.
From the prophet Isaiah
Speak to all who have lost courage:
‘Take courage and do not fear:
Your God is coming to execute vengeance,
God is coming to retaliate and to save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind will open again
and the ears of the deaf will be opened.
The lame will leap like a deer
and rejoice shall the tongue of the dumb.
Yes, streams will spring up in the steppe,
rivers in the desert.
The barren plain will become a pond,
the thirsty land one spring of water.
Responsorial Ps. 146(145), 7, 8-9a, 9bc-10
Refrain
Praise now, my soul, the Lord.
The Lord always keeps His word,
He provides justice for the oppressed.
The Lord gives bread to the hungry,
He sets the captives free.
The eyes of the blind the Lord opens,
He raises up the brokenhearted.
The Lord loves the righteous,
the Lord preserves the uprooted.
The Lord gives support to orphans and widows,
but sinners he lets get lost.
The Lord is king for ever,
your God, Zion, reigns over all generations.
SECOND READING James 2, 1-5
God has chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom.
From the letter of the holy apostle James
Brothers and sisters,
Ye who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory,
do not bind this faith with partiality and flattery!
I mean this:
suppose a man enters your assembly,
neatly dressed and with gold rings on his fingers,
and at the same time a poor man arrives in shabby clothes;
if now thou lookest up to the richly-dressed man
and offer him a place of honour,
while thou sayest to the poor one:
‘Stay there’ or:
‘Sit here on the ground, by my footstool’,
are you not guilty
of malicious discrimination?
Listen, dear brothers and sisters:
God has chosen the poor to the world
to be rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom
which He has promised to those who love Him.
Verse for the Gospel Mt 4, 23
Alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom
and healed all diseases and ailments among the people.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 7, 31-37
He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
In those days Jesus departed from the region of Tyre
and made his way across Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
in the middle of the region of Decápolis.
One brought a deaf-mute to Him
and begged Him to lay hands on him.
Jesus took him aside, outside the circle of the people,
put His fingers in his ears
and touched his tongue with saliva.
Then He lifted up His eyes to heaven,
sighed and spoke to him:
‘Effeta’,
meaning:
Open up.
Immediately his ears opened ,
and the band of his tongue was loosened
so that he spoke normally.
Jesus forbade them to tell anyone;
but with the more insistently He forbade it,
the louder they proclaimed it.
Beside themselves with amazement they exclaimed:
‘He has done everything well,
He makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
30. In today’s world, the sense of belonging to the same humanity is weakening,
while the dream of building justice and peace together
seems a utopia of other times. We see how there is a comfortable,
cold and globalised indifference reigns, the daughter of
a deep disillusionment hidden behind the deception of an illusion:
believing that we can be all-powerful and forgetting that we are all in the same
boat. This disappointment, which leaves behind great fraternal values
leaves behind, ‘leads to a kind of cynicism. Such is the temptation that lies before us,
if we go down this road of disillusionment and deception. […] Isolation or shutting oneself up
into oneself or one’s own interests are never the way to restore hope
give and bring about renewal, but it is proximity; it
is the culture of encounter. Isolation, no; proximity, yes. A culture
of conflict, no; a culture of encounter, yes’.
To be continued
Every morning at 1 am
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
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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