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
Every day the faithful Israelite prays the words from the book of Deuteronomy: ‘Listen, Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone. You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength’ (Deut. 6:4-5). Jesus linked this commandment of love of God with that of love of neighbour: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself ’ (Lev. 19, 18), making it a single command. Because God loved us first, love is no longer just a commandment; but is the response to the gift of love with which God meets us. (From the introduction to the encyclical ‘Deus Caritas est’, Pope Benedict XVI)
FIRST READING I Cor. 12, 31-13, 13
Now faith, hope and love remain, the big three ;
but love is the greatest.
From the holy apostle Paul’s first letter to the Christians of
Corinth
Brothers and sisters,
Ye must strive for the highest gifts.
But first I point out to you a way that is exalted above all else.
Though I speak with the tongues of angels and men :
if I have not love
I am a resounding cymbal or a shrill cymbal.
Though I have the gift of prophecy,
though I know all secrets and all science,
though I have the perfect faith that moves mountains:
if I do not have love
I am nothing.
Though I distribute all my possessions,
though I give my body to death by fire:
if I don’t have love
I gain nothing.
Love is long-suffering and kind ;
Love is not envious,
it does not boast, it does not imagine anything.
It does not care about appearances,
it does not seek itself,
it does not allow itself to be made angry
and does not blame evil.
She does not rejoice in injustice
but finds her joy in the truth.
Everything she endures, everything she believes,
she hopes for everything, she tolerates everything
Love never perishes.
The gift of prophecy will disappear,
tongues will fall silent,
knowledge will come to an end.
For our knowledge is piecework
and piecework our prophesying.
But when the perfect comes
the imperfect has finished.
When I was a child
I spoke like a child, felt like a child,
thought like a child;
now that I have become a man
I have shed the childlike.
Now we see in a mirror, indistinctly,
but face to face.
Now I know only part of it
but then I will know in full
as God knows me.
Now, however, faith, hope and love remain, the big three ;
but love is the greatest.
INTERLUDIUM Ps 33(32), 2-3, 4-5, 12, 22
Blessed are the people who have the Lord as God,
the nation chosen by Him to be His inheritance.
Then honour the Lord with citrine playing,
and plays to Him on the harp.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
a clean and resounding refrain.
For upright is the word of the Lord
And all that He does is trustworthy.
Law and justice He loves,
the earth is full of His mildness.
Blessed are the people who have the Lord as God,
the nation chosen by Him to be His inheritance.
Give us therefore, Lord, your mercy,
as we trust in you.
ALLELUIA Heb. 4, 12
Alleluia.
The word of God is alive and powerful,
and it penetrates to the fulcrum of soul and spirit.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 7, 31-35
We have played the flute for you and you have not danced ;
we have sung a song of mourning, and ye have not wept.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
At that time Jesus said :
‘To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
‘To whom do they resemble?
‘They are like children sitting in the marketplace
Calling to one another :
We have played the flute for you
And ye have not danced ;
we have sung a song of mourning and ye have not wept.
‘After all : John the Baptist has come,
eat no bread and drink no wine
And ye say : he is possessed of the devil !
‘And the Son of Man has come, he does eat and drink and ye say :
Look at that glutton and wine drinker,
that friend of tax collectors and sinners !
‘But Wisdom finds vindication with all her children.’
______________________________________________________
Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
40. ‘Migrations are a basic element of the future of the
world’. But today they suffer from a ‘loss of the
fraternal sense of responsibility on which every civil
society is founded’. Europe, for example, is in great danger of going down this path.
However, ‘aided by its great cultural and religious heritage ,
it [has] the tools to protect the centrality of the human
person and strike the right balance between the dual
moral obligation to protect the rights of its own citizens and the assistance
and reception of migrants to guarantee’.
To be continued
Every day 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
Fratelli tutti Official English translation