Twin brothers in Syria in the second half of the 2nd century. Both doctors who worked for free.
First victims of Diocletian during the persecution of Christians.
Beheaded in 303.
Invitation
May I draw your attention to
the daily Gospel reading?
This invitation wants to share the joy of the Gospel with you.
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
Ecclesiastes offers us the vision of an old man looking back on his life. He comes to the painful conclusion that everything is pointless and meaningless. Everything is passing away. What is to come has already existed. The cycle begins again and again and there is nothing new under the sun. We can understand this view better if we realise that in the classical Old Testament there was no life after death. If all justice, reward or punishment must take place within earthly life, then this gloomy attitude is understandable and death is the radical end.
FIRST READING Ecclesiastes I, 2-11
There is nothing new under the sun.
From the book of Ecclesiastes
Vanity of vanities, says Ecclesiastes,
Vanity of vanities
And all is vanity.
What does man gain
With all the toil with which he toils under the sun?
One generation goes and another comes
And the earth remains.
The sun rises, the sun sets
and already it hastens to return to its place
and there she rises again and moves to the South
and turns north.
And the wind keeps turning and moving on
And the wind returns to its circle.
All rivers flow into the sea
And the sea is not filled.
From where the rivers have flowed
There they flow back again.
All these things, in constant operation,
Man cannot enumerate them.
The eye is not saturated with seeing,
The ear is not saturated with hearing.
What has happened will happen again
and what has been done will be done again,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
If one says about something, ‘Look, that’s new!’
then it has existed before
in the centuries before us.
The people of the past are no longer remembered
nor is it remembered by the next generation
of those who come after us.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 90(89), 3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
You, O Lord, have always been our refuge
For every generation anew.
That which is mortal perishes again to dust,
Thou sayest, Return, O son of man!
To Thee a thousand years are but a day,
Like a yesterday gone by,
An hour’s sleep in the night.
Our life melts away like a dream in the morning,
For a moment it is like grass on the field.
In the morning it sprouts and germinates,
in the evening it withers away.
Teach us to appreciate our days
And so come to the wisdom of the heart.
Leave us, Lord, how long will you torment us?
Be merciful to your servants.
From now on, grant us your richest blessing
And make our whole life a happy one.
May your blessing, Lord God, watch over us,
guide our hands in all that we do.
HALLELUJAH Hebrews 4:12
Alleluia.
The word of God is alive and powerful
and penetrates to the core of soul and spirit.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk 9:7-9
Herod said, ‘I have beheaded John.
Who is he about whom I hear such stories?
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
In those days Herod, the ruler, heard everything Jesus did and did not know what to do with it.
And did not know what to do with it.
For some said, ‘John has risen from the dead’;
others: ‘Elijah has appeared’;
and still others: ‘One of the ancient prophets has risen from the dead’.
But Herod said:
‘John I have beheaded.
‘Who is the one about whom I hear such stories?
That’s why he wanted to see Jesus.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
48. The ability to sit down and listen to others, typical of interpersonal encounters, is paradigmatic of the welcoming attitude shown by those who transcend narcissism and accept others, caring for them and welcoming them into their lives. Yet “today’s world is largely a deaf world… At times, the frantic pace of the modern world prevents us from listening attentively to what another person is saying. Halfway through, we interrupt him and want to contradict what he has not even finished saying. We must not lose our ability to listen”. Saint Francis “heard the voice of God, he heard the voice of the poor, he heard the voice of the infirm and he heard the voice of nature. He made of them a way of life. My desire is that the seed that Saint Francis planted may grow in the hearts of many”.
To be continued on
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text of this edition is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Reflections on the liturgical suggestions for the days of the week
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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