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
God’s Spirit is invoked a dozen times in today’s reading, in various terms. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, working in each of us, it is possible to have a new heart. Because human life is finite, weak and unsteady, we need the life-giving power of God’s Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not a dead person we keep in our hearts, but becomes a living person, possessing such power that He could raise Jesus from the dead! It is this power that prevents us from being carried away by our weakness: God’s Spirit is at work in each of us, giving us the life that overcomes evil!
FIRST READING Eph. 4, 7-16
Christ is the head from which the whole body draws strength.
From the letter of the holy apostle Paul to the Christians of Ephesus
Brothers and sisters,
To each of us individually grace has been granted
according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Therefore the Scripture says :
‘He ascended on high,
He has carried away captives,
He has given gifts to men.’
He ascended :
this means that He first descended into the depths ,
down to the earth.
He who descended ,
is the same one who also ascended, high above all the heavens,
to fill the universe.
He also gave gifts :
Some He made apostles, others prophets,
others evangelists, others shepherds and teachers.
Thus He equipped the saints for the work of ministry,
to build up the body of Christ,
until we all come together
to unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God,
to the perfect Man,
to the fullness of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be impecunious,
tossed to and fro and swept along by every gust of wind,
I mean :
Every doctrine devised by the false game of cunning men
is devised to lead to error.
Nay, let us speak the truth in love
and thus grow wholly towards Christ.
He is the head
from which the whole body draws strength.
As a uniting whole,
held together by the support of all its joints
it reaches its full maturity
through the efficacy assigned to each part,
and builds itself up in love.
INTERLUDIUM Ps 122(121), 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5
How happy was I, when I was called :
We are going to God’s house!
How happy was I, when I was called :
We are going to God’s house!
Now may my foot, Jerusalem,
may enter your gates.
Jerusalem, walled city,
built so close together:
To thee do the tribes march,
the tribes of God’s people.
They go according to Israel’s custom
worship the Name of God.
There stand the seats of justice,
the throne of Davids house
ALLLUIA I Thess. 2, 13
Alleluia.
Receive the divine word
not as a word of men
but as what it is indeed : The word of God.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk 13:1-9
If you do not repent
ye shall all perish in like manner.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
At that time there were with Jesus some people
who told Him what had happened to the Galileans,
whose blood Pilate had mixed
with that of their sacrificial animals.
Thereupon Jesus said :
‘Do you think that among all the Galileans
only these people were sinners ,
because they suffered that fate?
‘Not at all, I tell you.
‘But if ye do not repent ,
ye shall all perish in such a manner.
‘Or the eighteen who were killed
because the tower at the Siloam fell on them :
Do you think those alone were guilty
among all the people who lived in Jerusalem ?
‘Absolutely not, I tell you.
‘But if ye do not come to repentance
ye shall all perish in like manner.’
Then He told this parable :
‘Someone had a fig tree planted in his vineyard ;
he came to search whether there was fruit on it, but found nothing.
‘Then he said to the vineyard owner :
For three years I have come to look for fruit on this fig tree
but I find none.
‘Cut it down! To what purpose does he still exhaust the ground?
‘But the man answered him :
Lord, let him stand this year ;
First let me dig up the soil around it
and put manure on it.
‘Perhaps next year it will bear fruit ;
if not, you can cut it down.’
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
78. It is possible to start from the bottom up and case by case
fight for what is more concrete and local to the far corners of the
homeland and the world, with the same care that the traveller from Samaria had
for every open wound of the wounded man. Let us seek the others
and burden ourselves with the reality that comes to us without fear of suffering or
helplessness, because there is all the good that God has sown in the heart of man
sown. The difficulties that seem enormous are an opportunity to grow and
not an excuse for the idle sadness that promotes submission.
But let us not do this alone, individually. The Samaritan sought a
host who could care for that man, just as we are called
to invite and meet in a ‘we’ that is stronger than the
sum of small individualities; let us not forget that ‘the whole
is more than the parts and also more than just the sum of these’. Let us
renounce the pettiness and rancour of unfruitful
particularisms, of contradictions without end. Let us stop hiding the
sorrow for losses and let us hide our crimes, our
carelessness and our lies. Restorative reconciliation will
resurrect us and ensure that ourselves and others lose their anxiety
lose.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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