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
At the turning point of time, God’s Word became flesh and blood in Jesus. From Jesus we fully receive the grace of God’s love. Thanks to Him, we only truly come to know God. Whoever believes that this vulnerable man is the Messiah may share in the life force of God and becomes a child of God. That is why it reads, Sing to the Lord a new song. He is coming as king of the earth (Ps 96:1.13). There are also those who do not accept Jesus as the Christ. They close themselves off to God’s Spirit, who leads us into the mystery of the incarnation. The times, however, are decisive. The final hour has already begun. It is a matter of life and death.
FIRST READING I, Jn 2:18-21
Ye have received initiation from the Holy One, and ye all possess ‘knowledge’.
From the first letter of the holy apostle John
Children,
It is ‘the last hour’.
Ye have heard that the ‘antichrist’ is to come.
Indeed,
many antichrists have now risen,
and therefore we know that the last hour has come.
They have come forth from among us,
but they did not really belong to us.
Had they belonged to us
they would have stayed with us;
but it had to become clear
that none of them belong to us.
You too have received initiation from the Holy One,
ye too possess all ‘knowledge’.
And I do not write to you because you do not know the truth
but precisely because you know it
and because falsehood is incompatible with truth.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 96(95), 1-2, 11-12, 13
The heavens shine and the earth rejoices.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
Sing to the Lord, all nations.
Sing to the Lord and glorify His Name,
proclaim his salvation all the days.
Then the heavens shine and the earth rejoices,
the sea hums along with all that lives there;
the fields wave their crops,
the forest giants bow their crown.
They cheer the Lord because He is coming,
He is coming as King of the Earth.
Righteously He will rule the world,
the peoples fair and faithful.
ALLELUIA
Alleluia.
The splendour of this day is a light around us ;
Come all worship the Lord, ye peoples and nations,
for today a great light appeared on earth.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL John 1, 1-18
The Word became flesh.
Beginning of the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
This was in the beginning with God.
All things became through Him
and without Him nothing has become
of what had become.
In Him was life
and that life was the light of men.
And the light shone in the darkness
but the darkness did not accept it.
A man appeared, a sent one from God;
his name was John.
This one came to testify,
to bear witness to the Light,
so that all might come to faith through him.
Not he was the Light
but he was to bear witness to the Light.
The true Light,
which enlightens every human being,
came into the world.
He was in the world;
the world had become through Him
and yet the world did not recognise Him.
He came into His own,
but His own did not accept Him.
To all, however, who did accept Him,
to those who believe in His Name,
He gave the ability
to become children of God.
They are not of blood
nor of the lust of the flesh
or of the will of a man,
but born of God.
The Word became flesh
And has dwelt among us.
We have beheld His glory,
such glory
as the Only-begotten of the Father receives,
full of grace and truth.
We have John’s testimony about Him when he exclaimed:
‘This one it was of whom I said:
He who comes after me is before me ,
for He was before me.’
Of His fullness we have all received;
grace upon grace.
Were the Law given through Moses ,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
the Only-begotten God
Who is in the bosom of the Father,
He has made Him known.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
144. Moreover, this is a prerequisite for healthy and enriching
mutual exchanges. The experience of living in a particular
place and in a particular culture is a basis that allows us to understand aspects
of reality that those who do not have such an experience cannot
can so easily grasp. The universal cannot be the homogeneous,
uniform and standardised domain of one prevailing cultural
form, which will eventually lose the colours of a polygon and prove repulsive.
It is the temptation that emerges from the
ancient story of the tower of Babel: the construction of a tower that was to reach to the
heaven did not express the unity of different peoples
who were able to communicate from their own
diversity. On the contrary, it was a misguided attempt, born of
pride and human ambition, to create a unity that was different from
that had been willed by God in his providential plan for the nations (cf. Gen.
11, 1-9).
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation,
Netherlands Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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