Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
reading the gospel daily?
This invitation wants to share the joy of the gospel with you.
of the gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Every day from 1 am.
Consideration
We tend to imagine the Christian landscape as a collection of different faiths existing side by side, each claiming to convey the true heritage of Christ. But this human viewpoint is based on a mistake. In God’s eyes, the Church can be nothing but a unity. The reality of the Church is not competition but communion. Every person who lives in communion with God through Christ is set out from there to live in communion with others: By your love for one another everyone will see that you are my disciples, says Jesus (Jn 13:35). Christ is the one who unites us, through his call to us to enter into communion between him and his Father in the Holy Spirit (cf. 1, Jn 1:3 and Jn 14:23). Only from this communion are we able to proclaim the promise of genuine and lasting reconciliation in our torn world.
(Brother Roger, A Way of Reconciliation)
FIRST READING Heb 5, 1-10
Although he was the Son of God|
Christ taught obedience in the school of suffering.
From the letter to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters,
Every high priest is chosen from among his fellows
and appointed for the people
to represent them before God
and to dedicate gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to patiently endure ignorant and erring people
because he himself is also weak;
Therefore, when he offers sacrifices for sins,
he must think of his own sins as well
as well as those of men.
And no one can claim this dignity:
One must be called by God like Aaron.
Christ too
did not award himself the honour of the high priesthood;
So did God who said to Him :
‘Thou art my Son ,
today I have become thy Father’.
And elsewhere He says:
‘Thou art priest forever, after the manner of Melchisédeck’.
In the days of His mortal life
Did He under loud cries and weeping
Prayed and pleaded to God
Who could save Him from death.
For His piety, He was heard:
Though He was the Son of God
He learned obedience in the school of suffering ;
and when He had reached the end
He became to all who obeyed Him
the cause of eternal salvation,
proclaimed by God as high priest
in the manner of Melchisédeck.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 110(109), 1, 2, 3, 4
Thou art an everlasting priest like Melchisédeck.
The Lord spake unto my lord, Sit at my right hand;
I lay thy enemies as a footstool before thy feet.
From Zion the Lord stretch forth the sceptre of thy power ;
Rule in the midst of your adversaries.
Your people stand around you in white armour,
the young men of the field like morning dew.
The Lord made a solemn promise and will not take it back,
Thou art a priest like Melchisédeck forever.
ALLELUIA Ps. 119(118), 18
Alleluia.
Open my eyes to see, Lord,
the glory of your law.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 2, 18-22
Can the friends of the bridegroom fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
When the disciples of John and the Pharisees
once held a day of fasting, they came to ask Jesus:
‘Why do
the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees ,
but not your disciples?’
Jesus spoke to them:
‘Can the friends of the bridegroom fast
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
‘As long as they have the bridegroom in their midst
they cannot fast.
‘But days will come
when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then ,
then they will fast.
‘No one uses a new piece of cloth to patch up an old coat.
‘Otherwise the new piece of cloth will shrink and
from the old fabric
leaving an even bigger hole.
‘And no one puts young wine in old sacks ;
otherwise the wine will make the sacks burst
and the wine perishes with the sacks.
‘No, young wine in new bags.’
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
164. Charity unites both dimensions – the mythical and the
institutional – because it involves an efficient process of historical change
that involves the integration of everything: institutions, law, technical
experience, professional contributions, scientific analysis, administrative
procedures and so on. For ‘there is actually no private life if it
is not protected by a public order; a warm house has no
intimacy, if it is not protected by legality, by a state of
tranquillity based on law and force, and on condition of a minimum
of well-being, guaranteed by a division of labour,
by trade relations, by social justice and political
citizenship’.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue 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