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
Israel seeks answers to so many questions. One of the most essential is: What is the relationship between husband and wife? What does this wonderful attraction between the two consist of? Why is the mutual affection between husband and wife greater than the ties with their parents? The author of the book of Genesis gives the answer: Because it is God himself who created man and woman for each other. Only a woman who is counterpart, who is equal to man, can become companion for Adam. In a unique wedding song, that fundamental unity is sung out: ‘At last, bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh’.
FIRST READING Gen. 2, 18-25
God brought woman to man.
They will be completely one.
From the Book of Genesis
God the Lord spoke :
‘It is not good that man should remain alone.
‘I am going to make a helper for him to suit him.’
Then God the Lord modelled out of the earth
all the animals of the land and all the birds of the air,
and brought them to man,
to see what he would call them :
As man would call them, so they would be called.
So man gave names to all the tame animals
and to the birds of the air
and to all the wild beasts ;
but man did not find a helper that suited him.
Then God the Lord caused man to fall into a deep sleep ;
And while man slept ,
He took away one of his ribs
and put meat in its place.
Then God formed the Lord
out of the rib that He had taken away from man,
a woman, and brought her to man.
Then man spoke :
‘Finally bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh !
‘Mannin she shall be called ,
for of a man she is taken.’
Thus it comes about that a man
leaves his father and his mother
And so attaches himself to his wife,
that they become completely one.
Behold both were naked, the man and his wife,
but they felt no shame for each other.
INTERLUDIUM Ps; 128(127), 1-2, 3, 4-5
Happy who fear God.
Happy who fear God,
go the way of the Lord.
Thou shalt eat the fruit of thy own labour,
content and prosperous shalt thou be.
Thy wife in there in thy house
Is like a richly laden vine.
And like olive branches around the trunk
so are thy sons around thy table.
Yes, so shall every man be blessed
who gives honour to the Lord.
You bless the Lord from Zion ;
may thou see Jerusalem prosperous
as long as thy days endure.
ALLELUIA II Cor. 5, 19
Alleluia.
It was God
who in Christ reconciled the world to Himself :
And to us He gave the message of reconciliation.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 7, 24-30
The dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
At that time
Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
He entered a house there
and did not want anyone to know,
but He could not go unnoticed.
A woman
whose little daughter had been possessed by an unclean spirit,
accordingly, as soon as she heard of Him approached
and threw herself at His feet.
The woman was a Hellenist of Syrophoenician descent.
She asked Him to cast out the devil from her daughter.
He spoke to her :
‘First let the children be satiated.
‘For it is not good
to give the bread meant for the children
to the dogs.’
But she had an answer and told Him :
‘Yea, Lord.
‘The dogs under the table
eat of the children’s crumbs, after all.’
Then He spoke to her :
‘Since thou sayest this ,
go,
the devil has forsaken thy daughter.’
She returned home,
found her child in bed
and found that the devil had gone.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
188. This shows the urgent need to find a solution to
everything that threatens fundamental human rights.
Politicians are called to ‘care’ ‘for the fragility, the
frailty of peoples and persons. Taking care of the
fragility means strength and tenderness, means struggle and fertility
amid a functionalist and privatist model, which inexorably
leads inexorably to a ‘disposable culture’. […] It means caring
about the present in its most marginal and frightening situation and being able
to anoint it with dignity’. Thus, an intense activity is certainly
into being, because ‘every effort must be made to preserve the
conditions and the dignity of the human person’.
The politician is a maker, a builder with great purposes, with
a broad, realistic and pragmatic outlook, going beyond one’s own
country. A politician’s greatest concerns should not be those
caused by a drop in the polls, but by not
find an effective solution to the ‘phenomenon of social
trafficking in human organs and tissues, sexual exploitation of girls
and boys, slave labour, including prostitution, drug and
arms trade, terrorism and international organised crime.
These situations are of such an order of magnitude and the number of
innocent lives involved are such that we should avoid any
temptation falling into a rhetorical nominalism
with a soothing effect on the conscience. We must ensure
that our institutions are truly effective in the fight against all these
plagues’. This happens, when one wisely harnesses the great resources of
technological development.
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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