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
Both readings are about Jonah. The story of Jonah is exceptional in the O.T. God is concerned about the Ninevites, who are nevertheless pagans and not Jews. He wants their salvation; He wants them to repent. Curiously, they do. Not because Jonah performs miracles, but they respond to his call to repentance. They return from their unholy ways and God accepts their repentance. Jesus compares the Jews to the Ninevites. His call to repentance also resonates but they demand a clear sign. This will not be given to them. They get nothing more than Jonah’s sign, i.e. the urgent call to repentance, and in the absence of repentance they are judged more severely than the Gentiles. The call to repentance applies to each of us.
FIRST READING Jon. 3, 1-10
The inhabitants of Nineveh returned from their unholy ways.
From the Prophet Jonah
The word of the Lord was
addressed to Jonah :
‘Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city of Nineveh
and tell her what I have given you to say.’
Jonah got up and went to Nineveh,
as the Lord had commanded.
Nineveh was a great big city ;
It took three days to pass through it.
Jonah started going into the city, one day’s journey away.
Then he called out :
‘Forty days more ,
and Nineveh will be razed to the ground!’
But the Ninevites sought their support from God ;
they proclaimed a fast, and all
from great to small, put on penitential clothes.
The word of Jonah also came to the ears of the king of Nineveh;
he rose from his throne, laid off his state robe,
put on a garment of repentance and sat down in the dust.
He made an announcement in Nineveh :
‘By order of the king and of his imperial magnates!
‘People and animals, large animals and small animals ,
they must not eat anything,
they must not graze or drink water.
‘People and animals must put on penitential clothes
and cry out to God with all their might ;
every one must return from his unholy ways
and from the iniquity that clings to his hands.
‘Who knows whether God will not then return to his decision
and regret it;
Who knows whether He will not return to His flaming wrath,
lest we perish.’
And God saw what they did;
He saw how they returned from their unholy ways.
And God became sorry that He had threatened them with that calamity.
He did not bring it to pass.
Interludium Ps. 51(50), 3-4, 12-13, 18-19
What I offer, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
God, have mercy on me in Your mercy,
deliver my sinfulness in Thy mercy.
Wash my guilt utterly from me,
cleanse me from all my sins.
Create in me a pure heart, my God,
give me again a resolute spirit.
Will not cast me away from your Face,
do not take away Your Holy Spirit from me.
In gifts Thou hast no pleasure,
whatever I offer Thee, Thou wilt not.
What I offer, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
VERS FOR THE EVANGELY Ez. 33, 11
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
saith the Lord,
but rather in that he repents and lives.
GOSPEL Lk 11:29-32
This generation shall not be given any other sign than the sign of Jonah.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
In those days,
as the people flocked together, Jesus began to speak :
‘This generation is a depraved generation : It desires a sign ;
but no other sign shall be given to it
than the sign of Jonah.
‘For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites ,
so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation.
‘The queen of the South will rise at the judgment
together with the people of this generation ;
And she shall judge them,
for she came from the ends of the earth
to listen to the wisdom of Solomon :
Well, here is more than Solomon.
‘The people of Nineveh shall rise at the judgment
together with this generation
and they shall condemn it,
for they have repented at the preaching of Jonah :
Well, here is more than Jonah.’
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical
by Pope FRANCIS
On Brotherhood and Social Friendship
A New Culture
215 ‘Life is the art of encounter, even if there are so many
clashes in life’. I have very often invited a
culture of encounter to grow beyond the forms of
dialectics that pit one against the other. It is a lifestyle
that strives to form the polyhedron that has many faces, very
many sides, but which all form a unity rich in
nuances, because ‘the whole is more than the part’. The polygon represents a
society in which differences coexist by integrating each other,
enriching and enlightening, although this is accompanied by
discussions and mistrust. In fact, you can learn something from everyone, no one
is useless, no one is superfluous. That implies inclusion of the
peripheries. Those who live there have a different point of view, see aspects of
reality that are not recognised from the centres of power, where the
most defining decisions are made.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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