Invitation
May I ask for your attention for
daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation is to share the joy
of the gospel with you. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their heart
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration
Today marks the beginning of the time of John, for many weeks to come. We listen to a typically Johannine story with a double meaning: the healing of a sick person. The physical healing refers to the deeper, the spiritual. Faith brings life, but not only physical life, but also spiritual life: it bestows eternal life. In verse 48 it becomes clear that Jesus rejects any sensation surrounding his actions. Sensation does not lead to faith. Longing for miracles is not healthy. True faith looks through the sign to the deepest level: who is Jesus at his core? The faithful answer is: the anointed one, the Son of the Father.
Who is He to me at heart?
FIRST READING Isaiah 65:17-21
The sound of weeping and the sound of crying will be heard no more.
From the prophet Isaiah
Thus says the Lord:
‘In those days I will create
a new heaven
and a new earth.
’The former things
will not be remembered
and it will not come into the heart,
but you will be delighted and rejoice,
always, for what I then create.
‘For I will make Jerusalem a delight
and a glory of its people.
’I will be delighted with Jerusalem
and elated over my people.
“The sound of weeping, the sound of crying
will never be heard there again.
‘There will be no more children
who die after only a few days,
and there will be no more old men
who do not live out their days.
’For there, people die young,
even if they live to be a hundred years old,
and those who do not reach a hundred
will be cursed.
‘Then they build houses and move in,
they plant vines and eat their fruit.”
Thus speaks the almighty Lord.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 30(29), 2, 4, 5-6, 11-12a, 13b
I will praise you, Lord, for you have delivered me,
You have not let my enemies triumph.
Lord, from the realm of the dead You have redeemed my soul,
You have freed me from those who go down to the grave.
So sing of the Lord with me, all his saints,
and give thanks to his Name, which is exalted.
His wrath lasts but a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime,
the evening brings weeping, the morning brings joy.
Lord, hear and have mercy on me,
my God, be my helper.
You have turned my mourning into dancing,
I will praise you, Lord my God, forever.
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL John 3:16
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish.
GOSPEL John 4:43-54
Go, your son lives.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John
At that time Jesus left Samaria and went to Galilee.
He himself had declared
that a prophet is not honoured in his own hometown.
When he came to Galilee,
the Galileans received him well,
because they had seen all that he had done at the feast in Jerusalem.
For they too had been at the feast.
So he came again to Cana in Galilee
where he had made the water wine.
There was a royal official there
whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea
he went to him and asked him
to come and heal his son,
who was at the point of death.
‘If you do not see signs and wonders,‘
Jesus said to him,
’you will not believe.‘
The official said,
’Sir, come down before
my child dies.‘
Jesus said to him,
’Go; your son will live.”
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.
As he was still on the way, his slaves met him with the news
with the message that his child was alive.
He asked them at what hour the child had recovered
and they said to him:
‘Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.’
Then the father realised
that it had happened at the very hour when Jesus had said:
Your son will live.
He himself and all his family believed.
This is the second sign that Jesus did
after coming from Judea to Galilee.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCIS
On fraternity and social friendship
234. Often, the least of society are
offended by unjust generalisations. When the poorest and the outcast react with an
attitude that seems anti-social, it is important to understand that these
reactions often depend on a history of contempt
and a lack of social inclusion. As the Latin American
bishops have taught, ‘only the closeness that makes us friends
enables us to deeply appreciate the values of the poor today,
their legitimate desires and their specific way of experiencing
faith. The option for the poor must bring us to friendship with
the poor.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation