Monday in the fifth week of easter

The Lord is truly risen

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

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Consideration
Christians do not speak and act for their own glory and recognition. They seek to refer again and again to the living Lord. Out of love for Him, they do as He has shown them. The response psalm hooks well into this aspiration of the apostles: ‘Not us, Lord, not us, but your Name be praised’.

FIRST READING         Acts 14, 5-18
Thou must turn away from the worthless gods and turn to the living God.

From the Acts of the Apostles

When the Gentiles and the Jews of Ikonium
together with their governments
made preparations to mistreat and stone Paul and Barnabas
to abuse and stone them to death,
they took,
as soon as they noticed this,
took refuge in the Lycaonian cities,
Lystra, Derbe and their environs.
There too they preached the Gospel.
There was a man in Lystra
who had no strength in his feet and had to remain seated.
He had been lame from birth
and had never been able to walk.
As that man listened to Paul’s speech,
the latter looked at him inquiringly
and saw that he possessed the faith to be saved.
Therefore, he spoke with a raised voice :
“Get to your feet, upright!”
The man jumped up and walked around.
When the people saw what Paul had done
they began to shout
and they shouted in Lykaonic :
“The gods
have come down to us in human form.”
Barnabas they called Zeus
and Paul, because he was the spokesman, Hermes.
The priest of the temple Zeus-outside-the-city
brought wreathed bulls to the gates
and wanted to go and offer a sacrifice together with the people.
When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this
they tore their clothes
and dashed among the people,
shouting loudly :
“Men!
what are you going to do now?
“We too are human beings
just like you.
“We bring you the Good News
that ye must turn away from these worthless gods,
and turn to the living God
who made the heavens and the earth
and the sea and all that is therein.
“In times gone by, He let all nations have their way ,
but He did not fail to bear witness to Himself
by bestowing benefits :
For from heaven He bestowed on you
rain and fruitful seasons
and gladdened you with abundance of food.”
But even these words
could hardly deter the people from
dedicating a sacrifice to them.

Interludium    Ps. 115(113B), 1-2, 3-4, 15-16

Not us, Lord, not us,
but your Name be praised.

or : Alleluia.

Not us, Lord, not us, but Thy Name be praised,
for Thou art merciful and faithful.
Why must foreign nations ask :
Where is Israel’s God after all?

The God of Israel is in heaven,
He acts as He chooses.
Their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.

Blessed art thou by the Lord our God,
who made heaven and earth.
The heavens are the Lord’s own domain,
the earth He assigned to men.

ALLELUIA     Col 3:1

Alleluia.
If then ye have been raised to life with Christ
seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL           Jn 14:21-26
The Helper whom the Father will send, He will teach you everything.

From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John

At that time Jesus said to his disciples :
“Whoever keeps My commandments which he has received ,
it is he who loves Me.
“And whoever loves Me
will be loved by My Father ;
i too will love him and will reveal Me to him.”
Judas – not Iscariot – said to Him :
“Lord, how is it
that Thou wilt reveal Thyself to us and not to the world ?”
Jesus answered him in reply :
“If anyone loves Me
he will keep My word ;
my Father will love him
and We will come to Him and take abode with Him.
“Whoever does not love Me
do not keep My words ;
the word which ye hear is not from Me
but of the Father who sent Me.
“This I say unto you while I am yet with you ,
but the Helper,
the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My Name,
He will teach you everything
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

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Fratelli tutti

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On brotherhood and social friendship

282. Also “believers must find space to engage in dialogue
and act together for the common good and
the support of the poorest of the poor. It is not about us all becoming more
light and hiding our own beliefs, to which we are most
attached to, in order to meet others who think differently
thinking[…] because the deeper, closer and richer an identity is, the more
will it be able to enrich the other with its own specific contribution”.
As believers, we are challenged to return to our sources to
focus on the essentials: the worship of God and charity,
so that certain aspects of our teaching, taken out of context,
do not turn into forms of contempt, hatred, xenophobia and denial
of the other. The truth is that violence finds no basis in fundamental
religious beliefs, but in their distortions.