Tuesday in the thirteenth week through the year

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
In the story of the storm on the lake, many spiritual guides have given meaning to its various elements: the boat, the storm and its stilling. The boat is our life boat that often does get caught in the storm. Pope Benedict XVI saw in the boat and the storm the situation of the Church today. Perhaps the point of this story is that in the midst of the storm, Jesus remains unshakable and in all storms and winds we can and should always trust in Him. He sails with us. He can calm the storm.

FIRST READING     Gen 19:15-29

God the Lord sent down from heaven sulphur and fire
rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

In those days,
the angels urged Lot to hurry and said:
“Forward, take thy wife and both thy daughters ;
otherwise you will be the victim of the city’s punishment.
When Lot still hesitated, the men seized himself,
his wife and both his daughters by the hand,
for the LORD wanted to spare them,
and they brought them out of the city.
And when they had brought them out of the city ,
one of them said:
“Get yourself to safety ,
for your life is at stake;
look not round, stay nowhere near,
but flee into the mountains, lest ye perish.”
But Lot said to them:
“Not that, LORD!
Surely thou hast been very good to thy servant
and have done me a great favour
by leaving me alive ,
but I cannot possibly flee to the mountains.
There calamity would overtake me
and I would find death anyway.
Look, there is a city not far from here;
i want to flee there;
it is a small town.
Let me take refuge there;
it’s small anyway.
And then I will make it out alive.”
God spoke to him:
“In this also I will be kind to you;
i will not destroy the city you mean.
“Now flee there hastily, for I can do nothing
until thou hast arrived there.”
So it is that city called Soar.

As soon as the sun had risen and Lot had arrived in Soar,
god the LORD sent down from heaven sulfur and fire
rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah.
He destroyed those cities and the whole region,
with all the inhabitants and all that grew there.
Lot’s wife, who was walking behind him,
turned around and turned into a lump of salt.
Early in the morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood with the LORD.
He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah
and all the region of Jordan,
and saw a smoke rising from the earth,
like the smoke of a smelter.
Thus, in destroying the cities of that region of the land, God took
heeded Abraham’s wish and allowed Lot to escape,
when He destroyed the cities where he had lived.

INTERLUDIUM       Ps. 26,(25) 2-3, 9-10, 11-12

Always I have your love before me, Lord.

Search me, Lord, and test me,
verify what is in my heart.
Always I have your love before me
and direct my conduct according to your word.

Destroy me not then with sinners,
as Thou dost with murderers;
whose hands are stained by injustice,
tainted by bribery.

But I go my way without fault,
deliver me and be merciful to me.
I stand with my feet on solid ground,
i will glorify You among men.

ALLELUIA 2 Thess. 2, 14

Alleluia.
God has called us
through the proclamation of the gospel,
that we might obtain the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL           Mt 8:23-27

Jesus addressed with a compelling word
to the winds and the sea, and the waters became perfectly still.

When Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly the sea became in violent turmoil
so that the waves swept over the boat;
He, however, was asleep.
They went to Him
and woke Him up saying:
“Lord, save us, we are perishing!”
He spoke to them:
“Why are ye afraid, little believers?”
Then He stood up,
addressed the winds and the sea with a compelling word,
and the waters became perfectly still.
The people stood amazed and said:
“What kind of person is that ,
that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

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Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

38. We recall, for example, the lungs of the planet that are
are brimming with biodiversity, such as the Amazon and the river basin
of the Congo or the great aquifers and glaciers. The
importance of these places for the whole of the planet and the future
of humanity is all too well known. The ecosystems of tropical
forests have a biodiversity of great complexity, which it is
impossible to know completely, but when these forests
are set on fire or razed to the ground to increase the cultivation
of produce, then within few years
countless species are lost or these areas turn into barren deserts.
A delicate balance urges itself, however, when talking about
these places, because one also cannot ignore the tremendous international economic
interests which, on the pretext of taking care of them,
may jeopardise national sovereignty. Indeed, there are
“proposals to internationalise the Amazon, which
only serve the economic interests of the multinationals”.
Commendable is the commitment of international organisations and nongovernmental
organisations (NGOs) that sensitise the peoples and cooperate in a
critical cooperation, also using legitimate
means of pressure, so that each government fulfils its own and non-delegable
task of protecting its own country’s environment and natural resources
without selling itself to dubious local and
international interests.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am