Friday – Saint Elisabeth of Portugal

Saint Elisabeth was born in 1271
and was Queen of Castile

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

The central promise to Abraham concerned progeny and a land. In the reading-the end of the Abraham cycle-the fulfilment of both promises begins. On the one hand, Abraham acquires a small piece of land. It is particularly precious because it is meant to bury his wife there, but symbolically it is a reference to a homeland, where the ”patriarch” will be buried next to his wife. On the other hand, the promise of progeny continues, for even during his lifetime Abraham sees Isaac marry someone from his own family.

FIRST READING    Gen. 23, 1-4. 19 ; 24, 1-8. 62-67

Isaac came to love Rebekah
and found solace for the loss of his mother.

Sarah reached the age of one hundred and seven-and-twenty years.
Then she died in Kirjat-Arba, also called Hebron,
in Canaan.
Abraham first mourned Sarah and mourned her.
Then he left his deceased alone
and addressed the word to the Hittites.
He said:
“I am but a stranger here ;
therefore I ask you: Give me a burial place of my own,
where I can bury my dead wife.”
Thereupon Abraham buried his wife Sarah
in the cave in the field of Makpéla,
east of Mamre or Hebron, in Canaan.

Abraham was old and very elderly,
and the LORD had blessed him in everything.
Now Abraham said to his oldest servant,
who had oversight of all his property:
“Put your hand under my hip.
By the LORD, the God of heaven and earth,
you must swear to me that for my son
will not seek a wife
from the girls of Canaan where I live,
but that you will go to my land and my family,
to seek a wife for my son Isaac there.”
The servant said:
“And now if there is no woman
who wants to go with me to this land?
Should I then bring your son back
to the land you left?”
Abraham replied:
“No, not that, you may never bring my son back there.
The LORD, the God of heaven,
has made me leave my parental home
and from the land of my birth
and promised me, yes swore:
To your descendants I will give this land.
He will send His angel before you,
and you will bring a wife there for my son.
Should no woman want to go with you,
then you will be released from the oath I make you swear;
but under no circumstances
may you bring my son back to that land.”

After a long time, Isaac had returned
from the source Lachai-Roi; he was then living in the Negeb.
At nightfall
he went outside to find some distraction;
when he lifted his eyes, he suddenly saw camels approaching.
Rebekah too looked up, and when she saw Isaac ,
she let herself slide off her camel
and asked the servant:
“Who is that man over there ,
coming across the field towards us?”
The servant replied:
“That is my master.”
Then she put on her veil.
The servant told Isaac everything he had done.
Thereupon Isaac brought Rebekah into his tent
and took her to wife.
Isaac came to love her
and found comfort for the loss of his mother.

INTERLUDIUM             Ps. 106(105), 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

Glorify the Lord, because he does us good.
Alleluia.

Glorify the Lord, because He does us good,
because His mercy endures forever.
Who can recount all His mighty deeds,
who gives Him the praise befitting Him?

Happy are those who follow His precepts,
behave well at all times.
Do not forget me, Lord, who is well disposed towards your people,
and descend to me with your help.

Then the happiness of your friends will be my portion,
then I will rejoice when your people rejoice
and proud to belong to your inheritance.

ALLELUIA

Alleluia.
Not from bread alone does man live,
but from all that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL           Mt 9:9-13

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
I prefer mercy to sacrifice.

From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew

At that time, Jesus continued,
He saw someone sitting at the tollbooth whose name was Matthew,
and He said to him :
“Follow Me.”
The man got up and followed Him.
Now while He was sitting at table in his dwelling,
many tax collectors and sinners
with Jesus and His disciples.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples :
“Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said :
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
“Go and learn what it means :
I prefer mercy to sacrifice.
“I have not come to call the righteous
but to call sinners”

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Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

41. When we penetrate the tropical and subtropical seas,
we meet the coral reefs, which correspond to the great forests of
the mainland, as they house about a million species, fishes
crabs, molluscs, sponges, algae included. Many of the coral reefs
of the world today are barren or in constant decline:
“Who turned the wondrous world of the sea into subterranean
cemeteries devoid of life and colour?”. This phenomenon is largely due
due to pollution reaching the sea as a result of deforestation,
agricultural monocultures, industrial waste and destructive
methods of fishing, especially those using cyanide and dynamite.
It is exacerbated by the increase in the temperature of the
oceans. All this helps us see how any intervention in nature
can have consequences that we do not perceive at first sight and that one can
obtains certain forms of resource exploitation at the expense
of a decay that eventually reaches the bottom of the oceans.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am