Monday – H. Clara, virg.

 

Clara of Assisi (1193-1253)
First woman to follow Francis (1182-1226).

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 wellspring of Moses’ speech presupposes the entire history of Israel to which reference is made: unique election and deliverance from Egypt. The conclusion is clear: obey God and remain faithful to his commandments. It is also remarkable that circumcision as the mark of belonging to God is also spiritually tolerated here as circumcision of the heart. This will have major repercussions in the New Testament: ‘uncircumcised hearts and ears’, we read in Acts (7, 51).

FIRST READING   Deut. 10, 12-22

Thou must prove thy love to the stranger,
for ye yourselves have been strangers in Egypt.

Moses spoke to the people:
“Well then Israel: what else does the LORD require of you
than that ye fear Him and go His ways,
that ye love and serve him
with all your heart and all your soul,
that you keep the commandments of the LORD
and the precepts which I give you this day?
Then you will be happy.
Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens,
the heaven of heavens and the earth with all that is upon it.
But only to your fathers did the LORD bind himself,
because He loved them,
and out of all the nations He has chosen you, their descendants.
So it is today.
Circumcise then the foreskin of your heart
and remain stubborn no longer.
The LORD your God is the god of gods
and the lord of lords, the greatest, the mightiest,
the loftiest god, who looks no one in the eye
and who does not allow himself to be bribed;
who does justice to widows and orphans,
and who shows his love to strangers
by giving them food and clothing.
You too should prove your love to the stranger,
for ye yourselves have been strangers in Egypt.
The LORD your God you shall fear, honour Him,
Follow Him and swear your oaths by His name.
Him shalt thou praise, who did for thee in Egypt such great
impressive things,
as ye have seen with your own eyes.
With seventy men your fathers went into Egypt
and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous
as the stars in the sky.”

INTERLUDIO             Hymn Ps 147, 12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Alleluia.

Praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Zion, glorify thy God !
For He has firmly locked your gates,
blessed your sons within your wall.

He lets you cultivate your fields in peace
and feed you with wheat flour.
He sends forth His command over the earth
and hastens his word.

It is He who sent Jacob his word,
his law and commandments for Israel.
Never was there a people He treated like this,
no other does He make His ways known.

ALLELUIA           cf. Acts 16, 14b

Alleluia.
Make our hearts receptive, Lord,
and that we turn to the word of your Son.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL         Mt 17:22-27

They will kill the Son of Man,
but on the third day He will rise.

While they were still gathered in Galilee
jesus spoke to his disciples:
“The Son of Man
will be delivered into the hands of men ,
and they will kill Him,
but on the third day He will rise.”
They were greatly grieved.
When they had arrived in Capernaum
the inners of the temple tax came
approached Peter and said:
“Doesn’t your Master pay the didrachmas?”
He replied:
“Well indeed!”
But when Peter entered the house
jesus forestalled him with the words:
“What do you think, Simon?
From whom do earthly princes levy tolls or taxes,
from their children or from strangers?”
And when he answered, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him:
“So the children are free.
Yet, in order not to give offence to them :
go to the lake,
cast out thy hook and seize the first fish that comes up;
open its mouth and you will find a stater;
pay thereby for Me and for you.”

________________________________________________________

Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

79. In this universe made up of open systems that interact with each other
, we can discover innumerable forms of relationship and participation
discover. This also leads us to think of the whole as
open to the transcendence of God, within which it evolves.
Faith allows us to interpret the meaning and mysterious beauty
to interpret what is happening. Human freedom can make its
intelligent contribution to positive evolution, but can also
add new evils, new causes of suffering and true decline.
This defines the exciting and dramatic history of the
man, which includes both a flowering of liberation, growth, salvation and love and a
trajectory of decay and mutual destruction. Therefore, the
actions of the Church not only recall the duty to care
for nature, but at the same time “it must above all protect man
against the destruction of himself”.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am