TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY BY 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

Introduction

Every Sunday the Word of the Lord is
surprising and challenging.
It confronts and questions us.
It puts us in our place:
sometimes the first place, sometimes the last place.
At the same time, God’s Word is also liberating.
After all, we learn that we are loved by God
and that He wants to bring together all peoples and languages
to behold his glory.
Let us open our hearts to the Word
that the Lord speaks to us today
and let us trust in His promise.

FIRST READING     Isa 66:18-21

They gather from all nations your brothers and sisters.

This is what the LORD says:
“I know their works and their thoughts,
I am going to call together all nations and languages
and they will come and behold my glory.
Before their eyes I will perform signs.
Those who have been spared
i will send out to the nations,
even to the distant shores
where my fame has not yet penetrated,
and where they have not yet beheld my glory;
among all nations they shall proclaim my glory.
And on horses and chariots, in chariots,
on mules and camels
they shall gather your brethren from all nations
to my holy mountain in Jerusalem
and offer them to the LORD as an offering,
just as the Israelites offered their meat offerings in clean vessels
in the temple of the LORD.
And also from among the nations I will choose my priests and Levites,”
so speaks the LORD.

Answer Psalm Ps. 117(116) 1, 2:
Refrain
Goes out into all the world
and proclaims the gospel.

Praise the Lord now, all the nations of the earth,
hail the Lord, all nations around.

Because He has shown His goodness with us;
the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.

SECOND READING         Hebrews 12:5-7,11-13

The Lord disciplines those he loves.

Brothers and sisters,

Ye have forgotten the scripture
that addresses and admonishes you as children:
“Child, despise not the discipline of the Lord,
do not be discouraged by his punishment.
For the Lord disciplines those He loves,
He punishes every one whom He acknowledges as His child.”

Suffering serves to improve and educate you;
God treats you like children.
Every child does get punished by his father at some point.
Discipline is never pleasant,
in the moment there is more sorrow than joy;
but in the long run
for those who let themselves be shaped by it, it produces
the salutary fruit of a holy life.
Therefore, lift up the limp hands,
stretch out the tottering knees,
let your feet go straight ways;
the lame member must not be dislocated but healed.

Verse for the gospel    John 14.6

Alleluia.
I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord,
no one comes to the Father except through Me.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL.    Lk 13:22-30

They will come from the east and the west, and they will be seated in the kingdom of God.

In those days, Jesus went around cities and villages,
teaching there
and He continued His journey to Jerusalem.
Someone asked Him:
“Lord, are they few who are saved?”
But He spoke to them:
“Strive to the utmost
to enter through the narrow door ,
for, I tell you, many will try to enter,
but they will not succeed.
Once the householder has risen and closed the door
and then if ye start knocking on the door outside
and begin to cry, Lord, open!
he will answer thee: I know not whence thou comest.
Then shall ye raise up:
In thy presence we have eaten and drunk ,
and in our streets you taught.
But again His answer will be:
I know not whence ye came.
Depart from Me, all you who commit iniquity.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,
when you shall see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God,
while you yourselves shall be cast out.
They shall come from the east and the west,
from the north and the south,
and they will be seated in the kingdom of God.
Remember:
there are lasts who will be first and firsts who will be last.”

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Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

92. On the other hand, when the heart is truly open to a univer-
sional community, nothing and no one is excluded from that fellowship.
Consequently, it is also true that indifference or cruelty to
the other creatures of this world always ends up at some or
is somehow transmitted in the way we treat other human beings
treat. The heart is one and it won’t be long before the verach-
tiveness that leads someone to mistreat an animal becomes apparent
in the relationship with other people. Any cruelty towards any creature
creature whatsoever “is contrary to human dignity”.We cannot be
regard ourselves as people who truly love, if we are a part of
reality excluded. “Peace, justice and preservation of the
creation are three issues that are closely linked, which one
will never be able to separate, so that they can be dealt with separately
addressed, on pain of falling back into reductionism again”. Everything stands
in relation and all people are united as brothers and sisters in a
miraculous pilgrimage, linked by the love that God has for each
of his creatures and which also unites us among ourselves with tender affection
unites us with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am