The Holy Lift of the Cross is a feast of the
Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church
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
Even though for the first Christians the raising of the cross was
a shameful and humiliating death,
yet the cross gradually became the symbol of Christians.
It is pre-eminently the sign of our hope
that God does not abandon us in death,
but reaches out to us and gives us eternal life.
The cross shows us how far God’s love reaches.
Let us now fix our eyes on the cross
and let us thank God for this sign of our salvation.
FIRST READING Num. 21, 4b-9
Every one who was bitten by a serpent
and fixed his eyes on the bronze serpent remained alive.
From Mount Hor the Israelites marched
in the direction of the Reed Sea,
for they wanted to go around Edom.
But on the way, the people became impatient.
They turned against God
and against Moses :
“Hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert?
“There is no bread,
there is no water
and that inferior food resists us.”
Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes on the people.
These bit the Israelites
and many of them found death.
Now the people came to Moses and said :
“We have sinned ,
for we have turned against the Lord and against you.
“Pray the Lord ,
that He take those snakes away from us.”
Then Moses prayed for the people
and the Lord said to him :
“Make such a poisonous snake
and put it on a pole.
Everyone who is bitten and looks up to it ,
will remain alive.”
Moses made a bronze snake
and put it on a pole.
Everyone who was bitten by a snake
and fixed his eyes on the bronze snake ,
remained alive.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 78(77), 1-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
Let us never forget what God has done.
Listen, my people, to My instruction,
open your ears to what I say to you.
A wise lesson I will tell you
hidden in the past.
They sought Him only when He smote them,
then they sought Him mournfully ;
then they knew again that the Lord was their rock,
the Most High their saviour.
But with their mouths they deceived Him,
they lied to Him with their tongues;
for inwardly they were not sincere,
did not believe in His covenant.
Yet He was merciful, forgave their sins
and did not completely exterminate them.
Again and again He restrained His wrath
and kept His wrath in check.
ALLELUIA
Alleluia.
We worship and praise Thee, Christ,
because through Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL John 3:13-17
The Son of Man must be exalted.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John
At that time Jesus said to Nicodemus :
“Never has anyone ascended to heaven ;
except He who descended from heaven ,
the Son of Man.
“And this Son of Man must be lifted up
as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ,
so that everyone who believes
in Him will have eternal life.
“For so much did God love the world
that He gave His only begotten Son,
so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but shall have eternal life.
“God did not send his Son
not sent into the world to judge the world ,
but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Laudato Si
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On caring for the common home
113. People, meanwhile, no longer seem to believe in a
happy future, they no longer blindly trust in a better
future, assuming the current state of the world and technical
skills. They are becoming aware that the progress of
science and technology does not equal the progress of humanity
and history and suspect that there are other paths for a happy
future. Nevertheless, neither can they imagine themselves
foregoing the opportunities offered by technology. Humanity has profoundly
changed and the accumulation of constant innovations
leads to a fleeting superficiality. It is difficult for us to find the
depth in life again. If architecture reflects a spirit of the age,
then megastructures and mass-built houses bring
express the spirit of globalised technology, where the constant
novelty of the products combines with an
oppressive boredom. Let us not resign ourselves to this and let us not
refrain from questioning the purposes and meaning of everything.
Otherwise, we will only legitimise the state of affairs and need
need for more surrogates to keep the emptiness out.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
_______________________________________________________________