Saturday – HH. Andreas Kim Taegün, pr., and Paul Chüng Hassang and s., Mar.

Andreas Kim Taegön and Paul Chöng Hassang
are the best known among the 103 martyrs, who were canonised on 6 May 1984

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 today’s reading, the apostle sings the praises of the Lord’s glory, and exhorts us to live up to God’s most important commandment: Love. He who loves bears witness to God, for He is Love. He is the only King, the King of kings. Paul and the early Christians lived in a time when earthly emperors and kings were deified and addressed and worshipped with the highest titles and superlatives. Against that pagan cult, Paul resists: Only God is Ruler. No earthly power, no ideology, no idol is so exalted that we must submit to it unconditionally. Today’s answer psalm ties in nicely with this:“Truly, the Lord is God, Creator and Master”. Let us step unconcernedly before His face.

FIRST READING            I Tim. 6, 13-16

Keep this commandment immaculate and undefiled
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the holy apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy

Dear one,

I commend thee before the face of God who quickeneth all things to life,
and of Christ Jesus
who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate :
Keep this commandment immaculate and undefiled
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ
whom God will make us behold in due time,
He, the Blessed One,
the only Ruler,
the great King and Supreme Lord
who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.
No man has seen Him or is able to see Him.
To Him be honour and eternal power!
Amen.

INTERLUDIUM

Enter unconcerned before God’s Face.

Rejoice before the Lord, all nations,
serve the Lord with joy.
Enter unconcerned before His Face ;
verily, the Lord is God.

He is the Creator and Master,
we are his flock, his people.
Pass through his gates with song,
come into His courts with song.

Bless His Name and honour Him,
He is good to us.
Endless is His mercy,
faithful from generation to generation.

ALLELUIA            John 10, 27

Alleluia.
My sheep listen to My voice, says the Lord ;
and I know them and they follow Me.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL              Lk. 8, 4-15

The seed in the good earth are those who keep the word they heard
in a good and noble heart and bring forth fruit by
their steadfastness.

From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke

At that time
when a great crowd gathered
and from the cities people flocked to Jesus,
he spoke in a parable :
“The sower went out to sow his seed.
“And in sowing, a portion fell on the road ;
it was trampled and the birds of the air ate it up.
“Another portion fell on the rocky ground ;
it shot up, but dried out because it had no moisture.
“Yet another portion fell among the thistles ,
but at the same time the thistles shot up and suffocated it.
“Yet another portion fell on the good ground ;
it shot up and brought forth a hundredfold fruit.”
And in a loud voice He added :
“He who has ears to hear, he listens.”
His disciples asked Him what this parable did mean.
He replied :
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God ,
but the rest receive them in parables
because they seeing do not see, and hearing do not understand.
“Well, the meaning of the parable is this :
The seed is the word of God.
“Those on the way, are those who have listened.
“But then the devil comes and snatches the word from their hearts,
lest they be saved by believing.
“Those on the rock are those
who receive the word with joy when they hear it ,
but they have no root ;
they believe for a moment ,
but at the time of trial they fall away.
“Those who fell among the thistles are those
who did listen ,
but who gradually through the cares,
the riches and pleasures of life
become stifled and fail to mature.
“The seed in the good earth are those
who keep the word they heard in a good and noble heart
and bring forth fruit by their constancy.”

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Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

119. Nor should the critique of a skewed anthropocentrism
place the value of relationships between people second.
If the ecological crisis is a manifestation of an ethical, cultural
and spiritual crisis of modernity, then we need not be under any
illusion that we could restore our relationship with nature and the
environment to a healthy without making all fundamental human relationships
healthy again. When Christian thinking
lays claim to a special place for human beings above other creatures,
it gives room for an appreciation of each human person and
thus encourages recognition of the other. Being open to a “you” that is
capable of knowing, loving and engaging in dialogue, remains the
great nobility of human beings. Therefore, with regard to an adequate
relationship with creation, there is no need to downplay man’s social dimension,
nor his transcendent dimension, his openness to the
divine “Thou”. After all, one cannot establish a relationship with the environment
and at the same time discount the relationship with other human beings and with God
leave out. That would be a romantic individualism and a suffocating
shutting oneself up in immanence.

To be continued
Every day at 7 am