Tuesday – Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, pr.

Padre Pio. Born 25 May 1887. Visible mystical signs performed on him on 20 Sept 1918.
Beatified in 1999 and canonised on 16 June 2002.

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

Jerusalem is still only a small part of the giant Persian empire. The Jews are giving up hope that they will one day form a real kingdom again with a king from the lineage of David. Rather than on the restoration of earthly power, they will focus on what constitutes the deepest meaning of their existence: Restoring the cult and deepening their faith in God. When life’s setbacks become too much for us, when we become one illusion poorer, are we able to fall back on the essence of our lives even then? Do we use those setbacks as opportunities to purify and deepen our faith? So that later we can joyfully celebrate the feast of our liberation, Easter?

FIRST READING                  Ezr. 6, 7-8. 12b. 14-20
The Israelites celebrated Passover in the new temple.

In those days, King Daríus wrote to the stadtholders
from the area across the River:
“Let the work on the temple continue ,
so that the governor of Judah and the elders of the Jews
may rebuild the temple in its former place.
Moreover, I hereby stipulate,
that ye should cooperate with the elders of the Jews
to rebuild this temple.
Expenses are to be paid to these men in full
and on time be reimbursed
from the royal revenues and taxes
of the territory across the River.
I, Daríus, have issued this decree.
It must be carefully implemented.”

The elders of the Jews continued the construction
and this proceeded prosperously, thanks to the actions
of the prophets Haggaï and Zechariah the son of Iddo.
They completed the work
that had been imposed on them by the God of Israel
and by Cyrus and Daríus and Artachsata,
the king of Persia.
The temple was completed on the third day
of the month of Adar,
in the sixth year of King Daríus’ reign.
On it the Israelites, priests and Levites
and all the returned exiles,
joyfully celebrated the dedication of the temple.
At the dedication of the temple, they sacrificed one hundred bulls,
two hundred rams, four hundred lambs
and, according to the number of tribes of Israel,
twelve goats as a sin offering for all Israel.
In view of the service of God in Jerusalem
they divided the priests into classes
and the Levites into divisions,
as the book of Moses stipulates.
On the fourteenth day of the first month
the returned exiles celebrated the Passover feast.
The priests and the Levites had all sanctified themselves,
so that they were all clean.
They slaughtered the paschal lamb for all the returned exiles,
for their fellow priests and for themselves.

INTERLUDIUM                 Ps. 122(121), 1-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

How glad I was when I was called:
We are going to God’s house!

How happy was I, when I was called:
We are going to God’s house!
Now may my foot, Jerusalem,
may enter your gates.

Jerusalem, walled city,
so densely built :
To thee do the tribes march,
the tribes of God’s people.

They go according to Israel’s custom
worship the Name of God.
There stand the seats of justice,
the throne of David’s house.

ALLELUIA             John 14.23

Alleluia.
If anyone loves Me ,
he will keep My Word;
my Father will love him
and We will come to him.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL                  Lk. 8, 19-21
My mother and my brothers are those
who hear the word of God and act upon it.

At that time His mother came to Jesus with His brethren,
but because of the crowd they could not reach Him.
So they informed Him:
“Your mother and your brothers are outside and want to speak to You.”
But He replied to them:
“My mother and my brethren are they ,
who hear the word of God and act accordingly.”

________________________________________________________

Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

The practical relativism
122. A skewed anthropocentrism causes wrong
lifestyle. In the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, I referred
to the practical relativism that characterises our times and which is “even
more dangerous than that at the theoretical level”. When man places himself
at the centre, he ends up giving absolute priority to
his accidental interests and everything else becomes relative. Therefore, it
not be surprised that along with the ubiquity of
the technocratic paradigm and the worship of unlimited human
power, this relativism develops, where everything becomes irrelevant if
it does not serve its own immediate interests. There is a logic in this that makes it possible to understand how different attitudes that promote both
environmental degradation and social decay feed each other.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am