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 priest and writer Ezra was annoyed by the mixed marriages in Israel, which meant that those who had stayed behind at the time of exile had also turned away from Yahweh and adopted a different pattern of life. Yet Yahweh brings his people together again. In his prayer, Ezra expresses his shame for the sins of the people and thanks Yahweh for showing them mercy again after all.
FIRST READING Ezr. 9, 5-9
In our bondage, our God has not forsaken us.
From the Book of Ezra
When the hour of the evening sacrifice had come ,
i, Ezra, awoke from my state of stupor,
fell to my knees with skirt and cloak torn,
stretched out my hands to the Lord my God,
and prayed :
“My God, I feel so deeply ashamed
that I dare not lift up my face to You ,
for our sins have gone over our heads
and our guilt reaches to heaven.
“Since the days of our forefathers until today
we are burdened with a great debt.
“Because of our sins, we became ,
our kings and our priests,
handed over to the kings of the earth,
to sword, captivity,
plunder and disgrace, until today.
“And now the Lord, our God,
has shown us his mercy for a moment;
He has left a remnant of us,
given us a foothold in his holy place,
made our eyes see the light again
and granted us a moment’s rest in our bondage.
“For slaves we are ,
but in our bondage our God has not forsaken us,
but he has made us find grace
with the kings of Persia.
“Who have given us leave
to rebuild the temple of our God
and to raise it from ruins
and to wall up our dwelling places in Judah and Jerusalem.”
INTERLUDIUM Tob. 13, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8
Praised be G od, who lives forever.
It is He who smites and who has mercy,
who leads to death and revives,
no man can escape his hand.
Makes his greatness known to all,
proclaim His praise among all men.
For He is the Lord, our God is He,
He is our father forever.
Therefore consider what ye can expect from Him
and thank Him with a loud voice.
Glorify the Lord, who is just,
proclaim the praise of the King of ages.
I will honour Him in this land of exile,
show His power to this sinful people.
Thou sinner, repent and do what is pleasing to Him,
then surely He will have mercy on you.
ALLELUIA John 15, 15b
Alleluia.
I have called you friends, says the Lord,
for I have told you all
what I have heard from the Father.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 9, 1-6
Jesus sent out the 12 to proclaim the kingdom of God
and to perform healings.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
At that time Jesus called together the twelve
and gave them power and authority over all evil spirits
and the power to heal diseases.
Thereupon He sent them out
to proclaim the kingdom of God and perform healings.
And He admonished them :
“Take nothing for the road :
No stick, no travelling bag, no food and no money ;
none of you must have double clothing.
“When you enter a house you must stay there
and you must leave from there.
“If you are not received somewhere,
then leave that city
and shake the dust from your feet, as a testimony against them.”
Then they set out and travelled from village to village,
proclaiming the Good News everywhere
and performing healings.
Laudato Si
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On caring for the common home
123. The culture of relativism is the same disease that
leads someone to take advantage of someone else and treat him purely
as an object by forcing him into forced labour or enslaving him
because of a debt. The same logic leads to children
being sexually abused or abandoning elderly people who for their own interests are
are of no use. It is also the inner logic of those who say: let us let
let the invisible hand of the market regulate the economy. The effects
of it on society and nature are inevitably harmful. If there is
beyond the satisfaction of one’s own plans and immediate needs
are neither objective truths nor fixed principles, what boundaries
then can human trafficking, organised crime, drug trafficking,
the trade in blood diamonds and skins of animals in danger of
in danger of extinction, have? Is it not the same relativistic logic that
justifies the purchase of organs from the poor to sell or
used for experiments or discarding children because they
do not respond to their parents’ wishes? It is the same logic of
“use and discard” that produces so much waste just because of
the disordered desire to consume more than what one actually
need. And then we must not think that political programmes or the
force of law will suffice to avoid behaviour that affects the
environment; after all, when culture degenerates and one has no
objective truth or universally valid principles any more, then
laws will only be understood as something arbitrarily
imposed, and as obstacles to be avoided.
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
Laudato Si Official English translation