Monday in the thirty-fourth week

 

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 end of the church year takes turns reading the book of Daniel and the Apocalypse as daytime readings. These are two books that speak of the end times, so liturgically we are also right if we read these books now. Both books use rather unusual imagery found in apocalyptic literature. This literature speaks of the mysteries of the end times in images and symbols that we do not understand without explanation. The book of Daniel begins with six stories from Babylonian times. Today we get the first story. Daniel and his companions remain true to their Jewish beliefs and customs in exile.

FIRST READING             Dan. 1, 1-6.8-20

No one appeared to measure up
with Daniel, Chananja, Misael and Azariah.

Beginnings of the prophet Daniel

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah,
nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went to Jerusalem
and laid siege to the city.
The Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
to the king of Babylon,
and also some of the temple vessels,
which Nebuchadnezzar placed
in the treasury of the temple of his god.
To Aspenaz, his court marshal,
the king ordered
to choose from among the Israelites some young men,
who were of royal blood or distinguished descent,
without any body defect, well-formed, versatile,
with extensive knowledge and a keen intellect,
suitable for service in the king’s palace.
He was to teach them the language and script of the Chaldeans.
The king stipulated
that their daily menu was to consist
of the dishes of the royal table
and the wine he himself drank.
The training was to last three years ;
after that they would enter the king’s service.
These young men
included Daniel, Chananiah, Misael and Azariah,
all from Judah.
Daniel, however, resolved,
not to defile himself
at the dishes of the royal table
and at the wine poured by the king.
So he asked the court marshal for food
to which he would not defile himself.
And God voted the court marshal benevolent
and benevolent towards Daniel.
The court marshal said to Daniel :
“I fear that my lord, the king ,
who has determined your food and drink,
will find that you are not as good-looking
as the other young men of your age
and then I will get into
trouble with the king.”
At that, Daniel turned to the chamberlain
to whose care the court marshal
Daniel, Chananiah, Misael and Azariah had entrusted,
with the request :
“Try your servants
and give us for ten days
eat only vegetables and drink water ;
then compare our appearance with that of the young men
who eat the dishes of the royal table
and then act with your servants according to your findings.”
The chamberlain agreed to the proposal
and for ten days
he gave them the requested food on a trial basis.
When the ten days were over ,
they looked healthier and more prosperous
than all the other young men,
who had eaten the dishes from the royal table.
Henceforth, the chamberlain took the food and wine
intended for them and gave them vegetables.
To these four young men, God bestowed science,
knowledge of all literature and wisdom;
to Daniel He gave insight into visions and dreams.
When the time had passed
which King Nebuchadnezzar had fixed
and they were to appear before him,
the court marshal presented them to the king.
During the interview the king had with them ,
it turned out that none of them could measure up
with Daniel, Chananiah, Misael and Azariah.
So they entered the king’s service.
And whenever the king consulted them,
he could see that their wisdom and insight
was ten times greater
than that of any diviner or conjurer
in all his realm.

INTERLUDIUM                     Dan. 3, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56

Praised be Thou, Lord, God of our fathers,
To Thee be praise throughout all ages.

Praised be Thy holy glorious Name,
To Thee be praise throughout all ages.

Praised be Thou in the house of Thy glory,
To Thee be praise in all ages.

Praised be Thou on the throne of Thy kingdom,
To thee be praise in all ages.

Praised be Thou who searches the depths,
enthroned on kerubs, in all ages.

Praised be Thou in the dome of heaven,
Praise be to Thee in all ages.

ALLELUIA                       Mt 24, 42a, 44

Alleluia.
Be vigilant
for the Son of Man is coming at the hour
when ye expect it not.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL                     Lk. 21, 1-4

A needy widow threw two pennies into the offering box.

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

In those days it happened that Jesus looked up
and saw the rich throwing their gifts into the sacrificial box,
but He also saw a needy widow
who threw in two pennies.
And He spoke :
“Truly, I say to you :
that poor widow has thrown in the most of all.
“Those people have all
thrown in something of their abundance with the gifts for God,
but she offered from her poverty everything she had to live on.”

________________________________________________________

Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

194. For new models of development to emerge, it is
necessary to “change the model of global development”, and
this involves thinking responsibly “about the meaning of the
economy and its purpose of correcting its forms of dysfunction and
distortions of it”. It is not enough as a middle way
to align the care of nature with financial returns or the
preservation of the environment to progress. On this theme, middle roads are
only a slight delay of disaster. It is simply
about redefining progress. A technological and economic
development that does not leave a better world and an integrally higher quality
of life left behind cannot be considered progress. On the other hand
often the real quality of people’s lives
deteriorate – through environmental degradation, low quality of
food or the depletion of some resources – in the
context of a growing economy. In this context, the discourse
of sustainable growth in the economy often becomes a distraction and
a means of justification that incorporates values of ecological discourse
subsumed into the logic of money and technocracy, and the
corporate responsibility for society and the environment
usually reduced to a series of actions aimed at marketing and image.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am