Wednesday – Seventh day of Christmas Octave

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
At the turning point of time, God’s Word has become flesh and blood in Jesus. From Jesus we fully receive the grace of God’s love. Thanks to Him, we only really get to know God. Whoever believes that this vulnerable man is the Messiah may share in the life force of God and becomes a child of God. That is why it reads, Sing to the Lord a new song. He is coming as king of the earth (Ps 96:1.13). There are also those who do not accept Jesus as the Christ. They close themselves off to God’s Spirit, who leads us into the mystery of the incarnation. The times, however, are decisive. The final hour has already begun. It is a matter of life and death.

FIRST READING                 I, Jn 2:18-21
Ye have received initiation from the Holy One, and ye all possess ‘knowledge’.

Children,
It is ’the last hour’.
Thou hast heard that the ‘antichrist’ is to come.
Indeed,
many antichrists have now risen,
and therefore we know that the last hour has come.
They have come forth from among us,
but they did not really belong to us.
Had they belonged to us
they would have stayed with us;
but it had to become clear
that none of them belong to us.
You too have received initiation from the Holy One,
ye too possess all ‘knowledge’.
And I do not write to you because you do not know the truth
but precisely because you know it
and because falsehood is incompatible with truth.

INTERLUDIUM                  Ps. 96(95), 1-2, 11-12, 13

The sky shines and the earth rejoices.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
sing to the Lord, all nations.
Sing to the Lord and glorify His Name,
proclaim his salvation all the days.

Then the heavens shine and the earth rejoices,
the sea hums along with all that lives there;
the fields wave their crops,
the forest giants bend their crown.

They cheer the Lord because He is coming,
He is coming as King of the Earth.
Righteously He will rule the world,
the people fair and faithful.

ALLELUIA

Alleluia.
The splendour of this day is a light around us ;
come all worship the Lord, ye peoples and nations,
for today a great light appeared on earth.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL                       Jn 1:1-18
The Word became flesh.

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
This was in the beginning with God.
Everything became through Him
and without Him nothing has become
of what had become.
In Him was life
and that life was the light of men.
And the light shone in the darkness
but the darkness did not accept it.
A man appeared, a sent one from God;
his name was John.
This one came to testify,
to bear witness to the Light,
so that all might come to faith through him.
Not he was the Light
but he was to bear witness to the Light.
The true Light,
which enlightens every human being,
came into the world.
He was in the world;
the world had become through Him
and yet the world did not recognise Him.
He came into His own,
but His own did not accept Him.
To all, however, who did accept Him,
to those who believe in His Name,
he gave the ability
to become children of God.
They are not of blood
nor of the lust of the flesh
or of the will of a man,
but born of God.
The Word became flesh
and has dwelt among us.
We have beheld His glory,
such glory
as the Only-begotten of the Father receives,
full of grace and truth.
We have John’s testimony about Him when he exclaimed:
“This one it was of whom I said:
He who comes after me is before me ,
for He was before me.”
Of His fullness we have all received;
grace upon grace.
Were the Law given through Moses ,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
the Only-begotten God
who is in the bosom of the Father,
He has made Him known.

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Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCISCUS

On caring for the common home

231. The love that is full of small gestures of mutual love, touches
also civil and political life and becomes visible in all actions
that seek to build a better world. Love for society
and commitment to the common good are an excellent form of
charity, which concerns not only relationships between individuals, but
also “macro relations i.e. social, economic, political relations”.
This is why the Church has presented the world with the ideal of a “civilisation
of love”. Love at the societal level is the
key to authentic development: “To make society more human and value the human person, we need to put love in social life – at the political, economic, cultural level – revalue it and make it the constant and supreme norm of action
of it”. In this context, love at the social level pushes us
to think, in addition to the importance of everyday small gestures, of
think of grand strategies that effectively stop environmental destruction
and encourage a culture of care that permeates all of society.
When someone recognises God’s call to join with
others in this social dynamic, he should remember
that this is part of his spirituality, that it is a practice
of charity and that this is how he grows and sanctifies himself.

To be continued
Every day at 1am