Wednesday – St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

Invitation

May I draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?

This invitation is intended to share with you the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their heart
to the healing power of God’s word.

Available every day.

Consideration

Jesus calls us together around Him today to taste God’s grace and to become the good soil on which that grace bears rich fruit. It is God who ultimately guides everything and everyone. There is no such thing as a human decision or human action that stems specifically from God’s grace and specifically from human free will. We often think that we can do everything perfectly on our own, until the moment comes when we realise that we can no longer continue. That is the moment when (we feel that) God must come to our aid. Does that sometimes happen to me?

FIRST READING                 2 Sam. 7:4-17

I will raise up the offspring you have begotten,
and I will establish his royal power.

From the Second Book of Samuel

In those days, the word of the Lord came to Nathan:
“Say to my servant David:
Thus says the Lord:
You want to build a house for me and let me dwell in it?
“I have never lived in a house,
since the time I led the Israelites out of Egypt
until today;
I have always travelled in a tent,
where I dwelt.
“As long as I have been travelling with the Israelites,
I have never asked anyone:
Why have you not built Me a house of cedar wood?
“To none of the tribes of Israel,
whom I appointed to shepherd My people.
“Therefore, tell My servant David:
Thus says God, the Lord of the heavenly hosts:
I took you from the pasture, from tending the sheep,
to be prince over my people Israel.
“In all your ways I have been with you;
I have destroyed all your enemies;
I have made your name great, like the names of the great ones of the earth.
“I have given my people Israel a land
and have planted them there to dwell.
“It will no longer be alarmed,
nor oppressed by evildoers, as in former times,
when I appointed judges over Israel, my people.
“I have ensured that all your enemies leave you in peace.
“The Lord announces to you
that He will establish a house for you.
“When your days are over and you rest with your fathers,
I will raise up your offspring whom you have begotten
and maintain his royal power.
“He will build a house in honour of my Name,
and I will maintain his royal throne forever.
“I will be his father,
and he will be my son.
“If he goes astray,
I will chastise him with blows and stripes,
just as I do other men.
“But I will never take my favour from him,
as I did from Saul,
whom I rejected to make way for you.
“Thus your house and your royal power will endure forever;
your throne is established for all time.”
Nathan conveyed all these words, this entire vision, to David.

INTERLUDIUM            Ps. 89(88), 4-5, 27-28, 29-30

He can count on my mercy forever.

I have made a covenant with David,
my chosen servant, with an oath:
I will preserve your descendants forever,
your throne will remain for all time.

He will call upon me: You are my Father,
my God, the rock of my salvation.
I will appoint him as firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.

He can count on my mercy forever,
my covenant with him will remain in force forever.
I will not put an end to his descendants,
nor to his throne, as long as the heavens remain.

ALLELUIA                 Ps. 119(118)105,

Alleluia.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, Lord,
it is a light on my path.
Alleluia.

GOSPEL                 Mark 4,1-20

Once a sower went out to sow.

From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark

At that time
Jesus began to teach by the lake.
A large crowd gathered around him,
so he had to get into a boat moored on the water
to sit there,
while all the people stood on the shore.
He taught them many things through parables,
and in his teaching he said to them:
“Listen.
“Once a sower went out to sow.
“As he was sowing,
some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them.
“Other seeds fell on rocky ground,
where there was not much soil;
they sprang up quickly because they were in shallow soil.
“But when the sun rose, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away.
“Another part fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
“Finally, another part fell on good soil, and because it sprang up and grew,
it yielded a crop, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold.”
And He added:
it bore fruit
and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
And He added:
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

When He was alone again,
His companions, including the twelve,
asked Him about the parables.
He answered them:
“To you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God,
but to those outside, everything is given in parables,
so that they may look with their eyes but not see,
and listen with their ears but not understand,
lest they turn and be forgiven.”
And He continued:
“Do you not understand this parable?
“How then will you understand all the parables?
“The sower sows the word.
“Those on the path
-where the word is sown-
are the people who, when they hear it,
Satan immediately comes
and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
“In the same way,
those who are sown on rocky places
are the people who, when they hear the word,
immediately receive it with joy;
but they have no root, live for the moment,
and when they are oppressed or persecuted for the word’s sake,
they immediately fall away.
“Those sown among thistles are others,
who have heard the word,
but when the cares of the world,
the deceitfulness of riches,
and the desires for other things enter in,
they choke the word and it remains unfruitful.
“Those sown on good soil
are the people who hear the word,
take it in and bear fruit:
thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.”

________________________________________________________

Laudato Si

Encyclical of

POPE FRANCIS

On Care for Our Common Home

11. His testimony also shows us that an integral ecology requires
an openness to categories that transcend the language of the exact sciences
or biology and connect us with the essence of
humanity. As happens when we fall in love with someone,
Francis’ reaction whenever he looked at the sun, the moon, the smallest animals,
was to sing, and in his praise he included all other creatures.
He was connected to all of creation and even preached to the flowers,
inviting them to praise and love God as beings endowed with reason.
His reaction was much more than an intellectual appreciation or economic calculation,
because for him every creature was a sister, connected to Him by bonds of affection.
That is why he felt called to care for all that exists.
His disciple, Saint Bonaventure, recounted that, “considering that all things have a common origin, he felt even more filled with compassion and called creatures, however small, brother and sister”. This conviction should not be dismissed as irrational romanticism, because it influences the choices that determine our behaviour.
If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to wonder and amazement, if we no longer speak the language of wonder and amazement, we lose touch with the world around us,
our behaviour will be that of a dominator, a consumer or a pure exploiter of natural resources, incapable of setting limits to our immediate interests. Conversely, sobriety and care will arise spontaneously if we feel inwardly connected to all that exists.
The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis was not only outward asceticism, but something much more radical: renouncing the reality of pure utility. The poverty and sobriety of Saint Francis was not merely
external asceticism, but something much more radical: refraining from making
reality a pure object of use and domination.

To be continued
Every day at 1 am