Invitation
May I draw your attention to:
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation aims to share with you the joy of the Gospel. Everyone, without exception,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration:
Nicodemus has been searching, all his life, day and night, for explanations for Jesus’ actions. Although a prominent Pharisee, he is well-disposed towards Jesus. The questions he puts to Jesus show how difficult it was for the Jews to recognise the presence of God in Jesus, and to be born again of the Spirit through baptism. But it is precisely through baptism that Jesus has the opportunity to become human once again amongst humanity. Do we pause to reflect on this when we interact with others – including those we do not particularly get on with?
FIRST READING Acts4:23-31
After a prayer, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
From the Acts of the Apostles
In those days, Peter and John
went to their own people after their release,
and reported
on everything the chief priests and elders had said to them.
When they heard this,
they raised their voices together to God and prayed:
“Lord, you are the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them,
who through the Holy Spirit
spoke by the mouth of David, your servant:
‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers conspire together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
“Indeed, they have conspired in this city,
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you have anointed:
both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
together with the Gentiles and the tribes of Israel,
to do whatever your hand and your counsel
had predestined to take place.
“But now, Lord, look upon their threats,
and grant your servants that with all boldness
they may proclaim your word,
and by the stretching out of your hand, let healings and signs of wonder take place,
After their prayer, the place where they were gathered trembled.
All were filled with the Holy Spirit
and proclaimed the word of God with boldness.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 2:1–3, 4–6, 7–9
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
or:Alleluia.
Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The rulers of the earth rise up,
the rulers conspire together
against the Lord and his Anointed One.
Let us break their bonds,
let us cast off their chains!
He who dwells in heaven laughs;
the Lord mocks them.
Then he goes forth in his wrath,
and strikes them with the terror of his anger:
I myself have set my King in place,
on Zion, my holy mountain.
This is the decree of the Lord:
He spoke to me: ‘You are my Son,
I have begotten you today.
Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
and the ends of the earth as your possession.
Break their resistance with an iron sceptre,
shatter them like pots of clay.’
ALLELUIA Lk24:46
Alleluia.
Christ had to suffer and die
and rise from the dead,
and thus enter into his glory.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL John3:1-8
Unless one is born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
John
There was a man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus.
He was one of the leaders of the Jews.
One night he came to him and said:
“Rabbi, we know that you have come as a teacher from God,
for no one can perform the signs that you do
unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered him:
“Truly, truly, I say to you:
unless one is born again,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him:
“How can a man be born when he is already old?
Can he enter his mother’s womb again
and be born a second time?”
Jesus answered:
“Truly, truly, I say to you:
unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
“What is born of the flesh is flesh,
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
“Do not be amazed that I said to you:
you must be born again.
“The wind blows where it wills;
you hear its sound,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclical of
Pope Francis
On Care for Our Common Home
85. God has written a magnificent book “whose letters are the multitude of creatures present in the universe”. The bishops of Canada have aptly expressed that no creature is excluded from this manifestation of God: “From the most vast panoramas to the faintest forms of life, nature is a constant source of wonder and awe. It is, moreover, a constant revelation of the divine”. The bishops of Japan, for their part, have said something quite moving: “To perceive that every creature sings the hymn of its existence means living with joy in the love of God and in hope”. This contemplation of creation enables us to discover in every thing a wise lesson that God wishes to impart to us, because
“for a believer, looking at creation is also listening to a message, hearing a paradoxical and silent voice”. We can say that “besides the actual revelation contained in the Holy
Scripture, there is also a divine manifestation in the shining of the sun and the
fall of night”. When man pays attention to this
manifestation, he learns to see himself in relation to the other creatures:
“I express myself when I express the world; I explore my
sacredness when I decipher that of the world”.
To be continued…
Every day at 1 am…
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The Bible text in this edition is taken fromThe New Bible Translation,
©Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap 2004/2007.
Reflections from Liturgical Suggestions for Weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation