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
Many passages from the biblical account of Stephen are strongly reminiscent of Jesus Christ. The Bible says of both Stephen and Jesus that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they performed miracles through God’s grace and power. And just as with Christ, groups of Jews rose up against him, argued about his actions, made false accusations and finally drove Stephen out of the city, where he was to be put to death. It seems as though, in Stephen, an ‘other Christ’ is coming to the fore. A martyr is someone in whom Jesus dies and rises again: in Stephen, Christ comes to people with his love and salvation. How do we react when people around us ‘resist’ God’s love?
FIRST READING Acts 6, 8–15
His opponents could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
From the Acts of the Apostles
In those days Stephen,
full of grace and power,
performed great signs and wonders among the people.
However, some members
of the so-called Synagogue of the Freedmen,
Cyreneans and Alexandrians,
and some men from Cilicia and Asia,
began to argue with Stephen,
but they could not withstand the wisdom
and the Spirit with which he spoke.
Then they secretly incited men to say:
‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words
against Moses and against God.’
At the same time, they stirred up both the people,
and the elders and the scribes.
Suddenly they seized him
and brought him before the Sanhedrin,
where they produced false witnesses who claimed:
“This man never ceases
to speak against the holy place and against the Law.
“For we have heard him say:
that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place,
and change the customs
which Moses handed down to us.”
All the members of the Sanhedrin fixed their gaze on him
and saw that his face was like that of an angel.
RESPONSORIAL Ps . 119(118), 23-24, 26-27, 29-30
Blessed are those whose way of life is blameless.
or:Alleluia.
Though princes conspire against me,
your servant pays heed to what you decree.
I take your decrees to heart,
they give me sound advice.
You know my ways, You hear my prayers;
teach me what You have decreed.
Lead me in the way of your commands,
then I will remember your deeds.
Do not let me stray from the path,
but give me your law as a guide.
I have chosen the way of faithfulness,
I keep to what You have decreed.
ALLELUIA
Alleluia.
We know
that Christ has truly risen from the dead.
Have mercy on us, O King and Conqueror.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL John 6, 22-29
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.
From the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
The people who had remained on one side of the lake,
after the miraculous multiplication of the loaves,
had seen that there was only one small boat there,
that Jesus had not gone out in the boat with his disciples,
but that his disciples had set out alone.
The next day, however, some boats came from Tiberias,
close to the place where they had eaten the bread
after the Lord’s prayer of thanksgiving.
When the people realised
that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they got into the boats
and sailed towards Capernaum
in search of Jesus.
They found him on the other side of the lake and said:
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus spoke to them, saying:
“Truly, truly, I say to you:
“It is not because you have seen signs that you are seeking me,
but because you have eaten the loaves
until your hunger was satisfied.
“Do not work for the food that perishes,
but for the food that endures to eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
“For upon him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.”
Then they said to him:
“What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Jesus answered them:
“This is the work that God asks of you:
To believe in the One whom He has sent.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclical Letter of
Pope Francis
On Care for Our Common Home
92. On the other hand, when the heart is truly open to a universal community,
nothing and no one is excluded from that brotherhood.
Consequently, it is also true that indifference or cruelty towards
the other creatures of this world is ultimately always, in one way or
another, transferred to the way we treat other human beings.
The heart is one, and it will not be long before the meanness
that leads someone to mistreat an animal becomes apparent
in their relationship with other people. Any cruelty towards any creature whatsoever “is a violation of human dignity”. We cannot consider ourselves people who truly love if we exclude a part of reality. “Peace, justice and the care of creation are three issues that are closely intertwined; they can never be separated so as to be treated individually,
on pain of falling back into reductionism”. Everything is connected,
and all people are united as brothers and sisters in a
wonderful pilgrimage, bound by the love that God has for each
of his creatures and which also unites us with tender affection
to Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother River and Mother Earth.