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
Opening word
Unforgettable moments
often shed a different light on life.
Abraham goes inhumanly far in his faithfulness to God.
He is even willing to sacrifice his beloved son.
God too goes inhumanly far in his loyalty to people.
He will not spare his beloved Son from suffering and death.
But in God’s eyes, life is stronger than death
and suffering does not get the last word.
On our way to Easter
may we stand today in the shining light
of those unforgettable moments of faith.
FIRST READING Gen 22, 1-2.9a.10-13.15-18
The sacrifice of our Father Abraham.
From the Book of Genesis
In those days it happened that God tested Abraham.
He said to him:
“Abraham.”
And he answered:
“Here I am.”
God said:
“Go with Isaac,
thy only son, whom thou lovest,
to the land of Moriah
and carry him there on the mountain that I will appoint to thee,
as a burnt offering.”
When they had reached the place God had appointed for them,
Abraham built an altar there,
piled the wood on it,
bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar
on top of the wood.
However, when Abraham reached out his hand for the knife
to cut his son’s throat with it,
the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven:
“Abraham, Abraham!”
And he replied:
“Here I am.”
“Do not touch the boy with a finger and do nothing to him!
“I know now that thou fearest God
For thou hast not wanted to withhold from me thy only son.”
Abraham looked around
and noticed a ram,
stuck with its horns in the bushes.
He grabbed the ram and dedicated it as a burnt offering
instead of his son.
Then the angel of the Lord called
for the second time from heaven
to Abraham
and said:
“By Myself I have sworn :
– thus saith the Lord –
because thou hast done this
and have not withheld from Me your own son ,
therefore I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky
and the grains of sand on the beach of the sea.
“Your descendants will possess the gate of their enemy.
Through your descendants will come blessing on all the peoples of the earth
Because thou hast listened to Me.”
RESPONSORIAL Ps 116b(115), 10 and 15, 16-17, 18-19
Refrain
I may live again under God’s eye
In the land of the living.
I continued to trust, though I spoke:
“I am broken with grief.”
For precious is in the Lord’s eye
the dying of his faithful.
O Lord, I am your servant,
thy servant, the son of thy handmaid,
Thou hast slain my fetters.
To Thee will I offer a sacrifice of praise,
invoking the name of the Lord.
I will fulfil my vows
Where all his people see it.
In the forecourt of thy temple,
in you, Jerusalem.
SECOND READING Rom. 8, 31b-34
God did not spare even his own Son.
From the holy apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians of
Rome
Brothers and sisters,
If God is for us,
then who shall be against us?
He did not spare even His own Son:
for all of us He delivered Him up.
And would He, after such a gift
not also grant us everything else?
Who will accuse God’s elect?
God who justifies?
Who will condemn them?
Christ Jesus perhaps, who died,
even more so, who has been raised
and who, seated at God’s right hand, pleads our case?
Verse for the gospel
Praise and honour be to You, Lord Jesus.
From a shining cloud, the voice of the Father was heard:
This is My well-loved Son, listen to Him.
Praise and honour be to You, Lord Jesus.
GOSPEL Mk. 9, 2-10
This is my Son, the Well-Beloved.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Mark
In those days
Jesus took Peter, James and John with him
and brought them to the top of a high mountain
where they were completely alone.
He was transformed before their eyes:
his garment became shining
and as white as no paler in the world could make it.
Elijah appeared to them together with Moses
and they conversed with Jesus.
Peter took the floor and said to Jesus:
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here.
“Let us build three tents,
one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
He didn’t quite know what he was saying,
for they were all completely astonished.
A cloud came to overshadow them
and from that cloud a voice sounded:
“This is my Son,
the Well-Beloved One,
listen to Him.”
When they looked around ,
they suddenly saw no one else with them but Jesus.
While descending the mountain
Jesus forbade them to tell anyone
what they had seen,
before the Son of Man would have risen from the dead.
Indeed, they kept it to themselves,
though they wondered among themselves
what that rising from the dead might mean.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
208. It is always possible to develop a new capacity to step outside oneself and towards the other. Without this capacity, one does not recognise other creatures in their own worth, one is not interested in caring for anything for the benefit of the other, one lacks the ability to set oneself limits to avoid the suffering and decay of that which surrounds us. The fundamental attitude of transcending oneself by breaking through an isolated consciousness and self-involvement is the root that makes any concern for the other and the environment possible, and triggers the moral response to consider the effect caused by every action and personal decision outside oneself. When we are able to overcome individualism, an alternative lifestyle can actually be established and a change relevant in society becomes possible.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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