Daily Readings for Friday October 29, 2010

Reading 1, Phil 1:1-11

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with their presiding elders and the deacons.

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God whenever I think of you,

4 and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy

5 for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present.

6 I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes.

7 It is only right that I should feel like this towards you all, because you have a place in my heart, since you have all shared together in the grace that has been mine, both my chains and my work defending and establishing the gospel.

8 For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus;

9 it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding

10 that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes,

11 entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.

Gospel, Lk 14:1-6

1 Now it happened that on a Sabbath day he had gone to share a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely.

2 Now there in front of him was a man with dropsy,

3 and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees with the words, 'Is it against the law to cure someone on the Sabbath, or not?'

4 But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away.

5 Then he said to them, 'Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a Sabbath day without any hesitation?'

6 And to this they could find no answer.

Daily Readings for Thursday October 28, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 2:19-22

19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God's household.

20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel, Lk 6:12-16

12 Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.

13 When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles':

14 Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,

15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,

16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

Daily Readings for Tuesday October 26, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 5:21-33

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord,

23 since, as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife;

24 and as the Church is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everything.

25 Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her

26 to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words,

27 so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.

28 In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself.

29 A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church,

30 because we are parts of his Body.

31 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

32 This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church.

33 To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.

Gospel, Lk 13:18-21

18 He went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with?

19 It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.'

20 Again he said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of God with?

21 It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'

Daily Readings for October 25, 2010

Reading 1

Eph 4:32–5:8

Brothers and sisters:
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,
as is fitting among holy ones,
no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,
but instead, thanksgiving.
Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,
that is, an idolater,
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things
the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
So do not be associated with them.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light.

Gospel

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Daily Readings for Friday October 22, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 4:1-6

1 I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called.

2 With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love.

3 Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.

4 There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God.

5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

Gospel, Lk 12:54-59

54 He said again to the crowds, 'When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does.

55 And when the wind is from the south you say it's going to be hot, and it is.

56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?

57 'Why not judge for yourselves what is upright?

58 For example: when you are going to court with your opponent, make an effort to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and the officer have you thrown into prison.

59 I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.'

Daily Readings for Thursday October 21, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 3:14-21

14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father,

15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name.

16 In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self,

17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love,

18 with all God's holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;

19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.

20 Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine;

21 glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.

Gospel, Lk 12:49-53

49 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!

50 There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!

51 'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

52 For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three;

53 father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.'

Daily Readings for Wednesday October 20, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 3:2-12

2 You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake;

3 he made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly-

4 a reading of it will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.

5 This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations:

6 that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 I have been made the servant of that gospel by a gift of grace from God who gave it to me by the workings of his power.

8 I, who am less than the least of all God's holy people, have been entrusted with this special grace, of proclaiming to the gentiles the unfathomable treasure of Christ

9 and of throwing light on the inner workings of the mystery kept hidden through all the ages in God, the Creator of everything.

10 The purpose of this was, that now, through the Church, the principalities and ruling forces should learn how many-sided God's wisdom is,

11 according to the plan which he had formed from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 In him we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him;

Gospel, Lk 12:39-48

39 You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house.

40 You too must stand ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.'

41 Peter said, 'Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?'

42 The Lord replied, 'Who, then, is the wise and trustworthy steward whom the master will place over his household to give them at the proper time their allowance of food?

43 Blessed that servant if his master's arrival finds him doing exactly that.

44 I tell you truly, he will put him in charge of everything that he owns.

45 But if the servant says to himself, "My master is taking his time coming," and sets about beating the menservants and the servant-girls, and eating and drinking and getting drunk,

46 his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.

47 'The servant who knows what his master wants, but has got nothing ready and done nothing in accord with those wishes, will be given a great many strokes of the lash.

48 The one who did not know, but has acted in such a way that he deserves a beating, will be given fewer strokes. When someone is given a great deal, a great deal will be demanded of that person; when someone is entrusted with a great deal, of that person even more will be expected.

Daily Readings for Tuesday October 19, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 2:12-22

12 do not forget, I say, that you were at that time separate from Christ and excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants of the Promise, limited to this world, without hope and without God.

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close, by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one entity and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, by destroying in his own person the hostility,

15 that is, the Law of commandments with its decrees. His purpose in this was, by restoring peace, to create a single New Man out of the two of them,

16 and through the cross, to reconcile them both to God in one Body; in his own person he killed the hostility.

17 He came to bring the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 Through him, then, we both in the one Spirit have free access to the Father.

19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God's household.

20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel, Lk 12:35-38

35 'See that you have your belts done up and your lamps lit.

36 Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.

37 Blessed those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. In truth I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.

38 It may be in the second watch that he comes, or in the third, but blessed are those servants if he finds them ready.

Daily Readings for Tuesday October 19, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 2:12-22

12 do not forget, I say, that you were at that time separate from Christ and excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants of the Promise, limited to this world, without hope and without God.

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close, by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one entity and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, by destroying in his own person the hostility,

15 that is, the Law of commandments with its decrees. His purpose in this was, by restoring peace, to create a single New Man out of the two of them,

16 and through the cross, to reconcile them both to God in one Body; in his own person he killed the hostility.

17 He came to bring the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 Through him, then, we both in the one Spirit have free access to the Father.

19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God's household.

20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel, Lk 12:35-38

35 'See that you have your belts done up and your lamps lit.

36 Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.

37 Blessed those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. In truth I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.

38 It may be in the second watch that he comes, or in the third, but blessed are those servants if he finds them ready.

Daily Readings for Monday October 18, 2010

Reading 1, 2 Tm 4:10-17b

10 As it is, Demas has deserted me for love of this life and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia;

11 only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you; I find him a useful helper in my work.

12 I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

13 When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas, and the scrolls, especially the parchment ones.

14 Alexander the coppersmith has done me a lot of harm; the Lord will repay him as his deeds deserve.

15 Be on your guard against him yourself, because he has been bitterly contesting everything that we say.

16 The first time I had to present my defence, no one came into court to support me. Every one of them deserted me -- may they not be held accountable for it.

17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed for all the gentiles to hear; and so I was saved from the lion's mouth.

Gospel, Lk 10:1-9

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting.

2 And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting.

3 Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

4 Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.

5 Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!"

6 And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you.

7 Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house.

8 Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you.

9 Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you."

Daily Readings for Friday October 15, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 1:11-14

11 And it is in him that we have received our heritage, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of the One who guides all things as he decides by his own will,

12 chosen to be, for the praise of his glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

13 Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the gospel of your salvation, and having put your trust in it you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,

14 who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own, for the praise of his glory.

Gospel, Lk 12:1-7

1 Meanwhile the people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And he began to speak, first of all to his disciples. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees -- their hypocrisy.

2 Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.

3 For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops.

4 'To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.

5 I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the one to fear.

6 Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God's sight.

7 Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.

Daily Readings for Thursday October 14, 2010

Reading 1, Eph 1:1-10

1 Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus.

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

4 Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before him in love,

5 marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Such was his purpose and good pleasure,

6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved,

7 in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace

8 which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.

9 He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in Christ,

10 for him to act upon when the times had run their course: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

Gospel, Lk 11:47-54

47 'Alas for you because you build tombs for the prophets, the people your ancestors killed!

48 In this way you both witness to what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.

49 'And that is why the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute,

50 so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet's blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world,

51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the Temple." Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.

52 'Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves and have prevented others from going in who wanted to.'

53 When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions,

54 lying in wait to catch him out in something he might say.

Daily Readings for Tuesday October 12, 2010

1 Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.

2 I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.

3 I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;

4 once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.

5 We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,

6 since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.

Gospel, Lk 11:37-41

37 He had just finished speaking when a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at table.

38 The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal.

39 But the Lord said to him, 'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.

40 Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?

41 Instead, give alms from what you have and, look, everything will be clean for you.

Pope condemns violence 'in God's name'

Pope Benedict XVI condemned violence carried out "in God's name" on Monday at a Vatican conference of the Catholic bishops and other religious leaders from across the Middle East.

"It is supposedly in the God's name that this violence is committed but this is not God, these are false divinities that have to be unmasked," Benedict said.

He also warned of the spread of "terrorist ideology" in the modern societies.

The synod conference has been called to discuss the pastoral issues linked to the dwindling Christian communities in the Middle East, but also aims to foster peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to counter the Islamic extremism.

The synod talks began on Monday and are due to end on October 24.

Arabic will be one of the official languages at the synod, which will bring together Catholic clergymen, an Iranian ayatollah and a British-born rabbi.

At a mass marking the opening of the synod on the Sunday, Benedict called on Christianity, Islam and Judaism to "promote spiritual and cultural values that unite people and exclude any form of the violence" in the Middle East.

Daily Readings for Friday October 08, 2010

Reading 1, Gal 3:7-14

7 Be sure, then, that it is people of faith who are the children of Abraham.

8 And it was because scripture foresaw that God would give saving justice to the gentiles through faith, that it announced the future gospel to Abraham in the words: All nations will be blessed in you.

9 So it is people of faith who receive the same blessing as Abraham, the man of faith.

10 On the other hand, all those who depend on the works of the Law are under a curse, since scripture says: Accursed be he who does not make what is written in the book of the Law effective, by putting it into practice.

11 Now it is obvious that nobody is reckoned as upright in God's sight by the Law, since the upright will live through faith;

12 and the Law is based not on faith but on the principle, whoever complies with it will find life in it.

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by being cursed for our sake since scripture says: Anyone hanged is accursed,

14 so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles in Christ Jesus, and so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Gospel, Lk 11:15-26

15 But some of them said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he drives devils out.'

16 Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven;

17 but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Any kingdom which is divided against itself is heading for ruin, and house collapses against house.

18 So, too, with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? - since you claim that it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out.

19 Now if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own sons drive them out? They shall be your judges, then.

20 But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares.

21 So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed;

22 but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.

23 'Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.

24 'When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it says, "I will go back to the home I came from."

25 But on arrival, finding it swept and tidied,

26 it then goes off and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, and so that person ends up worse off than before.'

Daily Readings for Thursday October 07, 2010

Reading 1, Gal 3:1-5

1 You stupid people in Galatia! After you have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes, who has put a spell on you?

2 There is only one thing I should like you to tell me: How was it that you received the Spirit -- was it by the practice of the Law, or by believing in the message you heard?

3 Having begun in the Spirit, can you be so stupid as to end in the flesh?

4 Can all the favours you have received have had no effect at all -- if there really has been no effect?

5 Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends the Spirit to you, and causes the miracles among you, is doing this through your practice of the Law or because you believed the message you heard?

Gospel, Lk 11:5-13

5 He also said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, "My friend, lend me three loaves,

6 because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him;"

7 and the man answers from inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you."

8 I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

9 'So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.

11 What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake?

12 Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a scorpion?

13 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

Daily Readings for Wednesday October 06, 2010

Reading 1, Gal 2:1-2, 7-14

1 It was not until fourteen years had gone by that I travelled up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and I took Titus with me too.

2 My journey was inspired by a revelation and there, in a private session with the recognised leaders, I expounded the whole gospel that I preach to the gentiles, to make quite sure that the efforts I was making and had already made should not be fruitless.

7 On the contrary, once they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been entrusted to me, just as to Peter the gospel for the circumcised

8 (for he who empowered Peter's apostolate to the circumcision also empowered mine to the gentiles),

9 and when they acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, then James and Cephas and John, who were the ones recognised as pillars, offered their right hands to Barnabas and to me as a sign of partnership: we were to go to the gentiles and they to they to the circumcised.

10 They asked nothing more than that we should remember to help the poor, as indeed I was anxious to do in any case.

11 However, when Cephas came to Antioch, then I did oppose him to his face since he was manifestly in the wrong.

12 Before certain people from James came, he used to eat with gentiles; but as soon as these came, he backed out and kept apart from them, out of fear of the circumcised.

13 And the rest of the Jews put on the same act as he did, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity.

14 When I saw, though, that their behaviour was not true to the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, 'Since you, though you are a Jew, live like the gentiles and not like the Jews, how can you compel the gentiles to live like the Jews?'

Gospel, Lk 11:1-4

1 Now it happened that he was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'

2 He said to them, 'When you pray, this is what to say: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;

3 give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,

4 for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.'

Daily Readings for Tuesday October 05, 2010

Reading 1, Gal 1:13-24

13 You have surely heard how I lived in the past, within Judaism, and how there was simply no limit to the way I persecuted the Church of God in my attempts to destroy it;

14 and how, in Judaism, I outstripped most of my Jewish contemporaries in my limitless enthusiasm for the traditions of my ancestors.

15 But when God, who had set me apart from the time when I was in my mother's womb, called me through his grace and chose

16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I should preach him to the gentiles, I was in no hurry to confer with any human being,

17 or to go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me. Instead, I went off to Arabia, and later I came back to Damascus.

18 Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas. I stayed fifteen days with him

19 but did not set eyes on any of the rest of the apostles, only James, the Lord's brother.

20 I swear before God that what I have written is the truth.

21 After that I went to places in Syria and Cilicia;

22 and was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judaea which are in Christ,

23 they simply kept hearing it said, 'The man once so eager to persecute us is now preaching the faith that he used to try to destroy,'

24 and they gave glory to God for me.

Gospel, Lk 10:38-42

38 In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking.

40 Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.'

41 But the Lord answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things,

42 and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.'

Holy Father prays that rosary might fortify faithful in theological virtues

At noon on Sunday, Pope Benedict prayed that all people might be strengthened in the faith, hope and charity through the intercession of Mary. He asked, in particular, that she lead the faithful to "walk quickly and joyfully on the way of holiness."

Pope Benedict prayed the Angelus with an estimated 30,000 people present in Palermo, Sicily at the city's Foro Italico park during his pastoral visit there. Widely present among the attendees were banners bearing images of Fr. Pino Puglisi, a much-loved priest who was killed in Palermo by the mafia in 1993.

Reminded of the island's strong Marian devotion, Pope Benedict entrusted all Sicilian faithful to the Virgin Mary before the Angelus. He especially asked Our Lady to support families in love and educational commitment, to make the "seeds" of vocations fruitful among young people and to give people "courage in trials, hope in difficulties and renewed impetus to do good.

"May the Madonna comfort the sick and all the suffering," he continued praying, "and help Christian communities so that no person be marginalized or in need, but that each, especially the smallest and weakest, might feel accepted and valued."

Mary, said the Pope, "is the model of Christian life" to whom "we ask most of all to help us walk quickly and joyfully on the way of holiness, in the footsteps of so many brilliant witnesses of Christ, children of the Sicilian lands."

Remembering the concurrent celebration of the beatification of Anna Maria Adorni in Parma, Italy on Sunday, her devotion to saying the rosary and the beginning of the Marian month of October, the Holy Father prayed that the "daily meditation of the mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, the 'praying Virgin', might fortify us all in faith, hope and charity."

After the Mass, the Holy Father went to the Archbishop of Palermo's residence for lunch with all the bishops of Sicily. Following this occasion, his Sunday afternoon schedule included a meeting with priests, religious and seminarians at the cathedral and an open-air encounter with young people and families in a city square.

Daily Readings for Friday October 01, 2010

Reading 1, Jb 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

1 Then from the heart of the tempest Yahweh gave Job his answer. He said:

12 Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post,

13 to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 She turns it as red as a clay seal, she tints it as though it were a dress,

15 stealing the light from evil-doers and breaking the arm raised to strike.

16 Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss?

17 Have you been shown the gates of Death, have you seen the janitors of the Shadow dark as death?

18 Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth? Tell me all about it if you have!

19 Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live? -

20 You could then show them the way to their proper places, you could put them on the path home again!

21 If you do know, you must have been born when they were, you must be very old by now!

3 Job replied to Yahweh:

4 My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my hand over my mouth.

5 I have spoken once, I shall not speak again; I have spoken twice, I have nothing more to say.

Gospel, Lk 10:13-16

13 'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

14 And still, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you.

15 And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell.

16 'Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.'