Daily Bible Readings for Friday February 18, 2011

Reading 1, Gn 11:1-9

1 The whole world spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary.

2 Now, as people moved eastwards they found a valley in the land of Shinar where they settled.

3 They said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.' For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen.

4 'Come,' they said, 'let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we do not get scattered all over the world.'

5 Now Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built.

6 'So they are all a single people with a single language!' said Yahweh. 'This is only the start of their undertakings! Now nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they cannot understand one another.'

8 Yahweh scattered them thence all over the world, and they stopped building the city.

9 That is why it was called Babel, since there Yahweh confused the language of the whole world, and from there Yahweh scattered them all over the world.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 33:10-11, 12-13, 14-15

10 Yahweh thwarts the plans of nations, frustrates the counsels of peoples;

11 but Yahweh's own plan stands firm for ever, his heart's counsel from age to age.

12 How blessed the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his heritage.

13 From heaven Yahweh looks down, he sees all the children of Adam,

14 from the place where he sits he watches all who dwell on the earth;

15 he alone moulds their hearts, he understands all they do.

Gospel, Mk 8:34-9:1

34 He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

36 What gain, then, is it for anyone to win the whole world and forfeit his life?

37 And indeed what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?

38 For if anyone in this sinful and adulterous generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'

1 And he said to them, 'In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.'