Daily Bible Readings for Thursday January 19, 2012

Reading 1, First Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7

6 On their return, when David was coming back from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tambourines, sistrums and cries of joy;

7 and as they danced the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.

8 Saul was very angry; the incident displeased him. 'They have given David the tens of thousands,' he said, 'but me only the thousands; what more can he have, except the throne?'

9 And Saul watched David jealously from that day onwards.

1 Saul let his son Jonathan and all his servants know of his intention to kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, held David in great affection;

2 and Jonathan warned David, 'My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you, so be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding, stay out of sight.

3 I shall go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you will be, and shall talk to my father about you; I shall see what the situation is and then tell you.'

4 Jonathan spoke highly of David to Saul his father and said, 'The king should not harm his servant David; far from harming you, what he has done has been greatly to your advantage.

5 He took his life in his hands, he killed the Philistine, and Yahweh brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw for yourself. How pleased you were! Why then sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?'

6 Saul was impressed by Jonathan's words. Saul swore, 'As Yahweh lives, I will not kill him.'

7 Jonathan called David and told him all this. Jonathan then brought him to Saul, and David remained in attendance as before.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 56:2-3, 9-10, 10-12, 13-14

2 Those who harry me lie in wait for me all day, countless are those who attack me from the heights.

3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you,

9 Then my enemies will turn back on the day when I call. This I know, that God is on my side.

10 In God whose word I praise, in Yahweh whose word I praise,

11 in God I put my trust and have no fear; what can mortal man do to me?

12 I am bound by the vows I have made, God, I will pay you the debt of thanks,

13 for you have saved my life from death to walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.

Gospel, Mark 3:7-12

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea,

8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea and Transjordan and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him.

9 And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed.

10 For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.

11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, 'You are the Son of God!'

12 But he warned them strongly not to make him known. 

Daily Bible Readings for Thursday July 21, 2011

Reading 1, Ex 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b

1 Three months to the day after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the desert of Sinai.

2 Setting out from Rephidim, they reached the desert of Sinai and pitched camp in the desert; there, facing the mountain, Israel pitched camp.

9 Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear when I speak to you and believe you ever after.' Moses then told Yahweh what the people had said.

10 Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Go to the people and tell them to sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

11 and be ready for the day after tomorrow; for the day after tomorrow, in the sight of all the people, Yahweh will descend on Mount Sinai.

16 Now at daybreak two days later, there were peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, dense cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast; and, in the camp, all the people trembled.

17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the bottom of the mountain.

18 Mount Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because Yahweh had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke rose like smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain shook violently.

19 Louder and louder grew the trumpeting. Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder.

20 Yahweh descended on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain; and Moses went up.

Responsorial Psalm, Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56

52 May you be blessed, Lord, God of our ancestors, be praised and extolled for ever. Blessed be your glorious and holy name, praised and extolled for ever.

53 May you be blessed in the Temple of your sacred glory, exalted and glorified above all for ever:

54 blessed on the throne of your kingdom, exalted above all, glorified for ever:

55 blessed are you who fathom the abyss, enthroned on the winged creatures, praised and exalted above all for ever:

56 blessed in the expanse of the heavens, exalted and glorified for ever.

Gospel, Mt 13:10-17

10 Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?'

11 In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted.

12 Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has.

13 The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.

14 So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!

15 This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.

16 'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!

17 In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

Pope points to Moses as model of intercessory prayer

Pope Benedict XVI said at the June 1 general audience that intercessory prayer helps us to grow in deeper information of God and his mercy and makes us more competent of loving others in a self-sacrificial way.

Drawing upon the life of Moses, the Pope told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that the Old Testament prophet not only led his people out of slavery in Egypt but also gave them and us an example of how to offer prayers of intervention.

“Even when the people at Sinai, asked Aaron to make the golden calf, Moses prays, and this is very symbolic of his role as intercessor.”

The Pope recognized various aspects of the intercessory prayer of Moses we can learn from. The first he named was fasting, just as Moses did for 40 days on Mount Sinai.

“The act of eating, in fact, involves taking the food that sustains us, so fasting, giving up food is, in this case, of religious significance: it is a way to point out that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that profits from the mouth of the Lord.”

Congregation for the Clergy on the Third Sunday of Easter

The Risen Lord uses so much gentleness with us! He doesn't force us to 'believe' but He offers us the instruments that enable us to judge based on the perfect measure of our own hearts. As St Augustine extraordinarily wrote in the opening of his Confessions 'our heart is fidgety until it rests in you' (St. Augustine, Conf. 1,1,1:PL 32,659-661)

It is the first day of the week after the great Jewish feast of the Passover and Jerusalem is trying to return to its usual routine. The shop keepers count their profits and the Temple priests congratulate themselves because they were able to kill the 'Galilean'. For the disciples and those who were 'foreigners' in Jerusalem, it is time to start to come back to their own homes and their normal lives.

Curtains were closed and lights were dimmed not only due to the celebration of Jerusalem's solemn festival but also because everyone had hope that the man Jesus 'would be the One to convert Israel' (Lk 24:21). The two disciples from Emmaus are to be found, along their journey, talking to 'Jesus in person', 'but their eyes were banned from recognising Him' (Lk 24:16).

Why did the Lord not tell the disciples straight away who He was? Indeed, in the dialogue that the liturgy presents to us today, it almost seems that Jesus did all He could to avoid illuminating His true identity. Firstly, He pretended not to know what Cleopas and his companion were discussing and then He went on to 'explain to them the passages throughout scriptures that were about Himself' (Lk 24:27) but without making direct reference to Himself.

At the end of the journey, 'He made to go on' (Lk 24:28). Jesus didn't want to play games with His disciples, but He required to educate their hearts, and also ours, so that we won't be 'slow'! In fact, when faced with the Lord's Presence, we find that the heart quickly 'burns' upon hearing His words as we are grateful of the fact that we were unchained not by 'gold and silver but by the precious blood of Christ' who is the 'blameless and spotless' lamb (Cfr. 1 Pet 1:19).

Daily Bible Readings for Tuesday May 10, 2011

Reading 1, Acts 7:51-8:1a

51 'You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

52 Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers.

53 In spite of being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it.'

54 They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.

55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

56 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'

57 All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him,

58 thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

60 Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.

1 Saul approved of the killing. That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles scattered to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria.

Reading 1, Acts 7:51-8:1a

51 'You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

52 Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers.

53 In spite of being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it.'

54 They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.

55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

56 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'

57 All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him,

58 thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

60 Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.

1 Saul approved of the killing. That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles scattered to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria. 

Bring expect to modern man, Pope tells Venetians

On Sunday Pope Benedict XVI renowned Mass near Venice for a congregation of 300,000, telling them to give hope to modern man by “listening to and loving the Word of God.”

“Dear brothers and sisters! I have come among you as the Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter's ministry to corroborate fidelity to the Gospel and communion,” he told those gathered in San Giuliano Park in Mestre, an industrial town on the other side of the lagoon from the famous island city of Venice.

“As in the past, when those churches were known for apostolic zeal and pastoral dynamism, so today we need to endorse and protect the truth with courage and unity of the faith. You must give an account of Christian hope for modern man, often overwhelmed by vast and worrying issues that arise in crisis and shake the very foundations of his organism and his activity.”

In a grand imitation of the byzantine splendor of the city’s St. Mark’s basilica, the organizers of today’s Mass had erected a domed sanctuary draped with golden mosaics on paper on cloth.

There, the Pope gave a explanation on today’s gospel, which recounts the disappointment of two disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus. They shared their gloom while on foot towards the town of Emmaus near Jerusalem.

Vatican says Bin Laden ‘gravely in charge,’ hopes for peace

The Vatican says it does not celebrate in the death of Osama bin Laden.

“Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious liability of each and every one of us before God and before man, and hopes and commits himself so that no event is an opportunity for additional growth of hatred, but for peace,” spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, S.J. said on May 2.

Fr. Lombardi’s comments follow the statement earlier today that the Al-Qaeda leader had been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. President Barack Obama conversant the media that Bin Laden had died in a “firefight” at a compound in an urban area outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. A U.S. official quoted by the Associated Press said Bin Laden's body has now been buried at sea.

Bin Laden was wanted in association with a number of terrorist atrocities counting the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. Those attacks alone killed over 3,000 people. Fr. Lombardi reflected upon the crimes Bin Laden stood accused of.

“Osama bin Laden – as we all know – was gravely in charge for promoting division and hatred between peoples, causing the end of countless innocent lives, and of exploiting religions to this end.”

Daily Bible Readings for Monday February 28, 2011

Reading 1, Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 17:19-27

19 Their actions are all as plain as the sun to him, and his eyes rest constantly on their conduct.

20 Their iniquities are not hidden from him, all their sins are before the Lord.

21

22 Almsgiving is like a signet ring to him, he cherishes generosity like the pupil of an eye.

23 One day he will rise and reward them, he will repay their deserts on their own heads.

24 But to those who repent he permits return, and he encourages those who have lost hope.

25 Return to the Lord and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.

26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.

27 Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

1 [Of David Poem] How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin blotted out.

2 How blessed are those to whom Yahweh imputes no guilt, whose spirit harbours no deceit.

5 I made my sin known to you, did not conceal my guilt. I said, 'I shall confess my offence to Yahweh.' And you, for your part, took away my guilt, forgave my sin.Pause

6 That is why each of your faithful ones prays to you in time of distress. Even if great floods overflow, they will never reach your faithful.

7 You are a refuge for me, you guard me in trouble, with songs of deliverance you surround me.Pause

Gospel, Mk 10:17-27

17 He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

18 Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

19 You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.'

20 And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.'

21 Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'

22 But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

23 Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!'

24 The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them, 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.'

26 They were more astonished than ever, saying to one another, 'In that case, who can be saved?'

27 Jesus gazed at them and said, 'By human resources it is impossible, but not for God: because for God everything is possible.' 

May the holiness of consecrated people edify the Church, Pope prays

At the conclusion of Evening Prayer in Feb. 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI offered a special prayer that those in the consecrated life would edify the entire Church with their holiness of life.

“My thoughts turn affectionately to all consecrated men and women everywhere, who I entrust to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the Pope said.

“Oh Mary, Mother of the Church,

I entrust consecrated life to you

That you may obtain for it the fullness of divine light.

May it remain attentive to the Word of God,

Humble in the following of Jesus your son and our Lord,

Open to the visit of the Holy Spirit,

In the daily joy of the Magnificat,

So that the Church might be edified by the holiness of life

Of these your sons and daughters

In the commandment of love.

Amen.”