Daily Bible Readings for Thursday May 03, 2012

Reading 1, First Corinthians 15:1-8

1 I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is; you accepted it and took your stand on it,

 2 and you are saved by it, if you keep to the message I preached to you; otherwise your coming to believe was in vain.

3 The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tradition which I had myself received, was that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures,

4 and that he was buried; and that on the third day, he was raised to life, in accordance with the scriptures;

5 and that he appeared to Cephas; and later to the Twelve;

6 and next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still with us, though some have fallen asleep;

7 then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles.

8 Last of all he appeared to me too, as though I was a child born abnormally.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 19:2-3, 4-5 

2 day discourses of it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge.

3 No utterance at all, no speech, not a sound to be heard,

4 but from the entire earth the design stands out, this message reaches the whole world. High above, he pitched a tent for the sun,

5 who comes forth from his pavilion like a bridegroom, delights like a champion in the course to be run.

Gospel, John 14:6-14 6 

Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

7 If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.

8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him,

9 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"?

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works.

11 You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works.

12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.

13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Daily Bible Readings for Thursday July 07, 2011

Reading 1, Gn 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5

18 At this, Judah went up to him and said, 'May it please my lord, let your servant have a word privately with my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.

19 My lord questioned his servants, "Have you father or brother?"

20 And we said to my lord, "We have an old father, and a younger brother born of his old age. His brother is dead, so he is the only one by that mother now left, and his father loves him."

21 Then you said to your servants, "Bring him down to me, so that I can set eyes on him."

23 But you said to your servants, "If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not be admitted to my presence again."

24 When we went back to your servant my father, we repeated to him what my lord had said.

25 So when our father said, "Go back and get us a little food,"

26 we said, "We cannot go down. We shall go only if our youngest brother is with us for, unless our youngest brother is with us, we shall not be admitted to the man's presence."

27 So your servant our father said to us, "You know that my wife bore me two children.

28 When one of them left me, I supposed that he must have been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.

29 If you take this one from me too and any harm comes to him, you will send my white head down to Sheol with grief."

1 Then Joseph could not control his feelings in front of all his retainers, and he exclaimed, 'Let everyone leave me.' No one therefore was present with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers,

2 but he wept so loudly that all the Egyptians heard, and the news reached Pharaoh's palace.

3 Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?' His brothers could not answer him, they were so dumbfounded at seeing him.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come closer to me.' When they had come closer to him he said, 'I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt.

5 But now, do not grieve, do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here, since God sent me before you to preserve your lives.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

16 He called down famine on the land, he took away their food supply;

17 he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.

18 So his feet were weighed down with shackles, his neck was put in irons.

19 In due time his prophecy was fulfilled, the word of Yahweh proved him true.

20 The king sent orders to release him, the ruler of nations set him free;

21 he put him in charge of his household, the ruler of all he possessed,

Gospel, Mt 10:7-15

7 And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.

8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.

9 Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses,

10 with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the labourer deserves his keep.

11 'Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave.

12 As you enter his house, salute it,

13 and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you.

14 And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet.

15 In truth I tell you, on the Day of Judgement it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. 

Divine Mercy image in Chicago's Daly Plaza reaching thousands

One of the fastest-growing devotions in the Catholic Church is attainment the heart of downtown Chicago through the job of the Heralds of Divine Mercy. The organization is openly displaying a large image of Christ through a nine-day campaign of 24-hour prayer and evangelism.

“The Divine Mercy Project is actually about having an opportunity to witness to the culture, in environments we're usually pushed out of,” said Michael C.X. Sullivan, a 40-year-old lawyer who developed the idea previous this year. “It's specifically for the change of Chicago, America, and the world.”

The prayer vigil is taking place in Daly Plaza, a crowded area that features a numeral of civil administrative buildings. There, the Heralds of Divine Mercy are displaying a large cross down with a ten-foot-tall image of Christ based on the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska. While some participants remain in prayer, others take their turn distributing cards that endorse the message of God's mercy.