Daily Bible Readings for Tuesday April 17, 2012

Reading 1, Acts 4:32-37

32 The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common.

33 The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all accorded great respect.

34 None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from the sale of them,

35 to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any who might be in need.

36 There was a Levite of Cypriot origin called Joseph whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas (which means 'son of encouragement').

37 He owned a piece of land and he sold it and brought the money and presented it to the apostles.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 93:1, 1-2, 5

1 Yahweh is king, robed in majesty, robed is Yahweh and girded with power.

2 The world is indeed set firm, it can never be shaken; your throne is set firm from of old, from all eternity you exist.

5 Your decrees stand firm, unshakeable, holiness is the beauty of your house, Yahweh, for all time to come.

Gospel, John 3:7-15

7 Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above.

8 The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

9 'How is that possible?' asked Nicodemus.

10 Jesus replied, 'You are the Teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things!

11 'In all truth I tell you, we speak only about what we know and witness only to what we have seen and yet you people reject our evidence.

12 If you do not believe me when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?

13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man;

14 as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up

15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. 

Daily Bible Readings for Tuesday April 03, 2012

Reading 1, Isaiah 49:1-6

1 Coasts and islands, listen to me, pay attention, distant peoples. Yahweh called me when I was in the womb, before my birth he had pronounced my name.

2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow and concealed me in his quiver.

3 He said to me, 'Israel, you are my servant, through whom I shall manifest my glory.'

4 But I said, 'My toil has been futile, I have exhausted myself for nothing, to no purpose.' Yet all the while my cause was with Yahweh and my reward with my God.

5 And now Yahweh has spoken, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and to re-unite Israel to him;-I shall be honoured in Yahweh's eyes, and my God has been my strength.-

6 He said, 'It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I shall make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of earth.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15, 17

1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge, I shall never be put to shame.

2 In your saving justice rescue me, deliver me, listen to me and save me.

3 Be a sheltering rock for me, always accessible; you have determined to save me, for you are my rock, my fortress.

4 My God, rescue me from the clutches of the wicked, from the grasp of the rogue and the ruthless.

5 For you are my hope, Lord, my trust, Yahweh, since boyhood.

6 On you I have relied since my birth, since my mother's womb you have been my portion, the constant theme of my praise.

15 My lips shall proclaim your saving justice, your saving power all day long.

17 God, you have taught me from boyhood, and I am still proclaiming your marvels.

Gospel, John 13:21-33, 36-38

21 Having said this, Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared, 'In all truth I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.'

22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he meant.

23 The disciple Jesus loved was reclining next to Jesus;

24 Simon Peter signed to him and said, 'Ask who it is he means,'

25 so leaning back close to Jesus' chest he said, 'Who is it, Lord?'

26 Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I dip in the dish.' And when he had dipped the piece of bread he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.

27 At that instant, after Judas had taken the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus then said, 'What you are going to do, do quickly.'

28 None of the others at table understood why he said this.

29 Since Judas had charge of the common fund, some of them thought Jesus was telling him, 'Buy what we need for the festival,' or telling him to give something to the poor.

30 As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night.

31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified.

32 If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon.

33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.

36 Simon Peter said, 'Lord, where are you going?' Jesus replied, 'Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but later you shall follow me.'

37 Peter said to him, 'Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.'

38 'Lay down your life for me?' answered Jesus. 'In all truth I tell you, before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.' 

Daily Bible Readings for Wednesday September 28, 2011

Reading 1, Neh 2:1-8

1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, since I was in charge of the wine, I took the wine and offered it to the king. Now, he had never seen me looking depressed before.

2 So the king said to me, 'Why are you looking depressed? You are not sick! This must be a sadness of the heart.' Thoroughly alarmed by this,

3 I said to the king, 'May the king live for ever! How can I not look depressed when the city where the tombs of my ancestors are lies in ruins and its gates have been burnt down?'

4 The king then said to me, 'What would you like me to do?' Praying to the God of heaven,

5 I said to the king, 'If the king approves and your servant enjoys your favour, send me to Judah, to the city of the tombs of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.'

6 The king -- with the queen sitting beside him-said, 'How long will your journey take, and when will you come back?' Once I had given him a definite time, the king approved my mission.

7 I then said to the king, 'If the king approves, may I be given orders for the governors of Transeuphrates to let me pass through on my way to Judah?

8 Also an order for Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, to supply me with timber for the beams of the gates of the citadel of the Temple, for the city walls and for the house which I am to occupy?' These the king granted me because the kindly hand of my God was over me.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept at the memory of Zion.

2 On the poplars there we had hung up our harps.

3 For there our gaolers had asked us to sing them a song, our captors to make merry, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'

4 How could we sing a song of Yahweh on alien soil?

5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither!

6 May my tongue remain stuck to my palate if I do not keep you in mind, if I do not count Jerusalem the greatest of my joys.

Gospel, Lk 9:57-62

57 As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'

58 Jesus answered, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'

59 Another to whom he said, 'Follow me,' replied, 'Let me go and bury my father first.'

60 But he answered, 'Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.'

61 Another said, 'I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good -- bye to my people at home.'

62 Jesus said to him, 'Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.' 

Daily Bible Readings for Tuesday September 06, 2011

Reading 1, Col 2:6-15

6 So then, as you received Jesus as Lord and Christ, now live your lives in him,

7 be rooted in him and built up on him, held firm by the faith you have been taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.

8 Make sure that no one captivates you with the empty lure of a 'philosophy' of the kind that human beings hand on, based on the principles of this world and not on Christ.

9 In him, in bodily form, lives divinity in all its fullness,

10 and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every sovereignty and ruling force.

11 In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision performed, not by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your natural self. This is circumcision according to Christ.

12 You have been buried with him by your baptism; by which, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us every one of our sins.

14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross;

15 and he has stripped the sovereignties and the ruling forces, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11

1 [Hymn of Praise Of David] I shall praise you to the heights, God my King, I shall bless your name for ever and ever.

2 Day after day I shall bless you, I shall praise your name for ever and ever.

8 Yahweh is tenderness and pity, slow to anger, full of faithful love.

9 Yahweh is generous to all, his tenderness embraces all his creatures.

10 All your creatures shall thank you, Yahweh, and your faithful shall bless you.

11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingship and tell of your might,

Gospel, Lk 6:12-19

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.

17 He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

18 who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,

19 and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. 

Daily Bible Readings for Monday August 15, 2011

Reading 1, 1 Chr 15:3-4, 15-16; 16:1-2

3 David then summoned all Israel to Jerusalem, to move the ark of Yahweh to the place which he had prepared for it.

4 David also called the sons of Aaron and the Levites together:

15 and the Levites carried the ark of God with the shafts on their shoulders, as Moses had ordered in accordance with the word of Yahweh.

16 David also told the heads of the Levites to appoint their kinsmen as singers with the accompaniment of musical instruments, lyres, harps, and cymbals to play joyfully.

1 They brought the ark of God in and put it inside the tent which David had erected for it, and brought burnt offerings and made communion sacrifices in God's presence.

2 And when David had finished making burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 45:10, 11, 12, 16

10 Listen, my daughter, attend to my words and hear; forget your own nation and your ancestral home,

11 then the king will fall in love with your beauty; he is your lord, bow down before him.

12 The daughter of Tyre will court your favour with gifts, and the richest of peoples

16 Instead of your ancestors you will have sons; you will make them rulers over the whole world.

Gospel, Lk 11:27-28

27 It happened that as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, 'Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you!'

28 But he replied, 'More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'

Reading 2, 1 Cor 15:54b-57

54 And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin comes from the Law.

57 Thank God, then, for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Daily Bible Readings for Wednesday August 10, 2011

Reading 1, 2 Cor 9:6-10

6 But remember: anyone who sows sparsely will reap sparsely as well -- and anyone who sows generously will reap generously as well.

7 Each one should give as much as he has decided on his own initiative, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8 God is perfectly able to enrich you with every grace, so that you always have enough for every conceivable need, and your resources overflow in all kinds of good work.

9 As scripture says: To the needy he gave without stint, his uprightness stands firm for ever.

10 The one who so freely provides seed for the sower and food to eat will provide you with ample store of seed for sowing and make the harvest of your uprightness a bigger one:

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 112:1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9

1 Alleluia! How blessed is anyone who fears Yahweh, who delights in his commandments!

2 His descendants shall be powerful on earth, the race of the honest shall receive blessings:

5 All goes well for one who lends generously, who is honest in all his dealing;

6 for all time to come he will not stumble, for all time to come the upright will be remembered.

7 Bad news holds no fears for him, firm is his heart, trusting in Yahweh.

8 His heart held steady, he has no fears, till he can gloat over his enemies.

9 To the needy he gives without stint, his uprightness stands firm for ever; his reputation is founded on strength.

Gospel, Jn 12:24-26

24 In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.

25 Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

26 Whoever serves me, must follow me, and my servant will be with me wherever I am. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him. 

Daily Bible Readings for Tuesday August 09, 2011

Reading 1, Dt 31:1-8

1 Moses went and spoke to all Israel as follows,

2 'Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old, and can no longer act as leader. Yahweh has told me, "You shall not cross this Jordan."

3 Yahweh your God himself will lead you across, he himself will destroy and dispossess these nations confronting you; Joshua too will lead you across, as Yahweh has said.

4 Yahweh will treat them as he has treated Sihon and Og the Amorite kings and their country -- he destroyed them.

5 Yahweh will put them at your mercy, and you will deal with them exactly as prescribed by the commandments which I have laid down for you.

6 Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.'

7 Moses then summoned Joshua and, in the presence of all Israel, said to him, 'Be strong, stand firm; you will be the one to go with this people into the country which Yahweh has sworn to their ancestors that he would give them; you are to be the one who puts them into possession of it.

8 Yahweh himself will lead you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or desert you. Have no fear, do not be alarmed.'

Responsorial Psalm, Deuteronomy 32:3-4, 7, 8, 9, 12

3 For I shall proclaim the name of Yahweh. Oh, tell the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are equitable. A trustworthy God who does no wrong, he is the Honest, the Upright One!

7 Think back on the days of old, think over the years, down the ages. Question your father, let him explain to you, your elders, and let them tell you!

8 When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, he assigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God,

9 but Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance.

12 Yahweh alone is his guide; no alien god for him!

Gospel, Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

1 At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?'

2 So he called a little child to him whom he set among them.

3 Then he said, 'In truth I tell you, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.

4 And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.

5 'Anyone who welcomes one little child like this in my name welcomes me.

10 'See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven.

12 'Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray?

13 In truth I tell you, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.

14 Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

Daily Bible Readings for Wednesday August 03, 2011

Reading 1, Nm 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29a, 34-35

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

2 'Send out men, one from each tribe, to reconnoitre the land of Canaan which I am giving the Israelites. Each of them is to be a leading man of the tribe.'

25 After forty days they returned from reconnoitring the country.

26 Making their way to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, they made their report to them and the whole community, and displayed the country's produce.

27 This was the report they gave: 'We made our way into the country where you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey; here is what it produces.

28 At the same time, its inhabitants are a powerful people; the towns are fortified and very big; yes, and we saw the Anakim there.

29 The Amalekites occupy the Negeb area, the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites the highlands, and the Canaanites the sea coast and the banks of the Jordan.'

30 Caleb called the people round Moses to silence and then said, 'We must march in immediately and take it; we are certainly able to conquer it.'

31 But the men who had been with him said, 'We cannot attack these people; they are stronger than we are.'

32 And they began disparaging to the Israelites the country they had reconnoitred, saying, 'The country we have been to reconnoitre is a country that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were of enormous size.

33 We saw giants there too (the Anakim, descended from the Giants). We felt like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'

1 The whole community then cried out in dismay, and the people wept all that night.

26 Yahweh then spoke to Moses and Aaron and said:

27 'How much longer am I to endure this perverse community muttering against me? I have heard what the Israelites mutter against me.

28 Say to them, "As I live, Yahweh declares, I shall do to you what I have heard you saying.

29 In this desert your dead bodies will fall, all you who were counted in the census, from the age of twenty years and over who have muttered against me.

34 For forty days you reconnoitred the country. Each day will count as a year: for forty years you will bear the consequences of your guilt and learn what it means to reject me."

35 I, Yahweh, have spoken: this is how I swear to treat this entire perverse community united against me. In this desert, to the last man, they shall die.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 106:6-7, 13-14, 21-22, 23

6 Like our ancestors, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly, guiltily;

7 our ancestors in Egypt never grasped the meaning of your wonders. They did not bear in mind your countless acts of love, at the Sea of Reeds they defied the Most High;

13 But they soon forgot his achievements, they did not even wait for his plans;

14 they were overwhelmed with greed in the wastelands, in the solitary wastes they challenged God.

21 They forgot the God who was saving them, who had done great deeds in Egypt,

22 such wonders in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Sea of Reeds.

23 He thought of putting an end to them, had not Moses, his chosen one, taken a stand in the breach and confronted him, to turn his anger away from destroying them.

Gospel, Mt 15:21-28

21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Lord, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.'

23 But he said not a word in answer to her. And his disciples went and pleaded with him, saying, 'Give her what she wants, because she keeps shouting after us.'

24 He said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'

25 But the woman had come up and was bowing low before him. 'Lord,' she said, 'help me.'

26 He replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'

27 She retorted, 'Ah yes, Lord; but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters' table.'

28 Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your desire be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again. 

God always respects our freedom, says Pope

God always respects human freedom and never compels anybody into a connection with him. That was the message of Pope Benedict XVI in his midday Angelus address July 10.

“God does not force us to consider in Him, but draws us to Himself throughout the truth and goodness of his incarnate Son. Love, in fact, always respects freedom,” Pope Benedict said from the balcony of his summer house at Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles southeast of Rome.

The Pope based his end upon the story told by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading: the parable of the sower who plants seed with different degrees of success.

He said that for Jesus the allegory was “autobiographical” because “it reflects the experience of Jesus himself and of his preaching” as “different effects are achieved depending on the kind of reception given to the announcement.”

Pope Benedict then attempted to answer the question consequently raised by the apostles: why does Jesus speak in parables?

The Pope said that Jesus makes a dissimilarity between the general crowd and the apostles.

“To those who have already determined for him, he can speak openly of the Kingdom of God” while to others he must speak in metaphor “to kindle precisely the decision, the conversion of heart” needed. Jesus' parables “require effort to interpret, challenging one’s aptitude but also one’s freedom.”

“After all,” said the Pope, “the real ‘Parable’ of God is Jesus himself, his person, under the form of his humanity, hiding and yet enlightening the same deity.” In this way “God does not strength us to believe in Him, but draws us to himself through the truth and goodness of his incarnate Son.”

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.