Daily Readings for Tuesday January 04, 2011

Reading 1, 1 Jn 4:7-10

7 My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

8 Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.

9 This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.

10 Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.

Gospel, Mk 6:34-44

34 So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

35 By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, 'This is a lonely place and it is getting very late,

36 so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.'

37 He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' They answered, 'Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?'

38 He asked, 'How many loaves have you? Go and see.' And when they had found out they said, 'Five, and two fish.'

39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass,

40 and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties.

41 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and began handing them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all.

42 They all ate as much as they wanted.

43 They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish.

44 Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Daily Readings for Monday December 27, 2010

Reading 1, 1 Jn 1:1-4

1 Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme.

2 That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us.

3 We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete.

Gospel, Jn 20:1a, 2-8

1 It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb

2 and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,' she said, 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

3 So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

4 They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;

5 he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

6 Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground

7 and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

8 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.

Daily Readings for Thursday December 23, 2010

Reading 1, Mal 3:1-4, 23-24

1 'Look, I shall send my messenger to clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple; yes, the angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yahweh Sabaoth.

2 Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire, like fullers' alkali.

3 He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they can make the offering to Yahweh with uprightness.

4 The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be acceptable to Yahweh as in former days, as in the years of old.

23 'Look, I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and awesome Day of Yahweh comes.

24 He will reconcile parents to their children and children to their parents, to forestall my putting the country under the curse of destruction.'

Gospel, Lk 1:57-66

57 The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son;

58 and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy.

59 Now it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,

60 but his mother spoke up. 'No,' she said, 'he is to be called John.'

61 They said to her, 'But no one in your family has that name,'

62 and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called.

63 The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, 'His name is John.' And they were all astonished.

64 At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God.

65 All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea.

66 All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. 'What will this child turn out to be?' they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

Christmas with the pope online

Celebrating Christmas with the pope at home or on the go couldn’t be easier. All you need is an Internet connection or an iPhone.

Today the Vatican announced that it is offering a new “Smooth Streaming” service to broadcast papal Christmas events via the websites of Vatican Radio, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the council’s Pope2you site and iPhone.

The CNS Crossplayer, available on client websites such as this, also offers a “Vatican Live” feed from the Vatican Television Center of papal ceremonies in addition to other colorful content produced by CNS staff in Washington DC and Rome.

The new “Smooth Streaming” technology means people will experience top quality video in high definition.

The papal events that will be broadcast live over the Internet and iPhone are the following (listed in local Rome time):

– Christmas Eve Mass from St. Peter’s Basilica Friday Dec. 24 starting at 10pm.

– Christmas Day message and “Urbi et Orbi” blessing from St. Peter’s Square Sat. Dec. 25 starting at 12 noon.

– Mass for World Day of Peace from St. Peter’s Basilica Sat. Jan. 1 starting at 10am.

Live commentary will be available in six languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese) and one channel will offer live audio with no commentary.

Commentary in Chinese will be available for the Christmas Eve Mass and commentary in Arabic will be offered for New Year’s Day.

Daily Readings for Wednesday December 22, 2010

Reading 1, 1 Sm 1:24-28

24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yahweh at Shiloh; the child was very young.

25 They sacrificed the bull and led the child to Eli.

26 She said, 'If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh.

27 This is the child for which I was praying, and Yahweh has granted me what I asked of him.

28 Now I make him over to Yahweh for the whole of his life. He is made over to Yahweh.' They then worshipped Yahweh there.

Gospel, Lk 1:46-56

46 And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;

48 because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,

49 for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,

50 and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.

51 He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.

52 He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.

53 He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.

54 He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love

55 -according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.

56 Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.

Ancient practice seen as way for modern Catholics to get close to Jesus

"Lectio divina," an antique scriptural meditative practice, is an ideal way for modern Catholics to unplug from worldly distractions and establish holy intimacy, enduring friendship and fruitful companionship with Jesus Christ, according to Trappist Brother Simeon Leiva.

Brother Leiva, a Scripture scholar and monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass., said encountering the living Christ in shared knowledge and love is transformative and challenging. "The word of God must never be a calming narcotic. God calls us out of our comfort zone and offers us new life on his own conditions," he said.

"The movement toward Jesus requires bravery and generosity and is both exciting and frightening," Brother Leiva said."Lectio divina" -- "the reading of the sacred" or "the divine reading" -- dates from the second century. It uses a pattern of reading, reflection, prayer, thought and action to meditate on short scriptural passages.

Brother Leiva addressed priests of the Archdiocese of New York Dec. 9 at the American Bible Society's launch of two books dedicated to the practice: "The Catholic Prayer Bible -- 'Lectio Divina' Edition" and "Pray With the Bible, Meditate With the Word -- a Manual for the Prayerful
Reading of the Bible."

The new books are a timely reaction to a post-synodal article in which Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to get to know the Scriptures better."Verbum Domini" ("The Word of the Lord") is an apostolic exhortation on the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God. In it and in earlier statements, Pope Benedict optional "lectio divina" as an effective way to encounter Christ in Scripture and respond with openness and generosity.

Brother Leiva said "lectio divina" cultivates the human heart to activate to its uppermost potential and helps bring Christian souls to their natural state with Jesus Christ at the center of their being. "Union with Jesus is the whole of my life and my association with him is the primal relationship that invigorates all others," he said.

He described "lectio divina" as leisurely, ruminative, cordial, contemplative, disinterested, provocative, ecclesial and mystagogical. "Each session of 'lectio' is a unassuming foretaste of heavenly experiences," he said. He called "lectio divina" a tool to "make our lives themselves a living exegesis of the Word."

Brother Leiva told Catholic News Service that "lectio divina" is "a Catholic way to decompress and pray at the same time. For whatever reason you practice it, it requires you to slow down and unplug yourself. It's healthy and it's very achievable."

Paraphrasing St. Bernard, the Trappist said, "'Stay at home, you may receive an significant visitor.' "'Lectio divina' is coming home to oneself."Mario Paredes, presidential liaison to the American Bible Society's Catholic ministries, said the "lectio divina" initiative is an effort to get the Bible read. "We have studies that show there is an excess of Bibles, three to five in each household, but the problem is that no one is reading them," Paredes said. "We're uneven tactics. 'Lectio divina' is not a Bible course, but an invitation to read the Bible carefully."

Paredes said the Bible society provides the "lectio divina" materials in English and Spanish and organizes and subsidizes training sessions for parish leaders in dioceses across the United States. He said 2,000 people attended training in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Miami, Houston, Brooklyn, N.Y., Chicago, Newark, N.J., and Norwich and Bridgeport, Conn., and are now training others.

Paredes said "lectio divina" is an effective tool to "redirect the enthusiasm of the charismatic movement."He told CNS, "There are many charismatic groups that read and interpret the Bible in a very free way. 'Lectio divina' helps people really know and develop a reading of Scripture within the framework of the teaching and tradition of the church."

Daily Readings for Tuesday December 21, 2010

Reading 1, Sg 2:8-14

8 BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9 My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.

10 My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.

11 For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

12 'Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.

14 'My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.'

Gospel, Lk 1:39-45

39 Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah.

40 She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.

41 Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

42 She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

43 Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?

44 Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.

45 Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'