http://www.evangelizo.org/ Receive every morning the daily lectures, by-email ! Catholic service, multilingual, free and confidential, according to liturgical calendar ... en Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:41:01 +0100 copyrigth © evangelizo.org http://www.evangelizo.org/www/img-lang/croix.gif http://www.evangelizo.org/ «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 LECTIO 1 2010-03-10 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ "Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.' For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today? "However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-03-10 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ Glorify the LORD, Jerusalem; Zion, offer praise to your God, Who has strengthened the bars of your gates, blessed your children within you, The LORD sends a command to earth; his word runs swiftly! Thus snow is spread like wool, frost is scattered like ash, The LORD also proclaims his word to Jacob, decrees and laws to Israel. God has not done this for other nations; of such laws they know nothing. Hallelujah! Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-03-10 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-03-10 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ «I have not come to abolish, but to fulfil.» The strength and power of these words of the Son of God enclose a profound mystery. For the Law prescribed works, but it directed all those works towards faith in realities that would be made manifest in Christ: for the Savior's teaching and Passion are the great and mysterious design of the Father's will. Under the veil of its inspired words, the Law made known the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, his incarnation, Passion and resurrection. The prophets, no less than the apostles, teach us repeatedly that the mystery of Christ had been prepared from all eternity to be revealed in our own times... Christ did not want us to think that his own works comprised anything other than the Law's demands. That is why he himself insisted: «I have not come to abolish, but to fulfil.» Heaven and earth... will disappear but not the least commandment of the Law, for all the Law and the prophets find their fulfilment in Christ. At the time of his Passion... he declared: «It is finished» (Jn 19,30). And at that very moment every word of the prophets was confirmed. For this reason Christ declares that not even the least of God's commandments can be cancelled without offending God... Nothing can be more insignificant than the smallest. And humblest of all was the Lord's Passion and death on the cross. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2010-03-09 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ In the fire Azariah stood up and prayed aloud: For your name's sake, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, To whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea. For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins. We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no holocaust, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you. But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-03-09 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ Make known to me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. For you I wait all the long day, because of your goodness, LORD. Remember your compassion and love, O LORD; for they are ages old. Remember no more the sins of my youth; remember me only in light of your love. Good and upright is the LORD, who shows sinners the way, Guides the humble rightly, and teaches the humble the way. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-03-09 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ Then Peter approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart." Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-03-09 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ Christ asks two things of us: to condemn our own offences and forgive those of others, doing the first of these for the sake of the second, which will become easier in consequence since whoever reflects on his own sins becomes less severe towards those of his fellow in wretchedness. And forgiving, too, not merely in word but from the heart, lest we turn on ourselves the barb with which we aimed to stab others. What hurt is your enemy capable of inflicting compared to that which you inflict on yourself?… If you give way to indignation and anger you will be hurt, not by the insult he has done to you, but by the resentment you bear for it. So don’t say: “He has insulted and slandered me and caused me a great deal of unhappiness.” The more you say he has hurt you, the more you show he has done you good since he has given you the chance of being purified of your sins. Thus, the more he does to offend you, the more he places you in a position to obtain forgiveness for your own offences from God. For if we will, no one can harm us; even our enemies do us great service by this means… Consider, then, how many advantages you draw from an insult endured humbly and gently. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2010-03-08 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. Now the Arameans had captured from the land of Israel in a raid a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman's wife. "If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria," she said to her mistress, "he would cure him of his leprosy." Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. "Go," said the king of Aram. "I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: "Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!" When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: "Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel." Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. The prophet sent him the message: "Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean." But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?" With this, he turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him. "My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said." So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant." Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-03-08 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God? Send your light and fidelity, that they may be my guide And bring me to your holy mountain, to the place of your dwelling, That I may come to the altar of God, to God, my joy, my delight. Then I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-03-08 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-03-08 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ The poor widow had gone out to look for two blocks of wood to bake some bread: it is at this time that Elijah meets her. This woman is the symbol of the Church; because a cross is made of two pieces of wood, the woman, who was destined to die, searches for something by which to live eternally. There is a hidden mystery in this...Elijah tells her: “Go, feed me first with your poverty, and you will not run out of your goods”. What a blessed poverty! If the widow received here on earth such retribution, what a reward may she hope to receive in the life to come! I insist on this point: let us not expect to harvest the fruit of our sowing now, at the time we sow. Here on earth, we sow with difficulty what will be the harvest of our good works, but only later on will we gather the fruits of this with joy, according to what is said: “Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, Will return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves” (Ps 125,6). Actually Elijah's act towards this woman was not her reward, but only a symbol of it. For if this widow would have been rewarded here on earth for having fed the man of God, what a miserable sowing, what a poor crop! She received just a temporal good: a jar of flour that did not go empty and a jug of oil that did not run dry till the day the Lord watered the earth with his rain. This sign that was given to her by God for a few days was therefore the symbol of the future life where our reward could not be lessened. Our flour will be God himself! As the flour of this woman did not run out in these days, we will not be deprived of God for all the rest of eternity...Sow with faith and your harvest will surely come; it will come later on, but when it will come, you will reap it endlessly. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100