http://www.evangelizo.org/ Receive every morning the daily lectures, by-email ! Catholic service, multilingual, free and confidential, according to liturgical calendar ... en Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:41:07 +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 2010-02-09 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel, and stretching forth his hands toward heaven, he said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below; you keep your covenant of kindness with your servants who are faithful to you with their whole heart. "Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built! Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant, utter before you this day. May your eyes watch night and day over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place. Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they offer in this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling and grant pardon. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-02-09 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God. As the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, LORD of hosts, my king and my God! Happy are those who dwell in your house! They never cease to praise you. Selah O God, look kindly on our shield; look upon the face of your anointed. Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Better the threshold of the house of my God than a home in the tents of the wicked. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-02-09 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.' Yet you say, 'If a person says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things." Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-02-09 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ May I desire nothing apart from you... Grant that I may often turn my heart towards you and, when I falter, weigh my fault contritely with firm purpose of amendment. Grant me, O Lord my God, a watchful heart that no vain thought may lead away from you; a noble heart that no unworthy affection may debase; an upright heart that no evasiveness may turn aside; a firm heart that no adversity may break; a free heart that no forceful passion may master. Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind that knows you, an eagerness that seeks you, a wisdom that finds you, a life that pleases you, a perseverance that expects you confidently and a confidence that endlessly possesses you. Grant me to be afflicted through repentance by what you endured, to use your gifts through grace along the way, to rejoice in your joys especially in our homeland through glory. O You who, being God, live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2010-02-08 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ At the order of Solomon, the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the Israelites, came to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD'S covenant from the city of David (which is Zion). All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month). When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark; they carried the ark of the LORD and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent. (The priests and Levites carried them.) King Solomon and the entire community of Israel present for the occasion sacrificed before the ark sheep and oxen too many to number or count. The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple. The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above. There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites at their departure from the land of Egypt. When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the LORD'S glory had filled the temple of the LORD. Then Solomon said, "The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud; I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever." Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-02-08 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ "We have heard of it in Ephrathah; we have found it in the fields of Jaar. Let us enter God's dwelling; let us worship at God's footstool." "Arise, LORD, come to your resting place, you and your majestic ark. Your priests will be clothed with justice; your faithful will shout for joy." For the sake of David your servant, do not reject your anointed. Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-02-08 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-02-08 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ Even for restoring the dead to life the Savior did not stop at acting by word alone, though it was the bearer of divine commands. For such a surpassing work he took his own flesh as his assistant – if one might put it that way – that he might show that it has the power to give life and that he might cause it to be seen that it is entirely one with him. For it is indeed his very own flesh and not an alien body. This is what happened when he restored to life the synagogue leader's daughter, saying to her: «My child, arise!» (Mk 5,41). He took her by the hand, as it is written. As God he gave her back her life by his all-powerful command and animated her also by contact with his holy flesh. Thus he bore witness that, in flesh as in his word, one and the same divine energy was at work. In the same way, too, when he came to a town called Nain where the widow's only son was being buried, he touched the coffin, saying: «Young man, I tell you, arise!» (Lk 7,14). Thus he not only conferred to his word the power to raise the dead, but he even touched the dead to show that his body is life-giving and, through his flesh, he caused life to pass into their corpses. If the touch alone of his sacred flesh restores life to a corrupting body, what profit shall we not discover in his life-giving eucharist when we make of it our food? It will wholly transform in its own property, which is immortality, those who participate in it. Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2010-02-07 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!" At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said; "send me!" Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2010-02-07 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ Of David. I thank you, LORD, with all my heart; before the gods to you I sing. I bow low toward your holy temple; I praise your name for your fidelity and love. For you have exalted over all your name and your promise. When I cried out, you answered; you strengthened my spirit. All the kings of earth will praise you, LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth. They will sing of the ways of the LORD: "How great is the glory of the LORD!" Though I walk in the midst of dangers, you guard my life when my enemies rage. You stretch out your hand; your right hand saves me. The LORD is with me to the end. LORD, your love endures forever. Never forsake the work of your hands! Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 2 2010-02-07 - LECTIO 2 http://dailygospel.org/ Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God (that is) with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2010-02-07 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets." When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2010-02-07 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ When Jesus put out to sea with his disciples he wasn't just thinking of that particular fishing expedition. That is why... he said to Peter: «Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men». And divine effectiveness will not be lacking in the case of this new kind of fishing, either: the apostles will become the agents of great marvels in spite of their personal failings. And we, too, if we struggle daily to acquire sanctity in our day to day lives, each according to our own condition in the midst of the world and the exercise of our professions, then I venture to affirm that our Lord will make instruments of us, capable of accomplishing miracles, even the most exceptional ones if needs be. We will give light to the blind. Which of us could not tell of a thousand examples of the way in which someone blind, almost from their birth, has regained their sight and received the light of Christ in all its splendor? Someone else was deaf and another dumb, unable to understand or articulate a single word as children of God...: now they understand and express themselves like adults... «In the name of Jesus» the apostles give strength back to a sick man who was incapable of all useful action... «In the name of the Lord, stand up and walk!» (Acts 3,6). Another, a dead man who already had a stench, heard God's voice as at the time of the miracle of the widow of Naim's son: «Young man, I tell you, arise!» (Lk 7,14; Acts 9,40; cf. Jn 11). We will work miracles like Christ, miracles like the first apostles. Perhaps these wonders have happened in you, in me: perhaps we were blind or deaf or sick or smelt of death when the Word of God snatched us from our prostration. If we love Christ, if we follow him definitively, if he alone is the one we seek and not our own selves, then in his name we will be able to give without cost what we have received without cost. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100