http://www.evangelizo.org/ Receive every morning the daily lectures, by-email ! Catholic service, multilingual, free and confidential, according to liturgical calendar ... en Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:10:16 +0100 copyright 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 2012-02-07 - 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, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2012-02-07 - 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, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2012-02-07 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 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, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2012-02-07 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ Who created everything? Who created you yourself? What are all these creatures? What are you? And how are we to say who he is who created all this? To speak it your thought must conceive it...: so let your thought move towards him, draw close to him. If you want a close look at something, you draw close to it... But God is not discerned except by the mind, he is not grasped except by the heart. And where is this heart with which one can see God? «Happy the pure in heart, they shall see God» (Mt 5,8)... In one of the Psalms we read: «Come close to him and you will be enlightened» (Ps 34[33],6 Vg). To come close so as to be enlightened you must hate the darkness... You are a sinner, you must become righteous. But you won't be able to receive righteousness if evil still gives you pleasure. Destroy it within your heart and cleanse it; cast sin from your heart where He whom you desire to see desires to dwell. The human soul, our «inner self» (Eph 3,16), draws as close to God as it can: that inner self recreated in God's image, which was created in God's image (Gn 1,26) but fell away from God into unlikeness. It is true that we don't either draw nearer or fall away from God in space: you distance yourself from God if you no longer resemble him; if you come close to him then you do resemble him. Notice how our Lord wishes us to draw close to him: first of all he makes us like him so that we can be near him. He tells us: «Be like your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good.» Therefore, love your enemies (Mt 5,45.44). To the extent that this love increases within you it will bring you back and reshape you in God's likeness...; and the closer you come to this likeness by growing in love, the more you will begin to feel the presence of God. But who is it you are feeling? The One who is coming to you or the One to whom you are returning? He has never been far from you; it is you who fell away from him. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2012-02-06 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ The elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the children of Israel, 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, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2012-02-06 - 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, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2012-02-06 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples 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, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2012-02-06 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ Now if, when Jesus went about in the world, the mere touch of his robes cured the sick, why doubt, if we have faith, that miracles will be worked while he is within us and that he will give what we ask of him since, in eucharistic communion, he is in our house? His Majesty is not accustomed to paying poorly for his lodging if the hospitality is good. If it pains you not to see him with your bodily eyes, con­sider that seeing him so is not fitting for us... But our Lord reveals himself to those who he sees will benefit by his presence. Even though they fail to see him with their bodily eyes, he has many methods of showing himself to the soul, through great interior feelings and through other different ways. Be with him will­ingly; don't lose so good an occasion for conversing with him as is the hour after having received Communion. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 1 2012-02-05 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of a hireling? He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages. So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been told off for me. If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?" then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2012-02-05 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ Hallelujah! How good to celebrate our God in song; how sweet to give fitting praise. The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem, gathers the dispersed of Israel, Heals the brokenhearted, binds up their wounds, Numbers all the stars, calls each of them by name. Great is our Lord, vast in power, with wisdom beyond measure. The LORD sustains the poor, but casts the wicked to the ground. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 LECTIO 2 2012-02-05 - LECTIO 2 http://dailygospel.org/ Brothers and sisters : If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2012-02-05 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2012-02-05 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ When the Son of God «raised his eyes to heaven and said: 'Father, glorify your Son'» (Jn 17,1), he taught us by this action that we should raise on high all our senses, our hands, our faculties and our soul and pray in him, with him and through him. This was the most loving and holy deed the Son of God could have done here below: to worship his beloved Father. However, this far surpasses any intellectual reasoning and we cannot in any way reach and understand it except in the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine and Saint Anselm tell us concerning prayer that it is «a raising of the soul to God»... For my part, I tell you only this: truly detach yourself from yourself and from all created things and raise your soul wholly to God above all creatures, into the deep abyss. There, immerse your spirit in God's spirit in true abandonment..., in a real union with God..., Ask God there for everything he wants us to ask him, what you desire and what other people desire from you. And hold this as certain: what a tiny, little coin is with regard to a hundred thousand gold pieces, that is what all external prayer is with regard to this prayer, which is a real union with God, and with regard to this inflowing and fusion of the created spirit in the uncreated spirit of God... If someone asks you for a prayer, it is a good thing to do so in an external way as you were asked and as you promised to do. But, as you do so, draw your soul to the heights and into this interior desert drive your whole flock as Moses did (Ex 3,1)... «True worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth» (Jn 4,23). In this interior prayer every practice, every formula, and all those kinds of prayer that, from Adam until now, have been offered and will yet be offered until the last day, are fulfilled. All of them are brought to perfection in a moment in this true and essential recollection. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100