http://www.evangelizo.org/ Receive every morning the daily lectures, by-email ! Catholic service, multilingual, free and confidential, according to liturgical calendar ... en Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:41:02 +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 2012-02-08 - LECTIO 1 http://dailygospel.org/ The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon's fame, came to test him with subtle questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested. King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon's great wisdom, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and garb of his waiters, his banquet service, and the holocausts he offered in the temple of the LORD, she was breathless. "The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true," she told the king. "Though I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes, I have discovered that they were not telling me the half. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard. Happy are your men, happy these servants of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom. Blessed be the LORD, your God, whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel. In his enduring love for Israel, the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice." Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 PSALMUS 2012-02-08 - PSALMUS http://dailygospel.org/ Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday. The mouths of the just utter wisdom; their tongues speak what is right. God's teaching is in their hearts; their steps do not falter. The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress. The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 EVANGELIUM 2012-02-08 - EVANGELIUM http://dailygospel.org/ Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, «Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." ) When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile." Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 MEDITATIO 2012-02-08 - MEDITATIO http://dailygospel.org/ «Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God» (Mt 5,8). For no one doubts that a man becomes blessed if his heart is purified; but how any­one should cleanse it from its stains, this is what seems to oppose itself to the ascent to Heaven. What then is the Jacob's ladder? How can we find such a fiery chariot by which the prophet Elias was carried up to Heaven, and by which our heart, too, could be lifted up towards the mar­vels that are above, and shake off this earthly heaviness?... Virtue is hard for us to attain; even with much sweat and pain, zeal and fatigue, one can hardly establish it. This we are taught in many passages of the Divine Scriptures, when we are told that the way of the Kingdom is strait and passes through narrow paths, whereas the way that leads through a life of wickedness to perdition is broad and runs down­hill with ease (Mt 7,13-14). Yet Scripture affirms that the higher life is not altogether impossible... How you can become pure, you may learn through almost the whole teaching of the Gospel. You need only peruse the precepts one by one to find clearly what it is that purifies the heart... Therefore Christ does good to our nature by promising good things as well as by giving us the teaching that answers this purpose. But if the pursuit of goodness seem irksome to you, compare it with the opposite way of life, and you will find how much more painful it is to be wicked, that is, if you look not to the present but to what comes hereafter... For those with sordid minds are altogether miserable, because they look at the face of the adversary. On the other hand the Divine character itself is impressed on the virtuous life... Hence, as we have learned what is an evil life and what is a good one - for we have it in the power of our free will to choose either of these - let us flee from the form of the devil, let us lay aside the evil mask and put on again the Divine Image. Let us become clean of heart, so that we may become blessed when the Divine Image is formed in us through purity of life, in Christ Jesus Our Lord. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100 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