By putting her faith in God, Susanna was saved from a certain death, one instigated by sin and lies from those in authority. How often can we see that playing out in today’s world? She made her choice, and someone interceded on her behalf. In this case David. Will you be a David for someone today? Call out the injustice in the lives around you?
Beloved:
I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the holy ones
have been refreshed by you, brother.
Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ
to order you to do what is proper,
I rather urge you out of love,
being as I am, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I should have liked to retain him for myself,
so that he might serve me on your behalf
in my imprisonment for the Gospel,
but I did not want to do anything without your consent,
so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.
Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.
And if he has done you any injustice
or owes you anything, charge it to me.
I, Paul, write this in my own hand: I will pay.
May I not tell you that you owe me your very self.
Yes, brother, may I profit from you in the Lord.
Refresh my heart in Christ.
R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
1 Is one of you with a complaint against another so brazen as to seek judgement from sinners and not from God’s holy people?
2 Do you not realise that the holy people of God are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent for petty cases?
3 Do you not realise that we shall be the judges of angels? – then quite certainly over matters of this life.
4 But when you have matters of this life to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church!
5 I say this to make you ashamed of yourselves. Can it really be that it is impossible to find in the community one sensible person capable of deciding questions between brothers,
6 and that this is why brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?
7 No; it is a fault in you, by itself, that one of you should go to law against another at all: why do you not prefer to suffer injustice, why not prefer to be defrauded?
8 And here you are, doing the injustice and the defrauding, and to your own brothers.
9 Do you not realise that people who do evil will never inherit the kingdom of God? Make no mistake — the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, the self-indulgent, sodomites,
10 thieves, misers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 Some of you used to be of that kind: but you have been washed clean, you have been sanctified, and you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.
Daily Readings
Daily readings of the Mass. 7 days/week. See Sample
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1 Alleluia! Sing a new song to Yahweh: his praise in the assembly of the faithful!
2 Israel shall rejoice in its Maker, the children of Zion delight in their king;
3 they shall dance in praise of his name, play to him on tambourines and harp!
4 For Yahweh loves his people, he will crown the humble with salvation.
5 The faithful exult in glory, shout for joy as they worship him,
6 praising God to the heights with their voices, a two-edged sword in their hands,
9 to execute on them the judgement passed — to the honour of all his faithful.
12 Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
13 When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’:
14 Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,
16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
17 He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
18 who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,
19 and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Daily prayers and meditations 