DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
AUGUST 11, 2024
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(MEMORIAL OF SAINT CLARE, VIRGIN)
FIRST READING
1 KINGS 19:4-8 OR (PHILIPPIANS 3:8-14)
4 But Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers." 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you." 8 And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 33(34):2-9 OR (PSALMS 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 11)
Response: Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
I sought the LORD, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him, and be radiant;
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
O taste and see that the LORD is good!
Happy is the man who takes refuge in him!
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
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SECOND READING
EPHESIANS 4:30--5:2
4 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.5 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The Word of the Lord
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GOSPEL
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever
JOHN 6:41-51 OR (MATTHEW 19:27-29)
41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Studying the Scriptures with humility, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"My ambition as a youth was to apply to the study of the Holy Scriptures all the refinement of dialectics. I did so, but without the humility of the true searcher. I was supposed to knock at the door so that it would open for me. Instead I was pushing it closed, trying to understand in pride what is only learned in humility. However, the all-merciful Lord lifted me up and kept me safe."
(excerpt from Sermon 51,6)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.