DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
NOVEMBER 22, 2024
FRIDAY - MEMORIAL OF SAINT CECILIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
FIRST READING
REVELATION 10:8-11 OR (HOSEA 2:16-17, 21-22)
8 Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth." 10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11 And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 118(119):14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131 OR (PSALMS 45:11-12, 14-17)
Response: How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
In the way of thy testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
Thy testimonies are my delight,
they are my counselors.
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
The law of thy mouth is better to me
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
How sweet are thy words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
Thy testimonies are my heritage for ever;
yea, they are the joy of my heart.
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
With open mouth I pant,
because I long for thy commandments.
R. How sweet to my taste is thy promise!
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GOSPEL
All the people hung upon his words
LUKE 19:45-48 OR (MATTHEW 25:1-13)
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, "It is written, `My house shall be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers." 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
The home of sanctity, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"God does not want his temple to be a trader's lodge but the home of sanctity. He does not preserve the practice of the priestly ministry by the dishonest duty of religion but by voluntary obedience. Consider what the Lords actions impose on you as an example of living... He taught in general that worldly transactions must be absent from the temple, but he drove out the money changers in particular. Who are the money changers, if not those who seek profit from the Lord's money and cannot distinguish between good and evil? Holy Scripture is the Lord's money."
(excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.17.18)
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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.