DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

AUGUST 25, 2023

FRIDAY OF THE TWENTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

(OPTIONAL MEMORIAL OF SAINT LOUIS OF FRANCE / SAINT JOSEPH CALASANZ, PRIEST)

FIRST READING

RUTH 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22 OR (ISAIAH 58:6-11 / 1 CORINTHIANS 12:31--13:13 / 1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-13 / WISDOM 10:10-14)

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 3 But Elim'elech, the husband of Na'omi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years; 5 and both Mahlon and Chil'ion died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband. 6 Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food. 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law." 16 But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; 22 So Na'omi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 145(146):5-10 OR (PSALMS 112:1-9 / PSALMS 34:2-11 / PSALMS 89:8, 12, 20, 22, 27-28)

Response: Praise the Lord, my soul!

Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

Who keeps faith for ever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

He upholds the widow and the fatherless;
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The LORD will reign for ever,
thy God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
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GOSPEL

What is the greatest rule of life?

MATTHEW 22:34-40 OR (MATTHEW 22:34-40 / MATTHEW 18:1-5 / LUKE 19:12-19)

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

Loving God with heart, mind, and soul, by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD)

"Worthy is he, confirmed in all his gifts, who exults in the wisdom of God, having a heart full of the love of God, and a soul completely enlightened by the lamp of knowledge and a mind filled with the word of God. It follows then that all such gifts truly come from God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets are in some way a part of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets depend upon and adhere to the principle of the love of the Lord God and of neighbor and that the perfection of piety consists in love."

(excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13)
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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.