DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
FEBRUARY 6, 2024
TUESDAY - MEMORIAL OF SAINT PAUL MIKI AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
FIRST READING
1 KINGS 8:22-23, 27-30 OR (GALATIANS 2:19-20 / ROMANS 8:31-39)
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven; 23 and said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart; 27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! 28 Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee this day; 29 that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which thou hast said, `My name shall be there,' that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place. 30 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 83(84):3-5, 10-11 OR (PSALMS 126:1-6 / PSALMS 31:3-4, 6-8, 16-17)
Response: How lovely is thy dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul longs, yea, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
R. How lovely is thy dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at thy altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
R. How lovely is thy dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed are those who dwell in thy house,
ever singing thy praise!
Behold our shield, O God;
look upon the face of thine anointed!
R. How lovely is thy dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
R. How lovely is thy dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
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GOSPEL
Rejecting the commandments of God
MARK 7:1-13 OR (MATTHEW 28:16-20 / MATTHEW 16:24-27)
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?" 6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' 8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." 9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother'; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die'; 11 but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do."
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Mammon refuses to provide for parents in old age, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)
"Christ says, 'Care for the poor' (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:13); Mammon says, 'Take away even those things the poor possess.' Christ says, 'Empty yourself of what you have' (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23); Mammon says, 'Take also what they possess.' Do you see the opposition, the strife between them? See how it is that one cannot obey both, but must reject one?... Christ says, 'None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions' (Luke 14:33); Mammon says, 'Take the bread from the hungry.' Christ says, 'Cover the naked' (Matthew 25:34-40; Isaiah 58:7); the other says, 'Strip the naked.' Christ says, 'You shall not turn away from your own family (Isaiah 58:7), and those of your own house' (1 Timothy 5:8; Galatians 6:10); Mammon says, 'You shall not show mercy to those of your own family. Though you see your mother or your father in want, despise them' (Mark 7:11)."
(excerpt from HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS 6.25)
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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.