DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
MARCH 16, 2024
SATURDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT
FIRST READING
JEREMIAH 11:18-20
18 The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." 20 But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 7:2-3, 9-12
Response: O Lord, my God, in thee I take refuge.
O LORD my God, in thee do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
lest like a lion they rend me,
dragging me away, with none to rescue.
R. O Lord, my God, in thee I take refuge.
The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish thou the righteous,
thou who triest the minds and hearts,
thou righteous God.
R. O Lord, my God, in thee I take refuge.
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who has indignation every day.
R. O Lord, my God, in thee I take refuge.
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GOSPEL
Reaction to Jesus' words
JOHN 7:40-53
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." 41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. 45 The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" 46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" 47 The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? 48 Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" 52 They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." 53 They went each to his own house.
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Not by walking but by loving, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"We approach God not by walking but by loving. The purer our love for him toward whom we are striving, the more present to us will he be. To him, therefore, who is everywhere present and everywhere whole, we must proceed not by our feet but by our moral virtues - judged not by the object of our knowledge but by the object of our love."
(excerpt from Letter 155,13)
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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.