Bible Diary

Daily Reading

St Teresa of Avila

LECTIONARY
470

FIRST READING

Eph 1:1-10

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

PSALM

PS 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4, 5-6

Response: The Lord has made known his salvation.

Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.

The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.

Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.

GOSPEL

Lk 11:47-54

Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Daily Reflection

St. Paul reminds us that in Christ we all become God’s adopted children. Our first parents fell from their original state of grace which put humanity in a state of sin, made us mortal and also vulnerable to base and evil desires. However, in Christ we are liberated from the yoke of sin, assured of eternal life with the Father, and receive the grace to overcome evil. And this is why Jesus came: to reveal that we all enjoy the richness of God’s grace, His love and boundless mercy. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the scholars with their scrupulous observance of the law, devoid of compassion and justice made God out to be a cold, heartless tyrant! These self-righteous Jewish leaders followed God’s Laws to the letter as recorded in the Torah, but rejected the word of God that came through his prophets, and in the process deprived the common people from receiving God’s message.

Graces and blessings are best enjoyed when they are shared with others. Do I share mine?

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Teresa of Avila who is well known for her life of prayer. She believed that “Prayer is the doorway to great graces; if this doorway is closed I do not see how God can bestow any graces”.