Saturday, January 25 : Psalms 117(116),1.2.
Praise the LORD, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! For steadfast is his kindness for us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar
Saturday, January 25 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 16,15-18.
Jesus said to the eleven: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Saturday, January 25 : Acts of the Apostles 22,3-16.
Paul addressed the people in these words: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.
Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment there as well. “On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.
I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’
My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.
I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’
Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus. “A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,
came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.
Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;
for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard.
Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Friday, January 24 : The letter to Diognetus
I am not saying anything strange, I am not seeking what is paradoxical. Rather, docile to the teaching of the apostles, I in turn want to teach the nations. I want to pass on the tradition exactly to those who also want to become disciples of the Truth. Who… would not hasten to learn entirely all that the Word of God clearly taught his disciples? For in manifesting itself, that Word, which was not understood by those who did not believe in him, showed the truth to his disciples; speaking openly, he told his disciples everything. He recognized them to be his faithful ones, and they received from him knowledge of the mysteries of the Father. That is why the Word was sent into the world. And so that he might be shown to the whole world, … he was proclaimed by the apostles, so that the nations might believe in him. He who was from the beginning (1 Jn 1:1), manifested himself in newness, and his disciples recognized in him what was old. In the heart of his saints, he is always born anew young … Through him, the Church is filled with richness. Grace opens up, is multiplied in the saints. It gives the understanding of faith, uncovers the mysteries of the Father; it gives understanding of the times… It is offered to those who seek it and who respect the rule of faith and faithfully keep the tradition of the Fathers. Here the fear of the Law is sung; here the grace of the prophets is acknowledged, the faith of the Gospels is strengthened, the tradition of the apostles is kept; the grace of the Church leaps for joy. Do not sadden this grace. Then you will know the secrets, which the Word of God reveals through whom he wishes, when it pleases him. Draw near, listen, and you will know all that God entrusts to those who truly love him.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Friday, January 24 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3,13-19.
Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.
He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
(he appointed the twelve:) Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Friday, January 24 : Psalms 85(84),8.10.11-12.13-14.
Show us, O LORD, your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land. Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven. The LORD himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Friday, January 24 : Letter to the Hebrews 8,6-13.
Brothers and sisters: now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one.
But he finds fault with them and says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they did not stand by my covenant and I ignored them, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kinsman, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from least to greatest.
For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.”
When he speaks of a “new” covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Thursday, January 23 : Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
That he was going to be manifested to us – for the Son of God became the Son of man – and to be found amongst us who, beforehand, had no knowledge of him, the Word himself says in Isaiah, thus: “I became manifest to those that sought me not; I was found by those that asked not for me. I said: ‘Behold, I am here,’ to a nation that called not upon my name” (Is 65,1)… This is what was also said by John the Baptist: “God is able from stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Mt 3,9). For our hearts, drawn out by faith from the worship of stones, see God and become children of Abraham, who was made righteous by faith… His disciple John also says: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (Jn 1,14). For which reason the Church bears as fruit so great a number of the saved; for it is no longer an intercessor, Moses, nor an angel, Elias, but the Lord himself who saves us, bestowing a greater number of children on the Church than on the former synagogue, as Isaiah announced, saying: “Rejoice, O barren one who did not bear” (Is 54,1; Gal 4,27)… God was pleased to bestow his inheritance on the foolish Gentiles, who were neither of the citizenship of God nor knew who God is. Since, then, by this calling, life has been given and God has recapitulated in us the faith of Abraham, we should no longer turn back, that is, I mean, to the former legislation. For we received the Lord of the Law, the Son of God, and through faith in him we learn to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Thursday, January 23 : Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3,7-12.
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
Thursday, January 23 : Psalms 40(39),7-8a.8b-9.10.17.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.” “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know. May all who seek you exult and be glad in you, and may those who love your salvation say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team