We hope that today is a good day.
Today's Bible story based on the calendar of the Catholic Church.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/calendar.php
Most of these contents are things of The World English Bible.
http://ebible.org/web/
We hope that everyone in the peace of the Lord.
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+ Saints: St. Polycarp of Smyrna
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+ First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 Behold, I have set before you this day life and prosperity, and death and evil.
16 For I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.
17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce to you this day, that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants;
20 to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
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+ Psalm: Psalms 1:1-4,6
1 Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand on the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in Yahweh's* law.
On his law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
that produces its fruit in its season,
whose leaf also does not wither.
Whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked shall perish.
*1:2: "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all caps) in other translations.
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+ Gospel: Luke 9:22-25
22 saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up."
23 He said to all, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,†and follow me.
24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it.
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self?
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+ Today's Reading: Exodus 1:1-22
1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob):
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 All the souls who came out of Jacob's body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.
6 Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph.
9 He said to his people, "Behold,* the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.
10 Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land."
11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel.
13 The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,
14 and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
15 The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,
16 and he said, "When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."
17 But the midwives feared God,† and didn't do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and have saved the boys alive?"
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them."
20 God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.
21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
22 Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."
*1:9: "Behold", from "??????", means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
†1:17: The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim".
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