2.24.2012

Today's Bible story

February 24, 2012

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:
Blessed Thomas Maria Fusco
St. Victorinus

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+ First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-9a

1 "Cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and didn't forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

3 'Why have we fasted,' say they, 'and you don't see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?'
"Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

4 Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you don't fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

6 "Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

7 Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then your light shall break out as the morning, and your healing shall spring out speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; Yahweh's glory shall be your rear guard.

9a Then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'

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+ Psalm: Psalms 51:1-2,3-4ab,16-17

1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions.
My sin is constantly before me.

4ab Against you, and you only, have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in your sight;

16 For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.
You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

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+ Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15

14 Then John's disciples came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast?"

15 Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

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+ Today's Reading: Exodus 2:1-22

1 A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.

2 The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.

3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.

4 His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.

5 Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.

6 She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"

8 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go."
The maiden went and called the child's mother.

9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages."
The woman took the child, and nursed it.

10 The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,* and said, "Because I drew him out of the water."

11 In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and looked at their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.

12 He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

13 He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow?"

14 He said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?"
Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."

15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17 The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

18 When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"

19 They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock."

20 He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."

21 Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.

22 She bore a son, and he named him Gershom,† for he said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land."

*2:10: "Moses" sounds like the Hebrew for "draw out".

†2:22: "Gershom" sounds like the Hebrew for "an alien there".

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