7.21.2012

Today's Bible story

July 21, 2012

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

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. Lawrence of Brindisi

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+ First Reading: Micah 2:1-5

1 Woe to those who devise iniquity
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning is light, they practice it,
because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields, and seize them;
and houses, and take them away:
and they oppress a man and his house,
even a man and his heritage.

3 Therefore thus says Yahweh:
"Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster,
from which you will not remove your necks,
neither will you walk haughtily;
for it is an evil time.

4 In that day they will take up a parable against you,
and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying,
'We are utterly ruined!
My people's possession is divided up.
Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"

5 Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.

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+ Psalm: Psalms 7:1-3, 6-7, 13

A meditation by David, which he sang to Yahweh, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite.

1 Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you.
Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

2 lest they tear apart my soul like a lion,
ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
3 Yahweh, my God, if I have done this,
if there is iniquity in my hands,

6 Arise, Yahweh, in your anger.
Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries.
Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

7 Let the congregation of the peoples surround you.
Rule over them on high.

13 He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death.
He makes ready his flaming arrows.

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+ Gospel: Matthew 12:14-21

14 But the Pharisees went out, and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.

15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

16 and commanded them that they should not make him known:

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

18 "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen;
my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased:
I will put my Spirit on him.
He will proclaim justice to the nations.

19 He will not strive, nor shout;
neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

20 He won't break a bruised reed.
He won't quench a smoking flax,
until he leads justice to victory.

21 In his name, the nations will hope."‡Isaiah 42:1-4

‡12:21: Isaiah 42:1-4

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+ Today's Reading: Job 7:1-21

1 "Isn't a man forced to labor on earth?
Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?

2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow,
as a hireling who looks for his wages,

3 so am I made to possess months of misery,
wearisome nights are appointed to me.

4 When I lie down, I say,
'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?'
I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust.
My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
and are spent without hope.

7 Oh remember that my life is a breath.
My eye shall no more see good.

8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more.
Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol*Sheol is the place of the dead. shall come up no more.

10 He shall return no more to his house,
neither shall his place know him any more.

11 "Therefore I will not keep silent.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster,
that you put a guard over me?

13 When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me.
My couch shall ease my complaint;'

14 then you scare me with dreams,
and terrify me through visions:

15 so that my soul chooses strangling,
death rather than my bones.

16 I loathe my life.
I don't want to live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

17 What is man, that you should magnify him,
that you should set your mind on him,

18 that you should visit him every morning,
and test him every moment?

19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men?
Why have you set me as a mark for you,
so that I am a burden to myself?

21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust.
You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be."

*7:9: Sheol is the place of the dead.

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