June 22, 2012
Friday of the Eleventh 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. Thomas More
St. Paulinus of Nola
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+ First Reading: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20
1 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring.*
2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;
3 He was with her hidden in Yahweh's house six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.
4 In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into Yahweh's house; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in Yahweh's house, and showed them the king's son.
9 The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.
10 The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in Yahweh's house.
11 The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, around the king.
12 Then he brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, "Long live the king!"
13 When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into Yahweh's house:
14 and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the tradition was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, "Treason! Treason!"
15 Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, "Bring her out between the ranks. Kill him who follows her with the sword." For the priest said, "Don't let her be slain in Yahweh's house."
16 So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses' entry to the king's house. She was slain there.
17 Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the people.
18 All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over Yahweh's house.
20 So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king's house.
*11:1: or, seed
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+ Psalm: Psalms 132:11-14, 17-18
11 Yahweh has sworn to David in truth.
He will not turn from it:
"I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.
12 If your children will keep my covenant,
my testimony that I will teach them,
their children also will sit on your throne forever more."
13 For Yahweh has chosen Zion.
He has desired it for his habitation.
14 "This is my resting place forever.
Here I will live, for I have desired it.
17 There I will make the horn of David to bud.
I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but on himself, his crown will be resplendent."
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+ Gospel: Matthew 6:19-23
19 "Don't lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don't break through and steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
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+ Today's Reading: Zechariah 1:1-2:4
1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh's* word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,
2 "Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers.
3 Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: 'Return to me,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'and I will return to you,' says Yahweh of Armies.
4 Don't you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, 'Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;' but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.
5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn't they overtake your fathers?
"Then they repented and said, 'Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'"
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh's word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,
8 "I had a vision in the night, and behold,† a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses.
9 Then I asked, 'My lord, what are these?'"
The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what these are."
10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, "They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth."
11 They reported to Yahweh's angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace."
12 Then Yahweh's angel replied, "O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?"
13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Yahweh of Armies says: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity."
16 Therefore Yahweh says: "I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it," says Yahweh of Armies, "and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem."'
17 "Proclaim further, saying, 'Yahweh of Armies says: "My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem."'"
18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns.
19 I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these?"
He answered me, "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."
20 Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.
21 Then I asked, "What are these coming to do?"
He said, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."
2:1 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 Then I asked, "Where are you going?"
He said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length."
3 Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him,
4 and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.
*1:1: "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all caps) in other translations.
†1:8: "Behold", from "??????", means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
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