November 17, 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.
-----
+ Saints:
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus
-----
+ First Reading: 3 John 5-8
5 Beloved, you do a faithful work in whatever you accomplish for those who are brothers and strangers.
6 They have testified about your love before the assembly. You will do well to send them forward on their journey in a way worthy of God,
7 because for the sake of the Name they went out, taking nothing from the Gentiles.
8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
-----
+ Psalm: Psalms 112:1-6
1 Praise Yah!*
Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh,
who delights greatly in his commandments.
2 His offspring† will be mighty in the land.
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house.
His righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright,
gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends.
He will maintain his cause in judgment.
6 For he will never be shaken.
The righteous will be remembered forever.
*112:1: Psalm 112 is an acrostic poem, with each verse after the initial "Praise Yah!" starting with a letter of the alphabet (ordered from Alef to Tav).
†112:2: or, seed
-----
+ Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
1 He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,
2 saying, "There was a judge in a certain city who didn't fear God, and didn't respect man.
3 A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, 'Defend me from my adversary!'
4 He wouldn't for a while, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God, nor respect man,
5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.'"
6 The Lord said, "Listen to what the unrighteous judge says.
7 Won't God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
8 I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
-----
+ Today's Reading: 1 Maccabees 3:1-26
1 And his son Judas, who was called Maccabaeus, rose up in his stead.
2 And all his brethren helped him, and so did all they that clave to his father, and they fought with gladness the battle of Israel.
3 And he got his people great glory, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girded his warlike harness about him, and set battles in array, protecting the army with his sword.
4 And he was like a lion in his deeds, and as a lion's whelp roaring for prey.
5 And he pursued the lawless, seeking them out, and he burnt up those that troubled his people.
6 And the lawless shrunk for fear of him, and all the workers of lawlessness were sore troubled, and salvation prospered in his hand.
7 And he angered many kings, and made Jacob glad with his acts, and his memorial is blessed for ever.
8 And he went about among the cities of Judah, and destroyed the ungodly * out of the land, and turned away wrath from Israel:
9 and he was renowned to the utmost part of the earth, and he gathered together such as were ready to perish.
10 And Apollonius gathered the Gentiles together, and a great host from Samaria, to fight against Israel.
11 And Judas perceived it, and he went forth to meet him, and struck him, and killed him: and many fell wounded to death, and the rest fled.
12 And they took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius , and therewith he fought all his days.
13 And Seron, the commander of the host of Syria, heard say that Judas had gathered a gathering and a congregation of faithful men with him, and of such as went out to war;
14 And he said, I will make myself a name and get me glory in the kingdom; and I will fight against Judas and them that are with him, that set at nothing the word of the king.
15 And there went up with him also a mighty army of the ungodly to help him, to take vengeance on the children of Israel.
16 And he came near to the going up of Bethhoron, and Judas went forth to meet him with a small company.
17 But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, What? shall we be able, being a small company, to fight against so great and strong a multitude? and we for our part are faint, having tasted no food this day.
18 And Judas said, It is an easy thing for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with † heaven it is all one, to save by many or by few:
19 for victory in battle stands not in the multitude of a host; but strength is from heaven.
20 They come to us in fulness of insolence and lawlessness, to destroy us and our wives and our children, for to spoil us:
21 but we fight for our lives and our laws.
22 And he himself will discomfit them before our face: but as for you, be you? not afraid of them.
23 Now when he had left off speaking, he leapt suddenly upon them, and Seron and his army were discomfited before him.
24 And they pursued them in the going down of Bethhoron to the plain, and there fell of them about eight hundred men; but the residue fled into the land of the Philistines.
25 And the fear of Judas and his brethren, and the dread of them, began to fall upon the nations round about them:
26 and his name came near even to the king, and every nation told of the battles of Judas.
-----