February 23, 2013
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
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/
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Saints: St. Polycarp of Smyrna
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=156
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Deuteronomy 26:16-19
16 Today Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17 You have declared today that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.
18 Yahweh has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
19 He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.
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Gospel: Matthew 5:43-48
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor ‡‡‡Leviticus 19:18 and hate your enemy.'§§§not in the Bible, but see Qumran Manual of Discipline Ix, 21-26
44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,
45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same?
47 If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don't even the tax collectors*NU reads "Gentiles" instead of "tax collectors". do the same?
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
‡‡‡5:43: Leviticus 19:18
§§§5:43: not in the Bible, but see Qumran Manual of Discipline Ix, 21-26
*5:47: NU reads "Gentiles" instead of "tax collectors".
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* Deuteronomy 16:1-17
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
4 No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you;
6 but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt.
7 You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents.
8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work.
9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
13 You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.
14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.
15 You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.
16 Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God's blessing which he has given you.
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