Lectio Div Catholic Gospel

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From the responsorial psalm: "O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace."

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:12-14)

"When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

As a dinner guest of one of the leading Pharisees, Jesus speaks these words to his host. Although Luke doesn't say how he responds, we know that the criticism Jesus gives him gets at the heart of the reason the Pharisee held banquets for his guests. Does it look good in the eyes of the others? Does it impress the other guests at a banquet to see important guests. Does it inflate the ego of the host who delights in their awe? To participate in self-inflating reciprocity—to pay for honor and receive it in return for the sake of grandiosity—comes from deep dysfunction. Out of love for the people whose hearts he fashioned, Jesus tells them to stop. Instead, exit this game and open your home and your hearts to people who for whatever reason do not have the means of paying you back.

God, deepen my capacity to recognize the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. You put them daily in my field of view—those whose limitations may be physical but are more often mental or spiritual. In yesterday's Gospel, the words still echo in my mind: that you alone are the Lord and to love you with all my heart, with all my understanding, with all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. Help me, Lord, as I seek to love you and love my neighbor more completely. Yet, hearing the phrase "as myself" makes me realize that loving others does not mean you allow oneself to be a doormat. It means to live in the freedom of loving you through the inherent dignity as your child—a love we all carry inside us that seeks the well-being of others without compromising the common good. Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

From the responsorial psalm: "I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. I love you, Lord, my strength."

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 12:28b-34)

The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.' And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

A scribe approaches Jesus, encouraged to hear more of what he says. The scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the most important of all. Jesus responds by quoting the Shema: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." And he tells the scribe, the second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In acknowledging the response Jesus gives, he affirms that loving God and one’s neighbor is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus tells him: "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one, Mark tells us, dared to ask Jesus any more questions. What does Jesus mean by telling the scribe he is not far from the kingdom of God, and what does it mean to be near to it?

God, help me understand the commandments not as legal ties that bind but your gift to allow a wholehearted response to your love. To love you with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength is to begin to understand the love by which you loved me first. What other gift is acceptable to you, Lord, but my whole heart? I wonder at the words of Jesus to the scribe, why the scribe is "not far from the kingdom of God" when he seems to fully understand. Yet, I see my own distance from the kingdom when I fail altogether to love you and those around me. Give me the grace, Lord, to bring forth your kingdom in these two great commandments, not by my own doing but with the help of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ your Son.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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From the responsorial psalm: “Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 5:1-12a)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

Today’s Solemnity of All Saints honors the men and women throughout the ages who lived a life of holiness. The Beatitudes reveal the roadmap—the guidelines Jesus gave to them and to all of us—to achieve sanctity. Each of the saints, a cloud of witnesses who intercede for us to the Father, lived out the Beatitudes as they accomplished his will. For each of the Beatitudes that is lived out, Jesus promises a reward now (“for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”) and in the life of the world to come. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. . . . Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

God, help me see in the Beatitudes a way of being and the goodness that follows. Each Beatitude is in itself a way to holiness and results in its natural end: to the merciful mercy will be shown; to peacemakers, peace as children of God; to the persecuted for the sake of Christ, the kingdom of heaven. In the first reading, John describes the great multitude of the saints in heaven as they cry out to you: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” With the psalmist, in the company of all the holy men and women who have gone before us, I pray: “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.” Bless me, Lord, as I hunger and thirst for the truth of your love. All you angels and saints, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

From the responsorial psalm: "My mercy and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, My shield, in whom I trust, who subdues my people under me. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!"

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 13:31-35)

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

To hear the Son of God say these words to his people--"I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings"--is to hear in the words of the Son the lovingkindness of the Father. A love such as this, where we are taken under its wings, is irresistible. Yet, Jesus knows the hardness of heart of Herod and others who want to see him destroyed, even as he performs healings today, tomorrow, and the following day, accomplishing his purpose in willingly accepting his passion and death to rise to glory in the resurrection.

God, give me the grace today to know peace in the confidence of your presence and loving care. Jesus is told to go away to preserve his life, but he ignores the fear and manipulation that Herod and the Pharisees are trying to exercise over him. Instead, Jesus says, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Blessed is he who continues today, and tomorrow, and the following day unafraid and in confident obedience to the Father's will. Guide me, Lord, my mercy and my fortress. Blessed be the LORD, my rock!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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