Saturday, April 09, 2011 (Lenten Weekday)

READINGS FOR THE DAY
First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20
18      The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds.
19     But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."
20     But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.

Psalm: Psalm 7:2-3, 9-12
2      lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away, with none to rescue.
3     O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
9     O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous, thou who triest the minds and hearts, thou righteous God.
10     My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
11     God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
12     If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

Gospel: John 7:40-53
40      When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet."
41     Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee?
42     Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"
43     So there was a division among the people over him.
44     Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45     The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?"
46     The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"
47     The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also?
48     Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?
49     But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed."
50     Nicode'mus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,
51     "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?"
52     They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee."
53     They went each to his own house,

REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY
But a soul that does not live by the love of God suffers in a different way. It is not happy because it does not correspond generously enough to divine love; it hears a call and feels an attraction to which it does not respond. God punishes it by preventing it from being at peace in the quiet of laziness which it creates for itself. How many times is God sent away in this manner!

-- St. Peter Emyard