Tuesday, October 11, 2011 (Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
God bestows more consideration on the purity of the intention with which our actions are performed than on the actions themselves.
-- St. Augustine


READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Romans 1:16-25
(The Power of the Gospel)
16 I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles.
17 For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”
(Human Guilt)
18 God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. 
19 God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain.   20 Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all!
21 They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. 
22 They say they are wise, but they are fools;
23 instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles.
24 And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. 
25 They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen.
Psalms: Psalm 19:2-5
2 Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.
3 No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;  
4 yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth. God made a home in the sky for the sun;
5 it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom, like an athlete eager to run a race.
Gospel: Luke 11:37-41
(Jesus Accuses the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law)
37 When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and sat down to eat. 
38 The Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus had not washed before eating. 
39 So the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of your cup and plate, but inside you are full of violence and evil. 
40 Fools! Did not God, who made the outside, also make the inside? 
41 But give what is in your cups and plates to the poor, and everything will be ritually clean for you.