Daily Bible Readings

June 26, 2011
1st READING

There are many images for God’s provision in the Scriptures. Apart from the Eucharist perhaps the most profound is the continued sustenance of the People of God as they wandered through the desert for 40 years! For 40 years God miraculously provided for them! Indeed, nothing is impossible for God. It makes the feeding of the 5,000 look like child’s play. However God provides for us, the universal response must be one of gratitude. When was the last time I expressed my gratitude to God for one of His gifts?

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16
2 Moses said to the people: “Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. 3 He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. 14 Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; 15 who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock 16 and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers.”

P S A L M

Psalms 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
12 Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. 13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. (R) 14 He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat he fills you. 15 He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs his word! (R) 19 He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. 20 He has not done thus for any other nation; his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia. (R)

2nd READING

We need to remember that to take Holy Communion is to do exactly that –namely express a belief that we are not only in communion with God, but also with everyone else taking Holy Communion that day. It is an action that proclaims the truth that we are meant to be one in Spirit with both God and His people, the Church. This is why the Catholic Church does not, generally speaking,open up the Eucharistic table to non-Catholics. It would be a lie to do so because they are not in union with the Cathiolic Church.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
16 Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

G O S P E L

As Catholics, we take this text more literally than the Fundamentalist Churches do. We believe the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus – there are even instances around the world of the bread and wine being changed in both substance and essence! The Protestant Churches speak of these texts as symbols only. It is important that we do not allow this errant understanding deprive us of the most magnificent gift Christ left His Church, the Holy Eucharist.

ALLELUIA
R: Alleluia, alleluia
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R: Alleluia, alleluia

John 6:51-58
51 Jesus came to the Jewish crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

my reflections
t h i n k: When was the last time I expressed my gratitude to God for one of his gifts?

God’s special verse/thought for me today________________
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T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST
Thank You Lord for: ______