Daily Bible Readings

August 8, 2011
1st READING
God wants us to love and serve Him because it is only in doing so that we will fulfill our destinies. Also, God wants us to avoid many of the trials and sufferings that result from breaking the moral law and to receive instead the blessings that flow when we live as He has designed us to live.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22
12 Moses said to the people: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, 13 to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good? 14 Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. 15 Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked. 17 For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; 18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. 19 So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens ourselves in the land of Egypt. 20 The LORD, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; hold fast to him and swear by his name. 21 He is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and terrible things which your own eyes have seen. 22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy strong, and now the LORD, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.”

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)

G O S P E L

In some ways this is a very strange story. Jesus tells Peter to catch a fish and tells him that he will find a coin in its mouth to pay the temple tax. Jesus does not think He should pay this tax, but He does so, so as not to cause offense. Yet many other times, Jesus acted contrary to others’ expectations and did create offense. What is the difference? Here, as far as Jesus was concerned, no great principle was at stake. When the Pharisees accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath, He does not do what they want as He is concerned to put love above the law.

ALLELUIA
R: Alleluia, alleluia
God has called you through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
R: Alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 17:22-27
22 As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. 24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” 26 When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. 27 But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.”

my reflections
think: God wants us to love and serve Him because it is only in doing so that we will fulfill our destinies.

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

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Wisdom 13-15