January 5: Daily Readings & Quotes

St. John Neumann

Speak to me, O my God, let me know Your will, for behind, I am ready to fulfill Your every command. The difficult, the irksome, I will patiently endure for love of You.

-St. John Neumann

Today's Readings are:

Genesis Chapters 9-10

Mark 2:1-12

1

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.

2

Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered.

3

¹ Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.

4

² Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.

5

For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life.

6

If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made.

7

Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it."

8

God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

9

"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you

10

and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark.

11

I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."

12

God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you:

13

I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds,

15

I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.

16

As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth."

17

God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth."

18

³ The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)

19

These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was peopled.

20

Now Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.

21

When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

22

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside about it.

23

Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their backs, they walked backward and covered their father's nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father's nakedness.

24

When Noah woke up from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

25

he said: "Cursed be Caanan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers."

26

⁴ He also said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his slave.

27

⁵ May God expand Japheth, so that he dwells among the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave."

28

Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

29

The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

 

 

1

¹ These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, to whom sons were born after the flood.

2

² The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

3

³ The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

4

⁴ The descendants of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Rodanim.

5

These are the descendants of Japheth, and from them sprang the maritime nations, in their respective lands--each with its own language--by their clans within their nations.

6

⁵ The descendants of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

7

The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8

⁶ Cush became the father of Nimrod, who was the first potentate on earth.

9

He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD; hence the saying, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD."

10

⁷ The chief cities of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.

11

⁸ From that land he went forth to Asshur, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah,

12

⁹ as well as Resen, between Nineveh and Calah, the latter being the principal city.

13

Mizraim became the father of the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim,

14

¹⁰ the Pathrusim, the Casluhim, and the Caphtorim from whom the Philistines sprang.

15

¹¹ Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, and of Heth;

16

also of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

17

the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

18

the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward, the clans of the Canaanites spread out,

19

¹² so that the Canaanite borders extended from Sidon all the way to Gerar, near Gaza, and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, near Lasha.

20

These are the descendants of Ham, according to their clans and languages, by their lands and nations.

21

To Shem also, Japheth's oldest brother and the ancestor of all the children of Eber, sons were born.

22

The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

23

The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

24

Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.

25

¹³ To Eber two sons were born: the name of the first was Peleg, for in his time the world was divided; and the name of his brother was Joktan.

26

Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

27

Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

28

Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

29

Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were descendants of Joktan.

30

Their settlements extended all the way to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

31

These are the descendants of Shem, according to their clans and languages by their lands and nations.

32

These are the groupings of Noah's sons, according to their origins and by their nations. From these the other nations of the earth branched out after the flood.

 

 

1

^{1 2} When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home.

2

Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them.

3

They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

4

Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

5

³ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."

6

⁴ Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,

7

"Why does this man speak that way? ⁵ He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

8

Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?

9

Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?

10

⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"--

11

he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."

12

He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."