January 9: Daily Readings & Quote

Blessed Tommaso Reggio

I want to become a Saint, cost what it may, living my life in accordance with the two cornerstones of Christianity: Prayer and Discipline.

-Blessed Tommaso Reggio

Today's readings are:

Genesis Chapters 19-20

Mark 3:13-35

1

The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground,

2

¹ he said, "Please, gentlemen, come aside into your servant's house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey." But they replied, "No, we shall pass the night in the town square."

3

He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking cakes without leaven, and they dined.

4

Before they went to bed, all the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old--all the people to the last man--closed in on the house.

5

They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them."

6

Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him,

7

he said, "I beg you, my brothers, not to do this wicked thing.

8

I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with men. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please. But don't do anything to these men, for you know they have come under the shelter of my roof."

9

They replied, "Stand back! This fellow," they sneered, "came here as an immigrant, and now he dares to give orders! We'll treat you worse than them!" With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.

10

But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door;

11

² at the same time they struck the men at the entrance of the house, one and all, with such a blinding light that they were utterly unable to reach the doorway.

12

³ Then the angels said to Lot: "Who else belongs to you here? Your sons (sons-in-law) and your daughters and all who belong to you in the city--take them away from it!

13

We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those in the city is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."

14

⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters. "Get up and leave this place," he told them; "the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15

As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, "On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."

16

When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.

17

As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."

18

"Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot.

19

"You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die.

20

⁵ Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved."

21

"Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

22

Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar.

23

The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;

24

at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven).

25

⁶ He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.

26

But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

27

Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.

28

⁷ As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.

29

Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

30

⁸ Since Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country, where he lived with his two daughters in a cave.

31

The older one said to the younger: "Our father is getting old, and there is not a man on earth to unite with us as was the custom everywhere.

32

Come, let us ply our father with wine and then lie with him, that we may have offspring by our father."

33

So that night they plied their father with wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; but he was not aware of her lying down or her getting up.

34

Next day the older one said to the younger: "Last night it was I who lay with my father. Let us ply him with wine again tonight, and then you go in and lie with him, that we may both have offspring by our father."

35

So that night, too, they plied their father with wine, and then the younger one went in and lay with him; but again he was not aware of her lying down or her getting up.

36

Thus both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

37

⁹ The older one gave birth to a son whom she named Moab, saying, "From my father." He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today.

38

¹⁰ The younger one, too, gave birth to a son, and she named him Ammon, saying, "The son of my kin." He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

1

¹ Abraham journeyed on to the region of the Negeb, where he settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he stayed in Gerar,

2

he said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

3

But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband."

4

Abimelech, who had not approached her, said: "O Lord, would you slay a man even though he is innocent?

5

He himself told me, 'She is my sister,' and she herself also stated, 'He is my brother.' I did it in good faith and with clean hands."

6

God answered him in the dream: "Yes, I know you did it in good faith. In fact, it was I who kept you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her.

7

² Therefore, return the man's wife--as a spokesman he will intercede for you--that your life may be saved. If you do not return her, you can be sure that you and all who are yours will certainly die."

8

Early the next morning Abimelech called all his court officials and informed them of everything that had happened, and the men were horrified.

9

Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him: "How could you do this to us! What wrong did I do to you that you should have brought such monstrous guilt on me and my kingdom? You have treated me in an intolerable way.

10

What were you afraid of," he asked him, "that you should have done such a thing?"

11

"I was afraid," answered Abraham, "because I thought there would surely be no fear of God in this place, and so they would kill me on account of my wife.

12

Besides, she is in truth my sister, but only my father's daughter, not my mother's; and so she became my wife.

13

When God sent me wandering from my father's house, I asked her: 'Would you do me this favor? In whatever place we come to, say that I am your brother.'"

14

Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham; and after he restored his wife Sarah to him,

15

he said, "Here, my land lies at your disposal; settle wherever you please."

16

³ To Sarah he said: "See, I have given your brother a thousand shekels of silver. Let that serve you as a vindication before all who are with you; your honor has been preserved with everyone."

17

Abraham then interceded with God, and God restored health to Abimelech, that is, to his wife and his maidservants, so that they could bear children;

18

for God had tightly closed every womb in Abimelech's household on account of Abraham's wife Sarah.

13

He went up the mountain ⁵ and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.

14

He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him ⁶ and he might send them forth to preach

15

and to have authority to drive out demons:

16

⁷ (he appointed the twelve:) Simon, whom he named Peter;

17

James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;

18

Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,

19

and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

20

^{8 9} He came home. Again (the) crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.

21

When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

22

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," ¹⁰ and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."

23

Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, "How can Satan drive out Satan?

24

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25

And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

26

And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.

27

But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

28

Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.

29

But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit ¹¹ will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."

30

For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

31

His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

32

A crowd seated around him told him, "Your mother and your brothers ¹² (and your sisters) are outside asking for you."

33

But he said to them in reply, "Who are my mother and (my) brothers?"

34

And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

35

(For) whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."