January 23: Daily Readings & Quote

St. John the Almoner 

If we are able to enter the church day and night and implore God to hear our prayers' how careful we should be to hear and grant the petitions of our neighbor in need.

 

 

-St. John the Almoner

 

 

 

 

 Today's readings are:

Exodus 6:28-8:28

Mark 9:14-29

 

 28

On the day the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt

29

he said, "I am the LORD. Repeat to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I tell you."

30

But Moses protested to the LORD, "Since I am a poor speaker, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me?"

1

¹ The LORD answered him, "See! I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall act as your prophet.

2

You shall tell him all that I command you. In turn, your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave his land.

3

Yet I will make Pharaoh so obstinate that, despite the many signs and wonders that I will work in the land of Egypt,

4

he will not listen to you. Therefore I will lay my hand on Egypt and by great acts of judgment I will bring the hosts of my people, the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt,

5

so that the Egyptians may learn that I am the LORD, as I stretch out my hand against Egypt and lead the Israelites out of their midst."

6

Moses and Aaron did as the LORD had commanded them.

7

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8

The LORD told Moses and Aaron,

9

"If Pharaoh demands that you work a sign or wonder, you shall say to Aaron: Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will be changed into a snake."

10

Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it was changed into a snake.

11

Pharaoh, in turn, summoned wise men and sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise by their magic arts.

12

Each one threw down his staff, and it was changed into a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs.

13

Pharaoh, however, was obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

14

² Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh is obdurate in refusing to let the people go.

15

Tomorrow morning, when he sets out for the water, go and present yourself by the river bank, holding in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent.

16

Say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with the message: Let my people go to worship me in the desert. But as yet you have not listened.

17

The LORD now says: This is how you shall know that I am the LORD. I will strike the water of the river with the staff I hold, and it shall be changed into blood.

18

The fish in the river shall die, and the river itself shall become so polluted that the Egyptians will be unable to drink its water."

19

The LORD then said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--their streams and canals and pools, all their supplies of water--that they may become blood. Throughout the land of Egypt there shall be blood, even in the wooden pails and stone jars."

20

Moses and Aaron did as the LORD had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters of the river in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water of the river was changed into blood.

21

The fish in the river died, and the river itself became so polluted that the Egyptians could not drink its water. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

22

But the Egyptian magicians did the same by their magic arts. So Pharaoh remained obstinate and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had foretold.

23

He turned away and went into his house, with no concern even for this.

24

All the Egyptians had to dig in the neighborhood of the river for drinking water, since they could not drink the river water.

25

Seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.

26

³ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him: Thus says the LORD: Let my people go to worship me.

27

If you refuse to let them go, I warn you, I will send a plague of frogs over all your territory.

28

The river will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and into your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your servants, too, and your subjects, even into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

29

The frogs will swarm all over you and your subjects and your servants."

1

The LORD then told Moses, "Say to Aaron: Stretch out your hand and your staff over the streams and canals and pools, to make frogs overrun the land of Egypt."

2

Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.

3

But the magicians did the same by their magic arts. They, too, made frogs overrun the land of Egypt.

4

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray the LORD to remove the frogs from me and my subjects, and I will let the people go to offer sacrifice to the LORD."

5

Moses answered Pharaoh, "Do me the favor of appointing the time when I am to pray for you and your servants and your subjects, that the frogs may be taken away from you and your houses and be left only in the river."

6

"Tomorrow," said Pharaoh. Then Moses replied, "It shall be as you have said, so that you may learn that there is none like the LORD, our God.

7

The frogs shall leave you and your houses, your servants and your subjects; only in the river shall they be left."

8

After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh's presence, Moses implored the LORD to fulfill the promise he had made to Pharaoh about the frogs;

9

¹ and the LORD did as Moses had asked. The frogs in the houses and courtyards and fields died off.

10

Heaps and heaps of them were gathered up, and there was a stench in the land.

11

But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he became obdurate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

12

² Thereupon the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron to stretch out his staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may be turned into gnats throughout the land of Egypt."

13

They did so. Aaron stretched out his hand, and with his staff he struck the dust of the earth, and gnats came upon man and beast. The dust of the earth was turned into gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

14

Though the magicians tried to bring forth gnats by their magic arts, they could not do so. As the gnats infested man and beast,

15

³ the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." Yet Pharaoh remained obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had foretold.

16

Again the LORD told Moses, "Early tomorrow morning present yourself to Pharaoh when he goes forth to the water, and say to him: Thus says the LORD: Let my people go to worship me.

17

If you will not let my people go, I warn you, I will loose swarms of flies upon you and your servants and your subjects and your houses. The houses of the Egyptians and the very ground on which they stand shall be filled with swarms of flies.

18

But on that day I will make an exception of the land of Goshen: there shall be no flies where my people dwell, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

19

I will make this distinction between my people and your people. This sign shall take place tomorrow."

20

This the LORD did. Thick swarms of flies entered the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants; throughout Egypt the land was infested with flies.

21

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, "Go and offer sacrifice to your God in this land."

22

⁴ But Moses replied, "It is not right to do so, for the sacrifices we offer to the LORD, our God, are an abomination to the Egyptians. If before their very eyes we offer sacrifices which are an abomination to them, will not the Egyptians stone us?

23

We must go a three days' journey in the desert to offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God, as he commands us."

24

"Well, then," said Pharaoh, "I will let you go to offer sacrifice to the LORD, your God, in the desert, provided that you do not go too far away and that you pray for me."

25

Moses answered, "As soon as I leave your presence I will pray to the LORD that the flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh and his servants and his subjects. Pharaoh, however, must not play false again by refusing to let the people go to offer sacrifice to the LORD."

26

When Moses left Pharaoh's presence, he prayed to the LORD;

27

and the LORD did as Moses had asked. He removed the flies from Pharaoh and his servants and subjects. Not one remained.

28

But once more Pharaoh became obdurate and would not let the people go.

14

⁶ When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them.

15

Immediately on seeing him, the whole crowd was utterly amazed. They ran up to him and greeted him.

16

He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?"

17

Someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit.

18

Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so."

19

He said to them in reply, "O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me."

20

They brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, the spirit immediately threw the boy into convulsions. As he fell to the ground, he began to roll around and foam at the mouth.

21

Then he questioned his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" He replied, "Since childhood.

22

It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

23

Jesus said to him, " 'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith."

24

Then the boy's father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!"

25

Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, "Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!"

26

Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, "He is dead!"

27

But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.

28

When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, "Why could we not drive it out?"

29

⁷ He said to them, "This kind can only come out through prayer."

January 22: Daily Readings & Quote

St. Vincent; St. Vincent Pallotti

Remember that the Christian life is one of action not of speech and daydreams. Let there be few words and many deeds, and let them be done well.

-St. Vincent Pallotti

Today's readings are:

Exodus 5-6:27

Mark 9: 2-13

1

After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert."

2

Pharaoh answered, "Who is the LORD, that I should heed his plea to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD; even if I did, I would not let Israel go."

3

They replied, "The God of the Hebrews has sent us word. Let us go a three days' journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God; otherwise he will punish us with pestilence or the sword."

4

The king of Egypt answered them, "What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by taking the people away from their work? Off to your labor!

5

Look how numerous the people of the land are already," continued Pharaoh, "and yet you would give them rest from their labor!"

6

¹ That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters and foremen of the people this order:

7

² "You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brickmaking as you have previously done. Let them go and gather straw themselves!

8

Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they have previously made. Do not reduce it. They are lazy; that is why they are crying, 'Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.'

9

Increase the work for the men, so that they keep their mind on it and pay no attention to lying words."

10

So the taskmasters and foremen of the people went out and told them, "Thus says Pharaoh: I will not provide you with straw.

11

Go and gather the straw yourselves, wherever you can find it. Yet there must not be the slightest reduction in your work."

12

The people, then, scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw,

13

while the taskmasters kept driving them on, saying, "Finish your work, the same daily amount as when your straw was supplied."

14

The foremen of the Israelites, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had placed over them, were beaten, and were asked, "Why have you not completed your prescribed amount of bricks yesterday and today, as before?"

15

Then the Israelite foremen came and made this appeal to Pharaoh: "Why do you treat your servants in this manner?

16

No straw is supplied to your servants, and still we are told to make bricks. Look how your servants are beaten! It is you who are at fault."

17

Pharaoh answered, "It is just because you are lazy that you keep saying, 'Let us go and offer sacrifice to the LORD.'

18

Off to work, then! Straw shall not be provided for you, but you must still deliver your quota of bricks."

19

The Israelite foremen knew they were in a sorry plight, having been told not to reduce the daily amount of bricks.

20

When, therefore, they left Pharaoh and came upon Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them,

21

they said to them, "The LORD look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hands to slay us."

22

Moses again had recourse to the LORD and said, "Lord, why do you treat this people so badly? And why did you send me on such a mission?

23

Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has maltreated this people of yours, and you have done nothing to rescue them."

1

Then the LORD answered Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. Forced by my mighty hand, he will send them away; compelled by my outstretched arm, he will drive them from his land."

2

God also said to Moses, "I am the LORD.

3

As God the Almighty I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but my name, LORD, I did not make known to them.

4

I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they were living as aliens.

5

And now that I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are treating as slaves, I am mindful of my covenant.

6

Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am the LORD. I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their slavery. I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

7

I will take you as my own people, and you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am your God when I free you from the labor of the Egyptians

8

and bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as your own possession--I, the LORD!"

9

But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to him because of their dejection and hard slavery.

10

Then the LORD said to Moses,

11

"Go and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites leave his land."

12

But Moses protested to the LORD, "If the Israelites would not listen to me, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me, poor speaker that I am!"

13

Still, the LORD, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them his orders regarding both the Israelites and Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

14

¹ These are the heads of the ancestral houses. The sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the clans of Reuben.

15

The sons of Simeon were Jenuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Shaul, who was the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon.

16

The names of the sons of Levi, in their genealogical order, are Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived one hundred and thirty-seven years.

17

The sons of Gershon, as heads of clans, were Libni and Shimei.

18

The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived one hundred and thirty-three years.

19

The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi in their genealogical order.

20

² Amram married his aunt Jochebed, who bore him Aaron, Moses and Miriam. Amram lived one hundred and thirty-seven years.

21

The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.

22

The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.

23

Aaron married Amminadab's daughter, Elisheba, the sister of Nahshon; she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

24

The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.

25

Aaron's son, Eleazar, married one of Putiel's daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the ancestral clans of the Levites.

26

This is the Aaron and this the Moses to whom the LORD said, "Lead the Israelites from the land of Egypt, company by company."

27

These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt--the same Moses and Aaron.

2

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,

3

and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

4

Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.

5

³ Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

6

He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

7

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; ⁴ then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

8

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

9

⁵ As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

10

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

11

Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"

12

He told them, "Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt?

13

But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

January 21: Daily Readings & Quote

St. Agnes

Christ has made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve.

-St. Agnes 

Today's readings are:

Exodus 3-4

Mark 8:27-9:1

1

¹ Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

2

² There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.

3

So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned."

4

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am."

5

God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

6

³ I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7

But the LORD said, "I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.

8

⁴ Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

9

So indeed the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.

10

Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

11

⁵ But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12

He answered, "I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain."

13

"But," said Moses to God, "when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?"

14

⁶ God replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you."

15

God spoke further to Moses, "Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. "This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations.

16

⁷ "Go and assemble the elders of the Israelites, and tell them: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;

17

so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

18

"Thus they will heed your message. Then you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word. Permit us, then, to go a three days' journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God.

19

"Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is forced.

20

I will stretch out my hand, therefore, and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there. After that he will send you away.

21

I will even make the Egyptians so well-disposed toward this people that, when you leave, you will not go empty-handed.

22

⁸ Every woman shall ask her neighbor and her house guest for silver and gold articles and for clothing to put on your sons and daughters. Thus you will despoil the Egyptians."

1

"But," objected Moses, "suppose they will not believe me, nor listen to my plea? For they may say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'"

2

The LORD therefore asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he answered.

3

The LORD then said, "Throw it on the ground." When he threw it on the ground it was changed into a serpent, and Moses shied away from it.

4

"Now, put out your hand," the LORD said to him, "and take hold of its tail." So he put out his hand and laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.

5

"This will take place so that they may believe," he continued, "that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, did appear to you."

6

Again the LORD said to him, "Put your hand in your bosom." He put it in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise his hand was leprous, like snow.

7

The LORD then said, "Now, put your hand back in your bosom." Moses put his hand back in his bosom, and when he withdrew it, to his surprise it was again like the rest of his body.

8

"If they will not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, they should believe the message of the second.

9

And if they will not believe even these two signs, nor heed your plea, take some water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water you take from the river will become blood on the dry land."

10

Moses, however, said to the LORD, "If you please, LORD, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor recently, nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue."

11

The LORD said to him, "Who gives one man speech and makes another deaf and dumb? Or who gives sight to one and makes another blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

12

Go, then! It is I who will assist you in speaking and will teach you what you are to say."

13

¹ Yet he insisted, "If you please, Lord, send someone else!"

14

Then the LORD became angry with Moses and said, "Have you not your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know that he is an eloquent speaker. Besides, he is now on his way to meet you.

15

When he sees you, his heart will be glad. You are to speak to him, then, and put the words in his mouth. I will assist both you and him in speaking and will teach the two of you what you are to do.

16

² He shall speak to the people for you: he shall be your spokesman, and you shall be as God to him.

17

³ Take this staff in your hand; with it you are to perform the signs."

18

⁴ After this Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go back, please, to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see whether they are still living." Jethro replied, "Go in peace."

19

In Midian the LORD said to Moses, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead."

20

So Moses took his wife and his sons, and started back to the land of Egypt, with them riding the ass. The staff of God he carried with him.

21

⁵ The LORD said to him, "On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. I will make him obstinate, however, so that he will not let the people go.

22

So you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my first-born.

23

Hence I tell you: Let my son go, that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I warn you, I will kill your son, your first-born."

24

⁶ On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and would have killed him.

25

But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son's foreskin and, touching his person, she said, "You are a spouse of blood to me."

26

Then God let Moses go. At that time she said, "A spouse of blood," in regard to the circumcision.

27

The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he went, and when they met at the mountain of God, Aaron kissed him.

28

Moses informed him of all the LORD had said in sending him, and of the various signs he had enjoined upon him.

29

Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.

30

Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses, and he performed the signs before the people.

31

The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their affliction, they bowed down in worship.

27

⁶ Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

28

They said in reply, "John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets."

29

And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said to him in reply, "You are the Messiah."

30

Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

31

He began to teach them that the Son of Man ⁷ must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.

32

He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33

At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

34

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said ⁸ to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

35

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel ⁹ will save it.

36

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

37

What could one give in exchange for his life?

38

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

1

¹ He also said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power."

January 20: Daily Readings & Quote

St Fabio;  St. Sebastian

God is always almighty; He can at all times work miracles, and He would work them now as in the days of old were it not that faith is lacking!

-St. John Vianney

Today's readings are:

Exodus 1-2

Mark 8:1-26

1

¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who, accompanied by their households, migrated with Jacob into Egypt:

2

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;

3

Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;

4

Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

5

³ The total number of the direct descendants of Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.

6

Now Joseph and all his brothers and that whole generation died.

7

But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.

8

Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph ⁴ , came to power in Egypt.

9

He said to his subjects, "Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves!

10

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country."

11

⁵ Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses.

12

Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. The Egyptians, then, dreaded the Israelites

13

and reduced them to cruel slavery,

14

⁶ making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work--the whole cruel fate of slaves.

15

The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah,

16

⁷ When you act as midwives for the Hebrew women and see them giving birth, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live."

17

The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live.

18

So the king summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you acted thus, allowing the boys to live?"

19

The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives."

20

Therefore God dealt well with the midwives. The people, too, increased and grew strong.

21

And because the midwives feared God, he built up families for them.

22

⁸ Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, "Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews, but you may let all the girls live."

1

Now a certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,

2

who conceived and bore a son. Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.

3

¹ When she could hide him no longer, she took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank.

4

His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

5

Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, while her maids walked along the river bank. Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it.

6

On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, "It is one of the Hebrews' children."

7

Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"

8

"Yes, do so," she answered. So the maiden went and called the child's own mother.

9

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you." The woman therefore took the child and nursed it.

10

² When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son and called him Moses; for she said, "I drew him out of the water."

11

³ On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.

12

Looking about and seeing no one, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

13

The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting! So he asked the culprit, "Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?"

14

But he replied, "Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses became afraid and thought, "The affair must certainly be known."

15

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put him to death. But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian. As he was seated there by a well,

16

seven daughters of a priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.

17

But some shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses got up and defended them and watered their flock.

18

⁴ When they returned to their father Reuel, he said to them, "How is it you have returned so soon today?"

19

⁵ They answered, "An Egyptian saved us from the interference of the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock!"

20

"Where is the man?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him there? Invite him to have something to eat."

21

Moses agreed to live with him, and the man gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage.

22

⁶ She bore him a son, whom he named Gershom; for he said, "I am a stranger in a foreign land."

23

A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. Still the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God,

24

he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

25

He saw the Israelites and knew. . . .

1

¹ In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said,

2

"My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.

3

If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance."

4

His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?"

5

Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied.

6

² He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.

7

They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.

8

They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over--seven baskets.

9

There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them

10

and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

11

³ The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

12

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

13

Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

14

They had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

15

⁴ He enjoined them, "Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

16

They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.

17

When he became aware of this he said to them, "Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?

18

Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember,

19

when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?" They answered him, "Twelve."

20

"When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?" They answered (him), "Seven."

21

He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

22

⁵ When they arrived at Bethsaida, they brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

23

He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked, "Do you see anything?"

24

Looking up he replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking."

25

Then he laid hands on his eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

26

Then he sent him home and said, "Do not even go into the village."

January 19: Daily Readings & Quote

The Incarnation is the most stupendous event which ever can take place on earth; and after it and henceforth, I do not see how we can scruple at any miracle on the mere ground of its being unlikely to happen.

- Venerable John Henry Newman

Today's readings are:

Genesis 47-50

Mark 7:24-37

1

Joseph went and told Pharaoh, "My father and my brothers have come from the land of Canaan, with their flocks and herds and everything else they own; and they are now in the region of Goshen."

2

He then presented to Pharaoh five of his brothers whom he had selected from their full number.

3

When Pharaoh asked them what their occupation was, they answered, "We, your servants, like our ancestors, are shepherds.

4

We have come," they continued, "in order to stay in this country, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks in the land of Canaan, so severe has the famine been there. Please, therefore, let your servants settle in the region of Goshen."

5

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "They may settle in the region of Goshen; and if you know any of them to be qualified, you may put them in charge of my own livestock." Thus, when Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard about it, Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Now that your father and brothers have come to you,

6

the land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and brothers in the pick of the land."

7

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh. After Jacob had paid his respects to Pharaoh,

8

Pharaoh asked him, "How many years have you lived?"

9

¹ Jacob replied: "The years I have lived as a wayfarer amount to a hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been these years of my life, and they do not compare with the years that my ancestors lived as wayfarers."

10

Then Jacob bade Pharaoh farewell and withdrew from his presence.

11

² As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them holdings in Egypt on the pick of the land, in the region of Rameses.

12

And Joseph sustained his father and brothers and his father's whole household, down to the youngest, with food.

13

Since there was no food in any country because of the extreme severity of the famine, and the lands of Egypt and Canaan were languishing from hunger,

14

Joseph gathered in, as payment for the rations that were being dispensed, all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan, and he put it in Pharaoh's palace.

15

When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, pleading, "Give us food or we shall perish under your eyes; for our money is gone."

16

"Since your money is gone," replied Joseph, "give me your livestock, and I will sell you bread in return for your livestock."

17

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he sold them food in return for their horses, their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and their donkeys. Thus he got them through that year with bread in exchange for all their livestock.

18

When that year ended, they came to him in the following one and said: "We cannot hide from my lord that, with our money spent and our livestock made over to my lord, there is nothing left to put at my lord's disposal except our bodies and our farm land.

19

Why should we and our land perish before your very eyes? Take us and our land in exchange for food, and we will become Pharaoh's slaves and our land his property; only give us seed, that we may survive and not perish, and that our land may not turn into a waste."

20

Thus Joseph acquired all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, since with the famine too much for them to bear, every Egyptian sold his field; so the land passed over to Pharaoh,

21

and the people were reduced to slavery, from one end of Egypt's territory to the other.

22

Only the priests' lands Joseph did not take over. Since the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived off the allowance Pharaoh had granted them, they did not have to sell their land.

23

Joseph told the people: "Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh, here is your seed for sowing the land.

24

But when the harvest is in, you must give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, while you keep four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for yourselves and your families (and as food for your children)."

25

"You have saved our lives!" they answered. "We are grateful to my lord that we can be Pharaoh's slaves."

26

Thus Joseph made it a law for the land in Egypt, which is still in force, that a fifth of its produce should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not pass over to Pharaoh.

27

Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. There they acquired property, were fertile, and increased greatly.

28

Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years; the span of his life came to a hundred and forty-seven years.

29

When the time approached for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him: "If you really wish to please me, put your hand under my thigh as a sign of your constant loyalty to me; do not let me be buried in Egypt.

30

When I lie down with my ancestors, have me taken out of Egypt and buried in their burial place."

31

³ "I will do as you say," he replied. But his father demanded, "Swear it to me!" So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.

1

Some time afterward, Joseph was informed, "Your father is failing." So he took along with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

2

When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," he rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

3

¹ Jacob then said to Joseph: "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessing me,

4

he said, 'I will make you fertile and numerous and raise you into an assembly of tribes, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as a permanent possession.'

5

Your two sons, therefore, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I joined you here, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as much as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

6

Progeny born to you after them shall remain yours; but their heritage shall be recorded in the names of their two brothers.

7

² I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."

8

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these?"

9

"They are my sons," Joseph answered his father, "whom God has given me here." "Bring them to me," said his father, "that I may bless them."

10

(Now Israel's eyes were dim from age, and he could not see well.) When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them.

11

Then Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!"

12

Joseph removed them from his father's knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.

13

Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel's right, and led them to him.

14

But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the first-born.

15

Then he blessed them with these words: "May the God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day,

16

The Angel who has delivered me from all harm, bless these boys That in them my name be recalled, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, And they may become teeming multitudes upon the earth!"

17

When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, this seemed wrong to him; so he took hold of his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's,

18

saying, "That is not right, father; the other one is the first-born; lay your right hand on his head!"

19

But his father resisted. "I know it, son," he said, "I know. That one too shall become a tribe, and he too shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall surpass him, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."

20

So when he blessed them that day and said, "By you shall the people of Israel pronounce blessings; may they say, 'God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh,'" he placed Ephraim before Manasseh.

21

Then Israel said to Joseph: "I am about to die. But God will be with you and will restore you to the land of your fathers.

22

³ As for me, I give to you, as to the one above his brothers, Shechem, which I captured from the Amorites with my sword and bow."

1

Jacob called his sons and said: "Gather around, that I may tell you what is to happen to you in days to come.

2

"Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father.

3

"You, Reuben, my first-born, my strength and the first fruit of my manhood, excelling in rank and excelling in power!

4

Unruly as water, you shall no longer excel, for you climbed into your father's bed and defiled my couch to my sorrow.

5

¹ "Simeon and Levi, brothers indeed, weapons of violence are their knives.

6

Let not my soul enter their council, or my spirit be joined with their company; For in their fury they slew men, in their willfulness they maimed oxen.

7

Cursed be their fury so fierce, and their rage so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob, disperse them throughout Israel.

8

"You, Judah, shall your brothers praise --your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you.

9

Judah, like a lion's whelp, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches like a lion recumbent, the king of beasts--who would dare rouse him?

10

² The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs, While tribute is brought to him, and he receives the people's homage.

11

³ He tethers his donkey to the vine, his purebred ass to the choicest stem. In wine he washes his garments his robe in the blood of grapes.

12

His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

13

"Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore (This means a shore for ships), and his flank shall be based on Sidon.

14

"Issachar is a rawboned ass, crouching between the saddlebags.

15

When he saw how good a settled life was, and how pleasant the country, He bent his shoulder to the burden and became a toiling serf.

16

⁴ "Dan shall achieve justice for his kindred like any other tribe of Israel.

17

Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside, a horned viper by the path, That bites the horse's heel, so that the rider tumbles backward.

18

"(I long for your deliverance, O LORD!)

19

⁵ "Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.

20

"Asher's produce is rich, and he shall furnish dainties for kings.

21

"Naphtali is a hind let loose which brings forth lovely fawns.

22

"Joseph is a wild colt ,a wild colt by a spring, a wild ass on a hillside.

23

Harrying and attacking, the archers opposed him;

24

But each one's bow remained stiff, as their arms were unsteady, By the power of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25

⁶ The God of your father, who helps you, God Almighty, who blesses you, With the blessings of the heavens above, the blessings of the abyss that crouches below, The blessings of breasts and womb,

26

the blessings of fresh grain and blossoms, The blessings of the everlasting mountains, the delights of the eternal hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

27

"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; mornings he devours the prey, and evenings he distributes the spoils."

28

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said about them, as he bade them farewell and gave to each of them an appropriate message.

29

Then he gave them this charge: "Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30

the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.

31

There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah--

32

the field and the cave in it that had been purchased from the Hittites."

33

When Jacob had finished giving these instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was taken to his kindred.

1

Joseph threw himself on his father's face and wept over him as he kissed him.

2

Then he ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When they embalmed Israel,

3

they spent forty days at it, for that is the full period of embalming; and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.

4

When that period of mourning was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's courtiers. "Please do me this favor," he said, "and convey to Pharaoh this request of mine.

5

Since my father, at the point of death, made me promise on oath to bury him in the tomb that he had prepared for himself in the land of Canaan, may I go up there to bury my father and then come back?"

6

Pharaoh replied, "Go and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath."

7

So Joseph left to bury his father; and with him went all of Pharaoh's officials who were senior members of his court and all the other dignitaries of Egypt,

8

as well as Joseph's whole household, his brothers, and his father's household; only their children and their flocks and herds were left in the region of Goshen.

9

Chariots, too, and charioteers went up with him; it was a very large retinue.

10

¹ When they arrived at Goren-ha-atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn memorial service; and Joseph observed seven days of mourning for his father.

11

When the Canaanites who inhabited the land saw the mourning at Goren-ha-atad, they said, "This is a solemn funeral the Egyptians are having." That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan.

12

Thus Jacob's sons did for him as he had instructed them.

13

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.

14

After Joseph had buried his father he returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all who had gone up with him for the burial of his father.

15

Now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful and thought, "Suppose Joseph has been nursing a grudge against us and now plans to pay us back in full for all the wrong we did him!"

16

So they approached Joseph and said: "Before your father died, he gave us these instructions:

17

'You shall say to Joseph, Jacob begs you to forgive the criminal wrongdoing of your brothers, who treated you so cruelly.' Please, therefore, forgive the crime that we, the servants of your father's God, committed." When they spoke these words to him, Joseph broke into tears.

18

Then his brothers proceeded to fling themselves down before him and said, "Let us be your slaves!"

19

But Joseph replied to them: "Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?

20

Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.

21

Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and for your children." By thus speaking kindly to them, he reassured them.

22

Joseph remained in Egypt, together with his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years.

23

He saw Ephraim's children to the third generation, and the children of Manasseh's son Machir were also born on Joseph's knees.

24

Joseph said to his brothers: "I am about to die. God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

25

Then, putting the sons of Israel under oath, he continued, "When God thus takes care of you, you must bring my bones up with you from this place."

26

Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. He was embalmed and laid to rest in a coffin in Egypt.

24

From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. ⁸ He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.

25

Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.

26

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27

He said to her, "Let the children be fed first. ⁹ For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

28

She replied and said to him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

29

Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

30

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

31

Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

32

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

33

He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue;

34

then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")

35

And (immediately) the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

36

¹⁰ He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

37

They were exceedingly astonished and they said, "He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak."

January 18: Daily Readings & Quote

St. Jaime Hilario

The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown. surpassing even the happiest days of your life. 

-St. Jaime Hilario

Today's readings are:

Genesis 43-46

Mark 7:1-23

1

¹ Now the famine in the land grew more severe.

2

So when they had used up all the rations they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go back and procure us a little more food."

3

But Judah replied: "The man strictly warned us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'

4

If you are willing to let our brother go with us, we will go down to procure food for you.

5

But if you are not willing, we will not go down, because the man told us, 'You shall not appear in my presence unless your brother is with you.'"

6

Israel demanded, "Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man that you had another brother?"

7

They answered: "The man kept asking about ourselves and our family: 'Is your father still living? Do you have another brother?' We had to answer his questions. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down here'?"

8

Then Judah urged his father Israel: "Let the boy go with me, that we may be off and on our way if you and we and our children are to keep from starving to death.

9

I myself will stand surety for him. You can hold me responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back, to set him in your presence, you can hold it against me forever.

10

Had we not dilly-dallied, we could have been there and back twice by now!"

11

Their father Israel then told them: "If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land's best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.

12

Also take extra money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake.

13

Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man.

14

May God Almighty dispose the man to be merciful toward you, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it."

15

So the men got the gifts, took double the amount of money with them, and, accompanied by Benjamin, were off on their way down to Egypt to present themselves to Joseph.

16

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he told his head steward, "Take these men into the house, and have an animal slaughtered and prepared, for they are to dine with me at noon."

17

Doing as Joseph had ordered, the steward conducted the men to Joseph's house.

18

But on being led to his house, they became apprehensive. "It must be," they thought, "on account of the money put back in our bags the first time, that we are taken inside; they want to use it as a pretext to attack us and take our donkeys and seize us as slaves."

19

So they went up to Joseph's head steward and talked to him at the entrance of the house.

20

"If you please, sir," they said, "we came down here once before to procure food.

21

But when we arrived at a night's encampment and opened our bags, there was each man's money in the mouth of his bag--our money in the full amount! We have now brought it back.

22

We have brought other money to procure food with. We do not know who put the first money in our bags."

23

"Be at ease," he replied; "you have no need to fear. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasures in your bags for you. As for your money, I received it." With that, he led Simeon out to them.

24

The steward then brought the men inside Joseph's house. He gave them water to bathe their feet, and got fodder for their donkeys.

25

Then they set out their gifts to await Joseph's arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to dine there.

26

When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, while they bowed down before him to the ground.

27

After inquiring how they were, he asked them, "And how is your aged father, of whom you spoke? Is he still in good health?"

28

"Your servant our father is thriving and still in good health," they said, as they bowed respectfully.

29

When Joseph's eye fell on his full brother Benjamin, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you told me?" Then he said to him, "May God be gracious to you, my boy!"

30

With that, Joseph had to hurry out, for he was so overcome with affection for his brother that he was on the verge of tears. He went into a private room and wept there.

31

After washing his face, he reappeared and, now in control of himself, gave the order, "Serve the meal."

32

² It was served separately to him, to the brothers, and to the Egyptians who partook of his board. (Egyptians may not eat with Hebrews; that is abhorrent to them.)

33

When they were seated by his directions according to their age, from the oldest to the youngest, they looked at one another in amazement;

34

³ and as portions were brought to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as large as anyone else's. So they drank freely and made merry with him.

1

¹ Then Joseph gave his head steward these instructions: "Fill the men's bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his bag.

2

In the mouth of the youngest one's bag put also my silver goblet, together with the money for his rations." The steward carried out Joseph's instructions.

3

At daybreak the men and their donkeys were sent off.

4

They had not gone far out of the city when Joseph said to his head steward: "Go at once after the men! When you overtake them, say to them, 'Why did you repay good with evil? Why did you steal the silver goblet from me?

5

² It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination. What you have done is wrong.'"

6

When the steward overtook them and repeated these words to them,

7

they remonstrated with him: "How can my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!

8

We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the mouths of our bags. Why, then, would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

9

If any of your servants is found to have the goblet, he shall die, and as for the rest of us, we shall become my lord's slaves."

10

But he replied, "Even though it ought to be as you propose, only the one who is found to have it shall become my slave, and the rest of you shall be exonerated."

11

Then each of them eagerly lowered his bag to the ground and opened it;

12

and when a search was made, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest, the goblet turned up in Benjamin's bag.

13

At this, they tore their clothes. Then, when each man had reloaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

14

As Judah and his brothers reentered Joseph's house, he was still there; so they flung themselves on the ground before him.

15

"How could you do such a thing?" Joseph asked them. "You should have known that such a man as I could discover by divination what happened."

16

³ Judah replied: "What can we say to my lord? How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. Here we are, then, the slaves of my lord--the rest of us no less than the one in whose possession the goblet was found."

17

"Far be it from me to act thus!" said Joseph. "Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall become my slave; the rest of you may go back safe and sound to your father."

18

Judah then stepped up to him and said: "I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak earnestly to my lord, and do not become angry with your servant, for you are the equal of Pharaoh.

19

⁴ My lord asked your servants, 'Have you a father, or another brother?'

20

So we said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and a young brother, the child of his old age. This one's full brother is dead, and since he is the only one by that mother who is left, his father dotes on him.'

21

Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me that my eyes may look on him.'

22

We replied to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; his father would die if he were to leave him.'

23

But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes back with you, you shall not come into my presence again.'

24

When we returned to your servant our father, we reported to him the words of my lord.

25

"Later, our father told us to come back and buy some food for the family.

26

So we reminded him, 'We cannot go down there; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go, for we may not see the man if our youngest brother is not with us.'

27

Then your servant our father said to us, 'As you know, my wife bore me two sons.

28

One of them, however, disappeared, and I had to conclude that he must have been torn to pieces by wild beasts; I have not seen him since.

29

If you now take this one away from me too, and some disaster befalls him, you will send my white head down to the nether world in grief.'

30

"If then the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, whose very life is bound up with his, he will die as soon as he sees that the boy is missing;

31

and your servants will thus send the white head of our father down to the nether world in grief.

32

Besides, I, your servant, got the boy from his father by going surety for him, saying, 'If I fail to bring him back to you, father, you can hold it against me forever.'

33

Let me, your servant, therefore, remain in place of the boy as the slave of my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

34

How could I go back to my father if the boy were not with me? I could not bear to see the anguish that would overcome my father."

1

Joseph could no longer control himself in the presence of all his attendants, so he cried out, "Have everyone withdraw from me!" Thus no one else was about when he made himself known to his brothers.

2

But his sobs were so loud that the Egyptians heard him, and so the news reached Pharaoh's palace.

3

"I am Joseph," he said to his brothers. "Is my father still in good health?" But his brothers could give him no answer, so dumbfounded were they at him.

4

"Come closer to me," he told his brothers. When they had done so, he said: "I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt.

5

But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.

6

For two years now the famine has been in the land, and for five more years tillage will yield no harvest.

7

God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.

8

¹ So it was not really you but God who had me come here; and he has made of me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

9

² "Hurry back, then, to my father and tell him: 'Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come to me without delay.

10

³ You will settle in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me--you and your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything that you own.

11

Since five years of famine still lie ahead, I will provide for you there, so that you and your family and all that are yours may not suffer want.'

12

Surely, you can see for yourselves, and Benjamin can see for himself, that it is I, Joseph, who am speaking to you.

13

Tell my father all about my high position in Egypt and what you have seen. But hurry and bring my father down here."

14

Thereupon he flung himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept in his arms.

15

Joseph then kissed all his brothers, crying over each of them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

16

When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and his courtiers were pleased.

17

So Pharaoh told Joseph: "Say to your brothers: 'This is what you shall do: Load up your animals and go without delay to the land of Canaan.

18

There get your father and your families, and then come back here to me; I will assign you the best land in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land.'

19

Instruct them further: 'Do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your children and your wives and to transport your father on your way back here.

20

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best in the whole land of Egypt shall be yours.'"

21

The sons of Israel acted accordingly. Joseph gave them the wagons, as Pharaoh had ordered, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey.

22

He also gave to each of them fresh clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of garments.

23

Moreover, what he sent to his father was ten jackasses loaded with the finest products of Egypt and ten jennies loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey.

24

As he sent his brothers on their way, he told them, "Let there be no recriminations on the way."

25

So they left Egypt and made their way to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

26

When they told him, "Joseph is still alive--in fact, it is he who is ruler of all the land of Egypt," he was dumbfounded; he could not believe them.

27

But when they recounted to him all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent for his transport, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

28

"It is enough," said Israel. "My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die."

1

Israel set out with all that was his. When he arrived at Beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

2

There God, speaking to Israel in a vision by night, called, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am," he answered.

3

¹ Then he said: "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you a great nation.

4

Not only will I go down to Egypt with you; I will also bring you back here, after Joseph has closed your eyes."

5

So Jacob departed from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel put their father and their wives and children on the wagons that Pharaoh had sent for his transport.

6

They took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Thus Jacob and all his descendants migrated to Egypt.

7

His sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters--all his descendants--he took with him to Egypt.

8

These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who migrated to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob's first-born,

9

² and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10

The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, son of a Canaanite woman.

11

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12

The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah--but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13

The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14

The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15

These were the sons whom Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, along with his daughter Dinah--thirty-three persons in all, male and female.

16

The sons of Gad: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arod, and Areli.

17

The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, with their sister Serah; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

18

These were the descendants of Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah; these she bore to Jacob--sixteen persons in all.

19

The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

20

In the land of Egypt Joseph became the father of Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis, bore to him.

21

The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ahiram, Shupham, Hupham, and Ard.

22

These were the sons whom Rachel bore to Jacob--fourteen persons in all.

23

The sons of Dan: Hushim.

24

The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel; these she bore to Jacob--seven persons in all.

26

Jacob's people who migrated to Egypt--his direct descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons--numbered sixty-six persons in all.

27

³ Together with Joseph's sons who were born to him in Egypt--two persons--all the people comprising Jacob's family who had come to Egypt amounted to seventy persons in all.

28

Israel had sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that he might meet him in Goshen. On his arrival in the region of Goshen,

29

Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as he saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms.

30

And Israel said to Joseph, "At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive."

31

Joseph then said to his brothers and his father's household: "I will go and inform Pharaoh, telling him: 'My brothers and my father's household, whose home is in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

32

The men are shepherds, having long been keepers of livestock; and they have brought with them their flocks and herds, as well as everything else they own.'

33

So when Pharaoh summons you and asks what your occupation is,

34

you must answer, 'We your servants, like our ancestors, have been keepers of livestock from the beginning until now,' in order that you may stay in the region of Goshen, since all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians."

1

¹ Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

2

they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

3

(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, ² keeping the tradition of the elders.

4

And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).)

5

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders ³ but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

6

He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

7

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'

8

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

9

He went on to say, "How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition!

10

For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'

11

Yet you say, 'If a person says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is qorban"' ⁴ (meaning, dedicated to God),

12

you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.

13

You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things."

14

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

15

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."

16

) ⁵

17

⁶ When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.

18

He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

19

⁷ since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

20

"But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.

21

From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

22

adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

23

All these evils come from within and they defile."