Tuesday of the Ninth week of Pentecost
Tuesday, July 21
Maronite Calendar
Acts of the Apostles 19,1-10
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples.
He said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’
Then he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They answered, ‘Into John’s baptism.’
Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied
altogether there were about twelve of them.
He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God.
When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11,37-41
While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table.
The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner.
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.
“Give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you”
Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
Spanish Trappist monk
Spiritual writings, 04/03/1938 (trans. Mairin Mitchell, 1964)
God is in the unfettered heart, in the silence of prayer, the willing sacrifice to suffering in the rejection of the world and its creatures. God is in the Cross, and as long as we do not love the Cross we shall not see him, we shall not feel him. Let those who are only concerned with making a noise, keep silent!
Ah Lord, how happy I am in my retreat! How much I love you in my solitude! How much I would like to offer you what I haven’t got, for I have already given you all! Ask me, Lord, but what have I to give you? My body – it is yours already; my soul – Lord, for whom shall it crave but you, longing for you to take it once and for all. My heart, it is at the feet of Mary, shedding tears of love, of love for you only. My will? Perhaps, Lord, I want what you don’t wish? Tell me, tell me, Lord, what is your will and I will place mine at your side. I love everything that you send me and everything that you command of me, health as much as sickness, to be here as much as to be there, to be one thing as much as another; my life, take it, Lord, when you will. How could we not be happy like this?
If the world and mankind only knew… But they won’t know, they’re much too occupied with their affairs, their hearts are full of things which are not God. The world lives very much for earthly ends; people give themselves up to the illusions of this life in which all is vanity, and so they can’t find that real happiness which is the love of God. Perhaps they will come to understand, but to experience that happiness they must live it. And there are very few, even among Religious, who surrender themselves to take up his cross (Mt 16,24). Lord, the things that you permit! Your wisdom will know the reason for this; take me by the hand and suffer not my feet to slip, for if you don’t do this, who will help me? And “if you don’t build” (Ps 127[126],1)… Ah Lord, how I love you! When will it be, Lord?
Elias the Prophet
Celebrated July 20
The Holy Prophet Elijah is one of the greatest of the prophets and the first dedicated to virginity in the Old Testament. He was born in Tishba of Gilead into the Levite tribe 900 years before the Incarnation of the Word of God.
Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus gives the following account about the birth of the Prophet Elijah: “When Elijah was born, his father Sobach saw in a vision angels of God around him. They swaddled him with fire and fed him with flames.” The name Elijah (the Lord’s strength) given to the infant defined his whole life. From the years of his youth, he dedicated himself to the One God, settled in the wilderness and spent his whole life in strict fasting, meditation, and prayer. Called to prophetic service, which put him in conflict with the Israelite king Ahab, the prophet became a fiery zealot of true faith and piety.
الانجيل المقدس كاملا (متى، مرقس، لوقا، يوحنا) بالصوت والصورة من مزار سيدة لبنان حريصا
الانجيل المقدس كاملا (متى، مرقس، لوقا، يوحنا) بالصوت والصورة من مزار سيدة لبنان حريصا عمل يدعو للصلاة والتأمل في كلمة الرب
اداء: الاب فادي تابت رئيس المزار
اخراج: اسعد شديد
مرافقة موسيقية: بيار مطر وفادي ابي هاشم
Daily Bible Reading
According to the
Maronite Catholic Church Calendar