To finish the Bible in one year, Read Psalms 71 to 75 and 2nd Corinthians 12 : 11 to 13-1-14
Old Testament Reading for today – Listen or read it for yourself:
Reflection for Today.
Also read the verses, if you like.
Psalm 71
1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge, I shall never be put to shame.
2 In your saving justice rescue me, deliver me, listen to me and save me.
3 Be a sheltering rock for me, always accessible; you have determined to save me, for you are my rock, my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me from the clutches of the wicked, from the grasp of the rogue and the ruthless.
5 For you are my hope, Lord, my trust, Yahweh, since boyhood.
6 On you I have relied since my birth, since my mother’s womb you have been my portion, the constant theme of my praise.
7 Many were bewildered at me, but you are my sure refuge.
8 My mouth is full of your praises, filled with your splendour all day long.
9 Do not reject me in my old age, nor desert me when my strength is failing,
10 for my enemies are discussing me, those with designs on my life are plotting together.
11 ‘Hound him down, for God has deserted him! Seize him, there is no one to rescue him.’
12 God, do not stand aloof, my God, come quickly to help me.
13 Shame and ruin on those who slander me, may those intent on harming me be covered with insult and infamy.
14 As for me, my hope will never fade, I will praise you more and more.
15 My lips shall proclaim your saving justice, your saving power all day long.
16 I will come in the power of Yahweh to tell of your justice, yours alone.
17 God, you have taught me from boyhood, and I am still proclaiming your marvels.
18 Now that I am old and grey-haired, God, do not desert me, till I have proclaimed your strength to generations still to come, your power
19 and justice to the skies. You have done great things, God, who is like you?
20 You have shown me much misery and hardship, but you will give me life again, You will raise me up again from the depths of the earth,
21 prolong my old age, and comfort me again.
22 For my part, I will thank you on the lyre for your constancy, my God. I will play the harp in your honour, Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips sing for joy as I play to you, because you have redeemed me,
24 and all day long my tongue muses on your saving justice. Shame and disgrace on those intent to harm me!
Psalm 72
1 [Of Solomon] God, endow the king with your own fair judgement, the son of the king with your own saving justice,
2 that he may rule your people with justice, and your poor with fair judgement.
3 Mountains and hills, bring peace to the people! With justice
4 he will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and crush their oppressors.
5 In the sight of the sun and the moon he will endure, age after age.
6 He will come down like rain on mown grass, like showers moistening the land.
7 In his days uprightness shall flourish, and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.
8 His empire shall stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the limits of the earth.
9 The Beast will cower before him, his enemies lick the dust;
10 the kings of Tarshish and the islands will pay him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer gifts;
11 all kings will do him homage, all nations become his servants.
12 For he rescues the needy who calls to him, and the poor who has no one to help.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the needy from death.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their lives, their blood is precious in his sight.
15 (Long may he live; may the gold of Sheba be given him!) Prayer will be offered for him constantly, and blessings invoked on him all day.
16 May wheat abound in the land, waving on the heights of the hills, like Lebanon with its fruits and flowers at their best, like the grasses of the earth.
17 May his name be blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of the sun. In him shall be blessed every race in the world, and all nations call him blessed.
18 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders;
19 blessed for ever his glorious name. May the whole world be filled with his glory! Amen! Amen!
20 End of the prayers of David, son of Jesse.
1 [Psalm Of Asaph] Indeed God is good to Israel, the Lord to those who are pure of heart.
2 My feet were on the point of stumbling, a little more and I had slipped,
3 envying the arrogant as I did, and seeing the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For them no such thing as pain, untroubled, their comfortable portliness;
5 exempt from the cares which are the human lot, they have no part in Adam’s afflictions.
6 So pride is a necklace to them, violence the garment they wear.
7 From their fat oozes out malice, their hearts drip with cunning.
8 Cynically they advocate evil, loftily they advocate force.
9 Their mouth claims heaven for themselves, and their tongue is never still on earth.
10 That is why my people turn to them, and enjoy the waters of plenty,
11 saying, ‘How can God know? What knowledge can the Most High have?’
12 That is what the wicked are like, piling up wealth without any worries.
13 Was it useless, then, to have kept my own heart clean, to have washed my hands in innocence?
14 When I was under a hail of blows all day long, and punished every morning,
15 had I said, ‘I shall talk like them,’ I should have betrayed your children’s race.
16 So I set myself to understand this: how difficult I found it!
17 Until I went into the sanctuaries of the gods and understood what was destined to become of them.
18 You place them on a slippery slope and drive them down into chaos.
19 How sudden their hideous destruction! They are swept away, annihilated by terror!
20 Like a dream upon waking, Lord, when you awake, you dismiss their image.
21 My heart grew embittered, my affections dried up,
22 I was stupid and uncomprehending, a clumsy animal in your presence.
23 Even so, I stayed in your presence, you grasped me by the right hand;
24 you will guide me with advice, and will draw me in the wake of your glory.
25 Who else is there for me in heaven? And, with you, I lack nothing on earth.
26 My heart and my flesh are pining away: my heart’s rock, my portion, God for ever!
27 Truly, those who abandon you will perish; you destroy those who adulterously desert you,
28 whereas my happiness is to be near God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, to tell of all your works.
Psalm 74
1 [Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?
2 Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.
3 Come up to these endless ruins! The enemy have sacked everything in the sanctuary;
4 your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems
5 never known before. Their axes deep in the wood,
6 hacking at the panels, they battered them down with axe and pick;
7 they set fire to your sanctuary, profanely rased to the ground the dwelling-place of your name.
8 They said to themselves, ‘Let us crush them at one stroke!’ They burned down every sacred shrine in the land.
9 We see no signs, no prophet any more, and none of us knows how long it will last.
10 How much longer, God, will the enemy blaspheme? Is the enemy to insult your name for ever?
11 Why hold back your hand, keep your right hand hidden in the folds of your robe?
12 Yet, God, my king from the first, author of saving acts throughout the earth,
13 by your power you split the sea in two, and smashed the heads of the monsters on the waters.
14 You crushed Leviathan’s heads, gave him as food to the wild animals.
15 You released the springs and brooks, and turned primordial rivers into dry land.
16 Yours is the day and yours the night, you caused sun and light to exist,
17 you fixed all the boundaries of the earth, you created summer and winter.
18 Remember, Yahweh, the enemy’s blasphemy, a foolish people insults your name.
19 Do not surrender your turtledove to the beast; do not forget for ever the life of your oppressed people.
20 Look to the covenant! All the hiding-places of the land are full, haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.
22 Arise, God, champion your own cause, remember how fools blaspheme you all day long!
23 Do not forget the shouting of your enemies, the ever-mounting uproar of your adversaries.
Psalm 75
1 [For the choirmaster Tune: ‘Do not destroy’ Psalm Of Asaph Song] We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks to you, as we call upon your name, as we recount your wonders.
2 ‘At the appointed time I myself shall dispense justice.
3 The earth quakes and all its inhabitants; it is I who hold its pillars firm.
4 ‘I said to the boastful, “Do not boast!” to the wicked, “Do not flaunt your strength!
5 Do not flaunt your strength so proudly, do not talk with that arrogant stance.” ‘
6 No longer from east to west, no longer in the mountainous desert,
7 is God judging in uprightness, bringing some down, raising others.
8 Yahweh is holding a cup filled with a heady blend of wine; he will pour it, they will drink it to the dregs, all the wicked on earth will drink it.
9 But I shall speak out for ever, shall make music for the God of Jacob.
10 I shall break down all the strength of the wicked, and the strength of the upright will rise high.
2nd Corinthians 12 : 11 to 13:14
11 However, in the Lord, though woman is nothing without man, man is nothing without woman;
12 and though woman came from man, so does every man come from a woman, and everything comes from God.
13 Decide for yourselves: does it seem fitting that a woman should pray to God without a veil?
14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,
15 but when a woman has long hair, it is her glory? After all, her hair was given to her to be a covering.
16 If anyone wants to be contentious, I say that we have no such custom, nor do any of the churches of God.
17 Now that I am on the subject of instructions, I cannot congratulate you on the meetings you hold; they do more harm than good.
18 In the first place, I hear that when you all come together in your assembly, there are separate factions among you, and to some extent I believe it.
19 It is no bad thing, either, that there should be differing groups among you so that those who are to be trusted among you can be clearly recognised.
20 So, when you meet together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat;
21 for when the eating begins, each one of you has his own supper first, and there is one going hungry while another is getting drunk.
22 Surely you have homes for doing your eating and drinking in? Or have you such disregard for God’s assembly that you can put to shame those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? Congratulate you? On this I cannot congratulate you.
23 For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,
24 and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
25 And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’
26 Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 Therefore anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.
28 Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup;
29 because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.
30 That is why many of you are weak and ill and a good number have died.
31 If we were critical of ourselves we would not be condemned,
32 but when we are judged by the Lord, we are corrected by the Lord to save us from being condemned along with the world.
33 So then, my brothers, when you meet for the Meal, wait for each other;
34 anyone who is hungry should eat at home. Then your meeting will not bring your condemnation. The other matters I shall arrange when I come.
2 Corinthians 12:14
1 About the gifts of the Spirit, brothers, I want you to be quite certain.
2 You remember that, when you were pagans, you were irresistibly drawn to inarticulate heathen gods.
3 Because of that, I want to make it quite clear to you that no one who says ‘A curse on Jesus’ can be speaking in the Spirit of God, and nobody is able to say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.
4 There are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit;
5 there are many different ways of serving, but it is always the same Lord.
6 There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all.
7 The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good.
8 To one is given from the Spirit the gift of utterance expressing wisdom; to another the gift of utterance expressing knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit;
9 to another, faith, from the same Spirit; and to another, the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit;
10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the power of distinguishing spirits; to one, the gift of different tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues.
11 But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.
12 For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts — all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body — so it is with Christ.
13 We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.
14 And indeed the body consists not of one member but of many.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
1 About then, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, ‘Yahweh says this, “Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live.” ‘
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yahweh,
3 ‘Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.’ And Hezekiah shed many tears.
4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah,
5 ‘Go and say to Hezekiah, “Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days’ time you will go up to the Temple of Yahweh. I shall add fifteen years to your life.
6 I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria’s clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David’s sake.” ‘
7 ‘Here’, Isaiah replied, ‘is the sign from Yahweh that he will do what he has said.
8 Look, I shall make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps — the steps to Ahaz’s roof-room-go back ten steps.’ And the sun went back the ten steps by which it had declined.
21 ‘Bring a fig poultice,’ Isaiah said, ‘apply it to the ulcer and he will recover.’
22 Hezekiah said, ‘What is the sign to tell me that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yahweh?’
Responsorial Psalm, Isaiah 38:10, 11, 12, 16
10 I thought: In the noon of my life I am to depart. At the gates of Sheol I shall be held for the rest of my days.
11 I thought: I shall never see Yahweh again in the land of the living, I shall never see again a single one of those who live on earth.
12 My home has been pulled up, and thrown away like a shepherd’s tent; like a weaver, I have rolled up my life, he has cut me from the loom. From dawn to dark, you have been making an end of me;
16 The Lord is over them; they live, and everything in them lives by his spirit. You will cure me. Restore me to life.
Gospel, Matthew 12:1-8
1 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields one Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them.
2 The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath.’
3 But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry-
4 how he went into the house of God and they ate the loaves of the offering although neither he nor his followers were permitted to eat them, but only the priests?
5 Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath day the Temple priests break the Sabbath without committing any fault?
6 Now here, I tell you, is something greater than the Temple.
7 And if you had understood the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.
8 For the Son of man is master of the Sabbath.’
Previous Daily Bible Study Blogs
Book of Psalms, Outline Summary, Outline Book of 2 Corinthians (we are studying these books presently)
Audio Drama: Old Testament New Testament Each book is read in its entirety. You can listen to the bible, one book at a time in contemporary English.
Dr. Myles Munroe
I am including a video by Dr. Myles Munroe, I’ve listened to him back in the nineties, and rediscovered him recently. Now his perspective seems to be a good way to also look at scripture. In Pursuit of Purpose – Book Highlights
Sermons Rosary Prayers Catholic Answers
Did Mary have other children? No, Listen here
Called to Communion
Pray the Rosary
Rosary Mysteries
The following 4 videos are the 4 Mysteries that we pray on certain days of the week. I like these videos, because I can pray it alone, with only the images, or go along with the sound. The images help me to focus on the particular mystery that I am contemplating as I say the Hail Mary on each bead.
Joyful Mysteries
Luminous Mysteries
Sorrowful Mysteries
Glorious Mysteries
Prayers of the Rosary
Links to “How to pray the rosary” Popular Catholic Prayers
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,
He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
(this prayer is optional and may be said after all Glory Be to the Fathers…..)
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy.
Console the souls in Purgatory, particularly those most abandoned. Amen
Hail Mary,
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
The Hail, Holy Queen
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
That we maybe made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Closing Prayer
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation.
Grant, we beseech Thee, that while meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
that we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The Fatima Prayer:)
Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – I adore thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference’s whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
Prayer to St. Michael
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Thurzo Gizella Bible Study 
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