The Word for today: There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12 NIV
To finish the Bible in one year, Read Psalms 76 to 79 and John 1 : 1-18
Old Testament Reading for today – Listen or read it for yourself:
Reflection for Today.
Also read the verses, if you like.
Psalm 76
1 [For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of Asaph Song] God is acknowledged in Judah, his name is great in Israel,
2 his tent is pitched in Salem, his dwelling is in Zion;
3 there he has broken the lightning-flashes of the bow, shield and sword and war.
4 Radiant you are, and renowned for the mountains of booty
5 taken from them. Heroes are now sleeping their last sleep, the warriors’ arms have failed them;
6 at your reproof, God of Jacob, chariot and horse stand stunned.
7 You, you alone, strike terror! Who can hold his ground in your presence when your anger strikes?
8 From heaven your verdicts thunder, the earth is silent with dread
9 when God takes his stand to give judgement, to save all the humble of the earth.
10 Human anger serves only to praise you, the survivors of your anger will huddle round you.
11 Make and fulfil your vows to Yahweh your God, let those who surround him make offerings to the Awesome One.
12 He cuts short the breath of princes, strikes terror in earthly kings.
Psalm 77
1 [For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Of Asaph Psalm] I cry to God in distress, I cry to God and he hears me.
2 In the day of my distress I sought the Lord; all night I tirelessly stretched out my hands, my heart refused to be consoled.
3 I sigh as I think of God, my spirit faints away as I ponder on him.
4 You kept me from closing my eyes, I was too distraught to speak;
5 I thought of former times, years long past
6 I recalled; through the night I ponder in my heart, as I reflect, my spirit asks this question:
7 Is the Lord’s rejection final? Will he never show favour again?
8 Is his faithful love gone for ever? Has his Word come to an end for all time?
9 Does God forget to show mercy? In anger does he shut off his tenderness?
10 And I said, ‘This is what wounds me, the right hand of the Most High has lost its strength.’
11 Remembering Yahweh’s great deeds, remembering your wonders in the past,
12 I reflect on all that you did, I ponder all your great deeds.
13 God, your ways are holy! What god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who does marvellous deeds, brought nations to acknowledge your power,
15 with your own arm redeeming your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.
16 When the waters saw you, God, when the waters saw you they writhed in anguish, the very depths shook with fear.
17 The clouds pelted down water, the sky thundered, your arrows shot back and forth.
18 The rolling of your thunder was heard, your lightning-flashes lit up the world, the earth shuddered and shook.
19 Your way led over the sea, your path over the countless waters, and none could trace your footsteps.
20 You guided your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 78
1 [Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say.
2 I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past.
3 What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us
4 we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.
5 He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,
6 that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,
7 and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God’s great deeds, always keeping his commands,
8 and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.
9 The archer sons of Ephraim turned tail when the time came for fighting;
10 they failed to keep God’s covenant, they refused to follow his Law;
11 they had forgotten his great deeds, the marvels he had shown them;
12 he did marvels in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.
13 He split the sea and brought them through, made the waters stand up like a dam;
14 he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with the light of a fire;
15 he split rocks in the desert, let them drink as though from the limitless depths;
16 he brought forth streams from a rock, made waters flow down in torrents.
17 But they only sinned against him more than ever, defying the Most High in barren country;
18 they deliberately challenged God by demanding food to their hearts’ content.
19 They insulted God by saying, ‘Can God make a banquet in the desert?
20 True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?’
21 When he heard them Yahweh vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
22 because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.
23 Even so he gave orders to the skies above, he opened the sluice-gates of heaven;
24 he rained down manna to feed them, he gave them the wheat of heaven;
25 mere mortals ate the bread of the Mighty, he sent them as much food as they could want.
26 He roused an east wind in the heavens, despatched a south wind by his strength;
27 he rained down meat on them like dust, birds thick as sand on the seashore,
28 tumbling into the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling-place.
29 They ate as much food as they wanted, he satisfied all their cravings;
30 but their cravings were still upon them, the food was still in their mouths,
31 when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.
32 Despite all this, they went on sinning, they put no faith in his marvels.
33 He made their days vanish in mist, their years in sudden ruin.
34 Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him,
35 recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.
36 They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,
39 remembering they were creatures of flesh, a breath of wind that passes, never to return.
40 How often they defied him in the desert! How often they grieved him in the wastelands!
41 Repeatedly they challenged God, provoking the Holy One of Israel,
42 not remembering his hand, the time when he saved them from the oppressor,
43 he who did his signs in Egypt, his miracles in the plains of Tanis,
44 turning their rivers to blood, their streams so that they had nothing to drink.
45 He sent horseflies to eat them up, and frogs to devastate them,
46 consigning their crops to the caterpillar, the fruit of their hard work to the locust;
47 he killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost,
48 delivering up their cattle to hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;
50 he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.
51 He struck all the first-born in Egypt, the flower of the youth in the tents of Ham.
52 He brought out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert,
53 leading them safe and unafraid, while the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 He brought them to his holy land, the hill-country won by his right hand;
55 he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But still they challenged the Most High God and defied him, refusing to keep his decrees;
57 as perverse and treacherous as their ancestors, they gave way like a faulty bow,
58 provoking him with their high places, rousing his jealousy with their idols.
59 God listened and vented his wrath, he totally rejected Israel;
60 he forsook his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he used to dwell on the earth.
61 He abandoned his power to captivity, his splendour to the enemy’s clutches;
62 he gave up his people to the sword, he vented his wrath on his own heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men, their young girls had no wedding-song;
64 their priests fell by the sword and their widows sang no dirge.
65 The Lord arose as though he had been asleep, like a strong man fighting-mad with wine,
66 he struck his enemies on the rump, and put them to everlasting shame.
67 Rejecting the tents of Joseph, passing over the tribe of Ephraim,
68 he chose the tribe of Judah, his well-loved mountain of Zion;
69 he built his sanctuary like high hills, like the earth set it firm for ever.
70 He chose David to be his servant, took him from the sheepfold,
71 took him from tending ewes to pasture his servant Jacob, and Israel his heritage.72 He pastured them with unblemished heart, with a sensitive hand he led them.
Psalm 79
1 [Psalm Of Asaph] God, the pagans have invaded your heritage, they have defiled your holy temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins,
2 they have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the air, the bodies of your faithful for the wild beasts.
3 Around Jerusalem they have shed blood like water, leaving no one to bury them.
4 We are the scorn of our neighbours, the butt and laughing-stock of those around us.
5 How long will you be angry, Yahweh? For ever? Is your jealousy to go on smouldering like a fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;
7 for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his home.
8 Do not count against us the guilt of former generations, in your tenderness come quickly to meet us, for we are utterly weakened;
9 help us, God our Saviour, for the glory of your name; Yahweh, wipe away our sins, rescue us for the sake of your name.
10 Why should the nations ask, ‘Where is their God?’ Let us see the nations suffer vengeance for shedding your servants’ blood.
11 May the groans of the captive reach you, by your great strength save those who are condemned to death!
12 Repay our neighbours sevenfold for the insults they have levelled at you, Lord.
13 And we, your people, the flock that you pasture, will thank you for ever, will recite your praises from age to age.
John 1 : 1-18
1 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.
4 What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men;
5 and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.
6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light.
9 The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognise him.
11 He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name
13 who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.
14 The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John witnesses to him. He proclaims: ‘This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.’
16 Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received — one gift replacing another,
17 for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Micah 2:1-5
1 Disaster for those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it, since they have the power to do so.
2 Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they seize alike, the man himself as well as his inheritance.
3 So Yahweh says this: Look, I am now plotting a disaster for this breed from which you will not extricate your necks; you will not hold your heads up then, for the times will be disastrous indeed.
4 That day they will make a satire on you, they will strike up a dirge and say, ‘We have been stripped of everything; my people’s land has been divided up, no one else can restore it to them, our fields have been awarded to our despoiler.’
5 Because of this, you will have no one to measure out a share in Yahweh’s community.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 10:1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 14
1 Why, Yahweh, do you keep so distant, stay hidden in times of trouble?
2 In his pride the wicked hunts down the weak, who is caught in the schemes he devises.
3 The wicked is proud of his inmost desires, by his blasphemies the grasping spurns Yahweh,
4 the wicked in his arrogance does not look very far; ‘There is no God,’ is his only thought.
7 he wishes it on others. His speech is full of lies and browbeating, under his tongue lurk spite and wickedness.
8 In the undergrowth he lies in ambush, in his hiding-place he murders the innocent. He watches intently for the downtrodden,
14 You have seen for yourself the trouble and vexation, you watch so as to take it in hand. The oppressed relies on you; you are the only recourse of the orphan.
Gospel, Matthew 12:14-21
14 At this the Pharisees went out and began to plot against him, discussing how to destroy him.
15 Jesus knew this and withdrew from the district. Many followed him and he cured them all
16 but warned them not to make him known.
17 This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
18 Look! My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul delights, I will send my Spirit upon him, and he will present judgement to the nations;
19 he will not brawl or cry out, his voice is not heard in the streets,
20 he will not break the crushed reed, or snuff the faltering wick,
21 until he has made judgement victorious; in him the nations will put their hope.
Previous Daily Bible Study Blogs
Book of Psalms, Outline Summary, Outline Book of John (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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