For I am already poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:6,7 NIV
A Christian’s goal should be to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in Heaven. Not only, to get to Heaven.
To finish the Bible in one year, Read Ecclesiastes 1-3 and John 12:1-19.
Verses for today – Listen here: For explanations
Reflection for Today.
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Also read the verses, if you like.
Ecclesiastes 1
1 Composition of Qoheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!
3 What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun?
4 A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever.
5 The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises.
6 Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind.
7 Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go.
8 All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing.
9 What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun!
10 Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us.
11 No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come — they will not be remembered by their successors.
12 I, Qoheleth, have reigned over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 Wisely I have applied myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under heaven. What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy!
14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it all is, mere chasing after the wind!
15 What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there cannot be counted.
16 I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I myself have mastered every kind of wisdom and science.
17 I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science, stupidity and folly, and I now realise that all this too is chasing after the wind.
18 Much wisdom, much grief; the more knowledge, the more sorrow.
Ecclesiastes 2
1 I thought to myself, ‘Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer.’ And this was futile too.
2 This laughter, I reflected, is a madness, this pleasure no use at all.
3 I decided to hand my body over to drinking wine, my mind still guiding me in wisdom; I resolved to embrace folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun.
4 I worked on a grand scale: built myself palaces, planted vineyards;
5 made myself gardens and orchards, planting every kind of fruit tree in them;
6 had pools made for watering the young trees of my plantations.
7 I bought slaves, male and female, had home-born slaves as well; herds and flocks I had too, more than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
8 I amassed silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every human luxury, chest upon chest of it.
9 So I grew great, greater than anyone in Jerusalem before me; nor did my wisdom leave me.
10 I denied my eyes nothing that they desired, refused my heart no pleasure, for I found all my hard work a pleasure, such was the return for all my efforts.
11 I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort I had put into its achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind! There is nothing to be gained under the sun.
12 My reflections then turned to wisdom, stupidity and folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king do? What has been done already.
13 More is to be gained from wisdom than from folly, just as one gains more from light than from darkness; this, of course, I see:
14 The wise have their eyes open, the fool walks in the dark. No doubt! But I know, too, that one fate awaits them both.
15 ‘Since the fool’s fate’, I thought to myself, ‘will be my fate too, what is the point of my having been wise?’ I realised that this too is futile.
16 For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool, and in the days to come both will be forgotten; the wise, no less than the fool, must die.
17 Life I have come to hate, for what is done under the sun disgusts me, since all is futility and chasing after the wind.
18 All I have toiled for under the sun and now bequeath to my successor I have come to hate;
19 who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That is futile too.
20 I have come to despair of all the efforts I have expended under the sun.
21 For here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;
22 for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun-
23 since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.
24 There is no happiness except in eating and drinking, and in enjoying one’s achievements; and I see that this too comes from God’s hand;
25 for who would get anything to eat or drink, unless all this came from him?
26 Wisdom, knowledge and joy, God gives to those who please him, but on the sinner he lays the task of gathering and storing up for someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes 3
1 There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven:
2 A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.
3 A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building.
4 A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing.
5 A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.
6 A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding.
7 A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking.
8 A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace.
9 What do people gain from the efforts they make?
10 I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at.
11 All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.
12 I know there is no happiness for a human being except in pleasure and enjoyment through life.
13 And when we eat and drink and find happiness in all our achievements, this is a gift from God.
14 I know that whatever God does will be for ever. To this there is nothing to add, from this there is nothing to subtract, and the way God acts inspires dread.
15 What is, has been already, what will be, is already; God seeks out anyone who is persecuted.
16 Again I observe under the sun: crime is where justice should be, the criminal is where the upright should be.
17 And I think to myself: the upright and the criminal will both be judged by God, since there is a time for every thing and every action here.
18 I think to myself: where human beings are concerned, this is so that God can test them and show them that they are animals.
19 For the fate of human and the fate of animal is the same: as the one dies, so the other dies; both have the selfsame breath. Human is in no way better off than animal — since all is futile.
20 Everything goes to the same place, everything comes from the dust, everything returns to the dust.
21 Who knows if the human spirit mounts upward or if the animal spirit goes downward to the earth?
22 I see there is no contentment for a human being except happiness in achievement; such is the lot of a human beings. No one can tell us what will happen after we are gone.
John 12:1-19
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead.
2 They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table.
3 Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment.
4 Then Judas Iscariot — one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him-said,
5 ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’
6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents.
7 So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial.
8 You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.’
9 Meanwhile a large number of Jews heard that he was there and came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.
10 Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus as well,
11 since it was on his account that many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.
12 The next day the great crowd of people who had come up for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
13 They took branches of palm and went out to receive him, shouting: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.’
14 Jesus found a young donkey and mounted it — as scripture says:
15 Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion; look, your king is approaching, riding on the foal of a donkey.
16 At first his disciples did not understand this, but later, after Jesus had been glorified, they remembered that this had been written about him and that this was what had happened to him.
17 The crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead kept bearing witness to it;
18 this was another reason why the crowd came out to receive him: they had heard that he had given this sign.
19 Then the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see, you are making no progress; look, the whole world has gone after him!’
Sermons by various teachers about these verses.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Ezekiel 1:2-5, 24-28
2 On the fifth of the month — it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin-
3 the word of Yahweh was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yahweh came on him.
4 I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber,
5 and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form.
24 I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings;
25 there was a noise too.
26 Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being.
27 I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round.
28 The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yahweh. I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 148:1-2, 11-12, 12-14, 14
1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh from the heavens, praise him in the heights.
2 Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!
11 kings of the earth and all nations, princes and all judges on earth,
12 young men and girls, old people and children together.
13 Let them praise the name of Yahweh, for his name alone is sublime, his splendour transcends earth and heaven.
14 For he heightens the strength of his people, to the praise of all his faithful, the children of Israel, the people close to him.
Gospel, Matthew 17:22-27
22 When they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of man is going to be delivered into the power of men;
23 they will put him to death, and on the third day he will be raised up again.’ And a great sadness came over them.
24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel came to Peter and said, ‘Does your master not pay the half-shekel?’
25 ‘Yes,’ he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, ‘Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do earthly kings take toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?’
26 And when he replied, ‘From foreigners,’ Jesus said, ‘Well then, the sons are exempt.
27 However, so that we shall not be the downfall of others, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that rises, open its mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for me and for yourself.’
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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