But select capable men from all the people — men who fear God… They will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. Exodus 18:21,22 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 Song of Solomon 1-4 and John 13:18-38
Verses for today – Listen here: For explanations
Reflection for Today.
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Also read the verses, if you like.
Song of Solomon 1
1 Solomon’s Song of Songs:
2 BELOVED: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love-making is sweeter than wine;
3 delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.
4 Draw me in your footsteps, let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms; you will be our joy and our gladness. We shall praise your love more than wine; how right it is to love you.
5 BELOVED: I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salmah.
6 Take no notice of my dark colouring, it is the sun that has burnt me. My mother’s sons turned their anger on me, they made me look after the vineyards. My own vineyard I had not looked after!
7 Tell me then, sweetheart, where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That I may no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.
8 CHORUS: If you do not know this, O loveliest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and take your kids to graze close by the shepherds’ tents.
9 LOVER: I compare you, my love, to my mare harnessed to Pharaoh’s chariot.
10 Your cheeks show fair between their pendants and your neck within its necklaces.
11 We shall make you golden earrings and beads of silver.
12 DUO: -While the king rests in his own room my nard yields its perfume.
13 My love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
14 My love is a cluster of henna flowers among the vines of En-Gedi.
15 -How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves.
16 -How beautiful you are, my love, and how you delight me! Our bed is the greensward.
17 -The beams of our house are cedar trees, its panelling the cypress.
Song of Solomon 2
1 -I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.
2 -As a lily among the thistles, so is my beloved among girls.
3 -As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my love among young men. In his delightful shade I sit, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He has taken me to his cellar, and his banner over me is love.
5 Feed me with raisin cakes, restore me with apples, for I am sick with love.
6 His left arm is under my head, his right embraces me.
7 -I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by all gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
8 BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills.
9 My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.
10 My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
11 For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.
12 ‘Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
14 ‘My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.’
15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards, for our vineyards are in fruit.
16 My love is mine and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, return! Be, my love, like a gazelle, like a young stag, on the mountains of Bether.
Song of Solomon 3
1 On my bed at night I sought the man who is my sweetheart: I sought but could not find him!
2 So I shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!
3 I came upon the watchmen — those who go on their rounds in the city: ‘Have you seen my sweetheart?’
4 Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room where she conceived me!
5 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
6 POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?
7 Here comes Solomon’s litter. Around it are sixty champions, the flower of the warriors of Israel;
8 all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.
9 King Solomon has had a palanquin made of wood from Lebanon.
10 He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.
11 Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart’s joy.
Song of Solomon 4
1 LOVER: How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.
3 Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.
4 Your neck is the Tower of David built on layers, hung round with a thousand bucklers, and each the shield of a hero.
5 Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
6 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, I shall go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
7 You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a blemish.
8 Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, from the crests of Senir and Hermon, the haunt of lions, the mountains of leopards.
9 You ravish my heart, my sister, my promised bride, you ravish my heart with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace.
10 What spells lie in your love, my sister, my promised bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all spices!
11 Your lips, my promised bride, distil wild honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
12 She is a garden enclosed, my sister, my promised bride; a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain.
13 Your shoots form an orchard of pomegranate trees, bearing most exquisite fruit:
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the incense-bearing trees; myrrh and aloes, with the subtlest odours.
15 Fountain of the garden, well of living water, streams flowing down from Lebanon!
16 BELOVED: Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into his garden, let him taste its most exquisite fruits.
John 13:18-38
18 I am not speaking about all of you: I know the ones I have chosen; but what scripture says must be fulfilled: ‘He who shares my table takes advantage of me.
19 I tell you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe that I am He.
20 In all truth I tell you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.’
21 Having said this, Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared, ‘In all truth I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’
22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he meant.
23 The disciple Jesus loved was reclining next to Jesus;
24 Simon Peter signed to him and said, ‘Ask who it is he means,’
25 so leaning back close to Jesus’ chest he said, ‘Who is it, Lord?’
26 Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I dip in the dish.’ And when he had dipped the piece of bread he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.
27 At that instant, after Judas had taken the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus then said, ‘What you are going to do, do quickly.’
28 None of the others at table understood why he said this.
29 Since Judas had charge of the common fund, some of them thought Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival,’ or telling him to give something to the poor.
30 As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night.
31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified.
32 If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon.
33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.
34 I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you.
35 It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.
36 Simon Peter said, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus replied, ‘Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but later you shall follow me.’
37 Peter said to him, ‘Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’
38 ‘Lay down your life for me?’ answered Jesus. ‘In all truth I tell you, before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.’
Sermons by various teachers about these verses.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Ezekiel 12:1-12
1 The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,
2 ‘Son of man, you are living among a tribe of rebels who have eyes and never see, they have ears and never hear, because they are a tribe of rebels.
3 So, son of man, pack an exile’s bundle and set off for exile by daylight while they watch. You will leave your home and go somewhere else while they watch. Then perhaps they will see that they are a tribe of rebels.
4 You will pack your baggage like an exile’s bundle, by daylight, while they watch, and leave like an exile in the evening, while they watch.
5 While they watch, make a hole in the wall, and go out through it.
6 While they watch, you will shoulder your pack and go out into the dark; you will cover your face so that you cannot see the ground, since I have made you an omen for the House of Israel.’
7 I did as I had been told. I packed my baggage like an exile’s bundle, by daylight; and in the evening I made a hole through the wall with my hands; then I went out into the dark and shouldered my pack while they watched.
8 Next morning the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,
9 ‘Son of man, did not the House of Israel, did not that tribe of rebels, ask you, “What are you doing?”
10 Say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: This prophecy concerns Jerusalem and the whole House of Israel who live there.”
11 Say, “I am an omen for you; as I have done, so will be done to them; they will be deported into exile.
12 Their prince will shoulder his pack in the dark and go out through the wall; a hole will be made to let him out; he will cover his face, so that he cannot see the country.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 78:56-57, 58-59, 61-62
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;
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.
Gospel, Matthew 18:21-19:1
21 Then Peter went up to him and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’
22 Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.
23 ‘And so the kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants.
24 When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents;
25 he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt.
26 At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet, with the words, “Be patient with me and I will pay the whole sum.”
27 And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt.
28 Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow-servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him, saying, “Pay what you owe me.”
29 His fellow-servant fell at his feet and appealed to him, saying, “Be patient with me and I will pay you.”
30 But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt.
31 His fellow-servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him.
32 Then the master sent for the man and said to him, “You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me.
33 Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow-servant just as I had pity on you?”
34 And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.
35 And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’
1 Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and he left Galilee and came into the territory of Judaea on the far side of the Jordan.
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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