Daily Readings for January 5, 2016

1ST READING

This is a beautiful meditation on the nature of love. Let us reflect on it so that we can deepen our understanding and experience of God’s love for us. We need to consciously work at this to counter the negativity and self-interest at work in the world with God’s love.

1 John 4: 7-10

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. 8 Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. 10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

P S A L M

Psalm 72: 1-2, 3-4, 7-8

R: Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

1 O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son; 2 He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. (R) 3 The mountains shall yield peace for the people, and the hills justice. 4 He shall defend the afflicted among the people, save the children of the poor. (R) 7 Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more. 8 May he rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. (R)

GOSPEL

The Gospel is imbued with practical activities. It is useless to try and teach people who are hungry as their hunger pangs will not allow them to listen properly. Our Christian faith demands that we take an interest in social justice to show that the Gospel addresses both the spiritual and physical dimensions of our lives.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty to captives.

Mark 6:34-44

34 When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35 By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. 36 Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” 38 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” 39So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. 40The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. 41 Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. 44 Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

Credits to: www.kerygmafamily.com