Daily Readings for August 11, 2018

1st READING 

What is your vision for your spiritual life? Dream big because we have a God who always thinks big. Habbakuk encourages the leaders of the people to write the vision down so people can reflect on it and internalize it in their minds and hearts, in the hope that they will one day live out this vision.

Habakkuk 1:12-2:4

12 Are you not from eternity, O Lord, my holy God, immortal? O Lord you have marked him for judgment, O Rock, you have readied him for punishment! 13 Too pure are your eyes to look upon evil, and the sight of misery you cannot endure. Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one more just than himself? 14 You have made man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler. 15 He brings them all up with his hook, he hauls them away with his net, he gathers them in his seine; and so he rejoices and exults. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his seine. For thanks to them his portion is generous, and his repast sumptuous. 17 Shall he, then, keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy? 2:1 I will stand at my guard post, and station myself upon the rampart, and keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my complaint. 2 Then the Lord answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. 3 For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. 4 The rash man has no integrity; but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.

P S A L M 

Psalm 9:8-9, 10-11, 12-13

R: You forsake not those who seek you, O Lord.

7 [8] The Lord sits enthroned forever; he has set up his throne for judgment. 8 [9] He judges the world with justice; he governs the peoples with equity. (R) 9 [10] The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of distress. 10 [11] They trust in you who cherish your name, for you forsake not those who seek you, O Lord. (R) 11 [12] Sing praise to the Lord enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations his deeds. 12 [13] For the avenger of blood has remembered; he has not forgotten the cry of the poor. (R)  

GOSPEL 

Let us pray for the gift of faith in God. We can be inspired to have a deeper faith in Him when we witness the faith of others, like that of saints. But we still rely on His grace to act on what inspires us to grow in our faith. May the Holy Spirit nurture our faith and remind us to depend on God for everything.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel.

Matthew 17:14-20

14 A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, 15 and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. 19 Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”