Daily Readings for August 11, 2019

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1st READING 

Do you feel the need to destroy and scatter your enemies like what happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament? The challenge we face is accepting that we share one way of life and are called to live in harmony with and respect for one another.

Wisdom 18:6-9

6 The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers, that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith, they might have courage. 7 Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes. 8 For when you punished our adversaries, in this you glorified us whom you had summoned. 9 For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution. 

PSALM

Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 

R: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

1 Exult, you just, in the Lord; praise from the upright is fitting. 12 Blessed the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen for his own inheritance. (R) 18 See, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness, 19 to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine. (R) 20 Our soul waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield. 22 May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you. (R) 

2nd READING

Faith is a powerful force at work in us. Today’s reading reminds us of the faith of the ancients who believed that God could create a people out of nothing except the response of one man, Abraham, who believed that God could bring life from a barren womb (Isaac from Sarah) and so on. He was willing to uproot from his comfortable existence and go to the Promised Land that he knew very little about. His faith in God was his greatest companion.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12 (or Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19)

1 Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. 2 Because of it the ancients were well attested. 8 By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith, he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God. 11 By faith, he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy. 12 So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.

GOSPEL

Wealth is a distraction to living out a life of faith. There are times when we cannot avoid distractions, but excessive wealth is destructive to our faith. It is only a matter of time for worldly wealth to take us away from serving the Gospel. Let us heed Jesus’ warning.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Stay awake and be ready! For you do not know on what day the Son of Man will come.

Luke 12:35-40 (or Luke 12:32-48)

35 Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps 36 and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. 38 And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. 39 Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

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