Word of the day

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Date11/12/2018

Reading of the day

IS 40:1-11

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
The rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

A voice says, "Cry out!"
I answer, "What shall I cry out?"
"All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever."

Go up onto a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
Cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

Gospel of the day

MT 18:12-14

Jesus said to his disciples:
"What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost."

Words of the Holy Father

Whoever does not know the caresses of the Lord does not know Christian Doctrine. Whoever does not allow him or herself to be caressed by the Lord is lost. It is precisely this happy announcement, this is the sincere exaltation which we want today. This is the joy, this is the consolation which we seek: that the Lord may come with his power, which are his caresses, to find us, to save us, like the lost sheep, and to bring us into the flock of the Church. That the Lord may give us this grace, to wait for Christmas with our wounds, with our sins, sincerely recognizing, waiting for the power of this God who comes to console us, who comes with power, but his power is the tenderness, the caresses which are born from his heart, his very good heart which has given life to us. (Santa Marta 6 Dec 2016)