1 October 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Leviticus 19: Becoming Holy Because God Is HolyRead chapter 19 of the Book of Leviticus
“You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” These words from the book of Leviticus are as powerful an invitation as we can find anywhere in the Bible. They are recorded here in order to echo far and wide. God asks Moses to tell them not to a select few but to the entire Israelite community.
But what is this holiness about? First, we note that verse 2 speaks of being holy not “as” God is holy, but “for” or “because” God is holy. The invitation to (...)
1 September 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 4:14-30: Keeping Our Eyes on ChristJesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s (...)
1 August 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Isaiah 41:17-20: Dwelling in God’s GardenThe poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see (...)
1 July 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 7:24-27: Words of LifeJesus said: Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with (...)
1 June 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Deuteronomy 11:18-21: Your Word on Me and in MeFix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. (...)
1 May 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Jeremiah 7:1-11: Religion Versus FaithThis is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your (...)
1 April 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 25:14-30: A Time to DareJesus said: The Kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the (...)
1 March 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Ephesians 2:11-22: Free access to the Father!Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has (...)
1 February 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 6:12: The Pardon of the PoorForgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)
This petition of the Our Father is different from all the other ones. It is not only a prayer to God, but also mentions what we do: “as we have forgiven” or “as we forgive.” The first variant is preferred by bible scholars, the second by common practice.
Whoever prays in this way “presents themselves before God as an example of virtue, if we are allowed to put it that way, by calling upon God, who is beyond any imitation, to come and (...)
1 January 2012
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Matthew 2:1-12: Jesus, Herod, the Magi and UsAfter Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the (...)