1 January 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 5:1-9 Do You Want to Get Well?There was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways. A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways. Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have (...)
1 December 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Isaiah 9:1-6 A Child Is Born to UsThe people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness. You have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate when they divide up the plunder. For their oppressive yoke and the club that strikes their shoulders, the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. Indeed every boot that marches and shakes the earth and every garment (...)
1 November 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 4:4-15 Hospitality in Enemy TerritoryJesus had to pass through Samaria. He came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.) So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water (...)
1 October 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 1:1 In the Beginning...In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… (Genesis 1:1) Beginning of the Good News of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God (Mark 1:1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
There is a name that fosters an appetite for new beginnings. There is a name and a life that authorize new beginnings, or, if you prefer, that empower human beings with the faculty of beginning.
Our gospels tell us of this name and of this life. Two of them have inserted the (...)
1 September 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Jeremiah 15:15-21 The Ordeals of a ProphetLord, you understand; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? You are (...)
1 August 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)1 Peter 3:18-22: Hoping for EveryoneChrist suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but (...)
1 July 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 19:25-27: At the Foot of the CrossOn the cross, just before he died, Jesus saw his mother and, standing nearby, the disciple whom he loved. He said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27)
The death of Jesus on the cross is a central event of the Christian faith. But we hear so much about it that it may be tarnished, dulled, no longer felt as the shocking event it was for the disciples of Jesus.
Let’s put ourselves in their place (...)
1 June 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Revelation 3:14-16,19-20: Christ at the Door of our LivesThe Risen Christ said: “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. […] Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and (...)
1 May 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 24:1-12: He is not here…On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was (...)
1 April 2019
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 23:3-11: Jesus before Pilate and HerodPilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.” On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When (...)