Computer Cud    Vatican II asks us to read the Bible every day, 
 'to have a burning love'   for the Word of God           Resolution

This plan follows the Sunday liturgy:  reading + psalm + reading + gospel             
From  www.simplebible.info              Previous Bible Blogs 

O Holy Spirit, may these passages give us hope, wisdom, compassion,
courage and peace for our daily life             Chinese text

  Reading:  Leviticus 13 - 15

Instructions for hygiene:

People with skin diseases, suspected leprosy, boils and burns
should be carefully examined and isolated if necessary.

The clothing and homes of people with leprosy
should be put out of use.

During and after seminal or illness discharges and menstruation,
people  should show extra concern for hygiene

Reflection:
These practical measures were derived from primitive ideas and practices.
In Israel they were used to identify ritual uncleanness ...and so took on a religious meaning  (c.f.  1966 Jerusalem Bible, comment on Lev 13a)

Prayer: Dear God, please help me take good care of my health

Reading: Psalm 102

O Lord, listen to my prayer in my distress.
Do not hide your face from me.

For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones burn away like a fire.

I forget to eat my bread.
My skin clings to my bones.

All day long my foes revile me.
Those who hate me use my name as a curse.

But you, O Lord, will endure for ever.
You will arise and have mercy on Sion.

You will hear the groans of the prisoners
and free those condemned to die.

I pray to you: "Do not take me away before my time has come,
you whose days last from age to age.

Reflection: 
This is a special prayer for people experiencing great distress, physical or mental.
Very often all they can do is "hang in there", like Jesus on the Cross.
Like Jesus on the Cross, all they can do is hope the suffering will soon finish.
Remembering Jesus in such a situation has given strength to people through the ages

Prayer:  Lord, please help people who are in great distress. Help them "hang in there"

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 2

As soon as you heard the Good News, you accepted it as God's message and not just some human thinking

This message is still a living power among you

For the sake of the Good News, you have been badly treated by your own countrymen, just as Christians in Judea have been badly treated by the Jews

The Jews have been persecuting us and hindering us from spreading the Good News

Reflection:
Here again (as in Chapter one) Paul uses the word "power". For Paul the Good News was not just an abstract theory. It was an actual source of "current" ...that could heal sick people, that could cause hardened hearts to soften, that could give courage and strength in time of persecution etc

Prayer: Jesus, may we allow your Good News to empower us!

Reading:  Luke 12

Jesus told the people this story: There was a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself "What am I to do? I don't have enough room to store my crops". 

Then he said to himself "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, and have a good time"

But God said to him "Fool! This very night your earthly life will come to an end. And all your possessions, who will get them?"

So it is when people store up treasure for themselves, 
instead of making themselves rich in the sight of God

Reflection: 
"The world is unfair and we want to make sure the advantage becomes more and more unfair. That's the nature of the game" - a Hong Kong property tycoon in 2000 (quoted on p.66 of Poverty in the Midst of Affluence by Leo F. Goodstadt)
 
Prayer: Jesus, please help me to be satisfied with what I have, 
and not to be greedy