St. Leonard of Port Maurice, OFM, Priest (Memorial)
Reading
Daniel 2: 31 - 45 | |
31 | "In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying in appearance as it stood before you. |
32 | The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze, |
33 | the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile. |
34 | While you looked at the statue, a stone which was hewn from a mountain without a hand being put to it, struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces. |
35 | The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer, and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. |
36 | "This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence. |
37 | You, O king, are the king of kings; to you the God of heaven has given dominion and strength, power and glory; |
38 | men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all; you are the head of gold. |
39 | Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours, then a third kingdom, of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth. |
40 | There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others, just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else. |
41 | The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter's tile and partly of iron, mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness of iron. As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile, |
42 | and the toes partly iron and partly tile, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. |
43 | The iron mixed with clay tile means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage, but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay. |
44 | In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever. |
45 | That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain without a hand being put to it, which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold. The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future; this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure." |
Daniel 3: 57 - 61 | |
57 | Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever. |
58 | Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever. |
59 | You heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever. |
60 | All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever. |
61 | All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever. |
Gospel
Luke 21: 5 - 11 | |
5 | And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, |
6 | "As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." |
7 | And they asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is about to take place?" |
8 | And he said, "Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, `I am he!' and, `The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. |
9 | And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once." |
10 | Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; |
11 | there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. |
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