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 

O Holy Spirit, please guide me as I read these passages for today. 
May these passages give me hope, strength, wisdom, courage and peace for my daily life 

Gideon prepared to go to war with the Midianites.
But God told him to reduce his number of soldiers.

The army was told
"Let anyone who is frightened or fearful go home".

22,000 men went home; 10,000 stayed.

The Lord  said there were still too many.
"So many men might cause Israel to claim that a victory
had nothing to do with the Lord".

So Gideon got the men to go to the river to drink.

All those who lapped the water, like a dog, he put on one side.
These numbered 300.

The rest knelt down and used their hands to drink.
These were sent home.

Gideon divided his 300 men into 3 groups, 
surrounding the Midianite camp.

To each man he gave a horn and an empty water container,
with a torch inside each container.

In the middle of the night, they attacked.
They sounded their horns and smashed their containers,
holding a horn in their right hand and a torch in their left.

The Midianites woke in terror,
thinking that the Israelites had a huge number of men.

In their panic, the Midianites attacked each other
as they fled the camp.

The Israelites drove the Midianites from the Israelite homeland.

Dear God, thank you for the courage and leadership of Gideon

In you, O Lord, I take refuge.
Please hear me and help me.

Be a rock where I can take refuge.
Rescue me from people who want to hurt me.

It is you, O Lord, who are my hope.
In you I have trusted since I was young.

From my mother's womb you have been my help.
My hope has always been in you.

Now that I am old, please do not forget me.
Now that my strength fails, do not abandon me.

Now that I am old and grey-headed,
may I continue to trust in you   and proclaim your help.

To you I will sing with the harp.
All day long my tongue will tell of your goodness to me.

Lord, may all elderly people put their trust and hope in you

I never fail to remember you in my prayers
and to thank God for you

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you more and more wisdom and knowledge
to see ever more clearly his great love for you

May he enlighten your mind to hope for the glorious life
he has prepared for us in heaven

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may I see you more clearly,
love you more dearly, follow you more nearly, day by day

The Emperor of Rome ordered that a census be taken of the whole
Empire.  Every man  had to go to his home town to be registered

So Joseph set out from Nazareth in Galilee and traveled to Galilee,
to the town of David called Bethlehem, with his pregnant wife Mary

While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have her child.
She gave birth to a son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes
and laid him in a feeding box for animals,
because there was no room for them at the local inn

Baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem,
please bless all babies born in the world today