~Today is also the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Please refer to the link at the right for more information about this Feast.~
Jesse Tree Story: JEREMIAH
Jesse Tree Symbol: VEIL OF TEARS
Scripture: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.” And I said: “Alas, alas, alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a boy.” And the Lord said to me: “Do not choose to say, ‘I am a boy.’ For you shall go forth to everyone to whom I will send you. And you shall speak all that I will command you. You should not be afraid before their face. For I am with you, so that I may deliver you,” says the Lord. And the Lord put forth his hand, and he touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have placed my words in your mouth. Behold, today I have appointed you over nations and over kingdoms, so that you may root up, and pull down, and destroy, and scatter, and so that you may build and plant.
Listen to the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they would draw far away from me, and would walk after emptiness, and would become empty? And they have not said: ‘Where is the Lord, who caused us to ascend from the land of Egypt; who led us through the desert, through an uninhabited and impassable land, through a land of drought and of the image of death, through a land in which no one walked and in which no man lived?' And I led you into the land of Carmel, so that you would eat from its fruit and from its excellence. And having entered it, you defiled my land, and you turned my inheritance into an abomination. The priests have not said: ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who held the law did not know me. And the pastors betrayed me. And the prophets prophesied in Baal and followed idols. Because of this, I will still contend in judgment against you, says the Lord, and I will dispute with your sons. Cross over to the isles of Kittim, and gaze. And send to Kedar, and consider diligently. And see if anything like this has ever been done. See if a nation has ever changed their gods, though certainly those are not gods. Yet truly, my people have exchanged their glory for an idol. Be astonished at this, O heavens, and be utterly desolate, O gates of heaven, says the Lord. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that are unable to hold water.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “Stand at the gate to the house of the Lord, and preach this word there, and say: Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter through these gates to adore the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your intentions good, and I will live with you in this place. Do not choose to trust in lying words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!’ For if you direct your ways and your intentions well, if you exercise judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not act with deceit toward the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow, and if you do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and if you do not walk after strange gods, which is to your own harm, then I will live with you in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from the beginning and even forever. Behold, you trust in false words, which will not benefit you, so as to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to Baal, and to go after strange gods, which you do not know. And you arrived and stood before me in this house, where my name is invoked, and you said: ‘We have been freed because we carried out all these abominations.' So then, has this house, where my name has been invoked, become a den of robbers in your eyes? It is I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord. Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name has lived from the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and because I have spoken to you from your morning rising, and because I was speaking, but you were not listening, and because I have called you, but you have not responded: I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which you have confidence, even to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you away from my face, just as I have cast away all your brothers, the entire offspring of Ephraim.”
Jeremiah 1:4-10, 2:4-13, 7:1-15
Commentary: Jeremiah's life resembled the life of Jesus in his mission and suffering. The Lord speaks to Jeremiah while he is in exile, describing his grief as an endless fountain of tears because his people have turned to worshipping idols.
Readings for the Day:
Zechariah 2:14-17
Judith 13:18-19
Luke 1:26-38
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