7/6/11 EVERY CHANCE WE GET: BEARING WITNESS

7/6/11 cblog EVERY CHANCE WE GET: BEARING WITNESS, St brigid, 730a "...we don't have to go far to find opportunities to bear witness to christ..."

Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a "When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egypt and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Joseph and do whatever he told them. When the famine had spread throughout the land, Joseph opened all the cities that had grain and rationed it to the Egyptians since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt. In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world. The sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations. It was Joseph, as governor of the country, who dispensed the rations to all the people. When Joseph’s brothers came and knelt down before him with their faces to the ground he recognized them as soon as he saw them. But Joseph concealed his own identity from them and spoke sternly to them. With that, he locked them up in the guardhouse for three days. On the third day Joseph said to his brothers“Do this, and you shall live; for I am a God-fearing man If you have been honest, only one of your brothers need be confined in this prison, while the rest of you may go and take home provisions for your starving families. But you must come back to me with your youngest brother. Your words will thus be verified, and you will not die.” To this they agreed. To one another, however, they said“Alas, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us, yet we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has now come upon us.” Reuben broke in,“Did I not tell you not to do wrong to the boy? But you would not listen Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” The brothers did not know, of course, that Joseph understood what they said since he spoke with them through an interpreter. But turning away from them, he wept."

R. (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you. Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises Sing to him a new song; pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Mt 10:1-7 "Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”