IsaiahChapter 66
18 I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory.
19 I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
20 They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
21 Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

PsalmsChapter 117
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations! Give glory, all you peoples!
2 The LORD'S love for us is strong; the LORD is faithful forever. Hallelujah!

HebrewsChapter 12
5 You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him;
6 for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."
7 Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline?
11 At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.
12 So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
13 Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

LukeChapter 13
22 He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
23 Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them,
24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.
25 After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us.' He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from.'
26 And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'
27 Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!'
28 And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.
29 And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
30 For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

I am going to try something new since I have run out of journal. The daily readings are a good way to keep your mind focused when all around you the world goes crazy. I figure the best wasy for me to keep with it will be to put them on here. Then the best way to make sense of it all is to discuss it, so I will write a short reflection, or long, depending on how I feel, and we can all try and learn something. Let me know if you agree or disagree or what came to your mind while you were reading.
The first reading mentions how all the different lands will come together. When this is mentioned so many times in the Bible, how can we always be so divided. Not just by countries or religions, but in anyway you can think of. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the way we only talk about how we are different.
The Second reading talk about accepting God's dicsipline. I don't ever recall hearing our struggles called "disciplines" before. I always thought that the "you caused a sin and so something bad happens" idea was hogwash. I know that we have to accept the struggles we have in life and that they make us stonger andd more appreciative, but I don't like thinking of them as a punishment. What did we do wrong. Unless it was Adam and Eve and we are all being punished for that still. I might have to think about that one more.
In the Gospel, when He says the door will be shut, what does He mean. Will there be a time when we won't have any chance of going to heaven or does He mean after the end of the world.