November 22, 2019

Maccabees 4: 36- 37, 52- 59

4:36Then Judas and his brothers said: “Behold, our enemies have been crushed. Let us go up now to cleanse and renew the holy places.”
4:37And all the army gathered together, and they ascended to Mount Zion.
4:52And they arose before the morning, on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, (which is the month of Kislev) in the one hundred and forty-eighth year.
4:53And they offered sacrifice, according to the law, on the new altar of holocausts that they made.
4:54According to the time and according to the day, on which the Gentiles had contaminated it, on the same day, it was renewed with canticles, and lutes, and lyres, and cymbals.
4:55And all the people fell upon their faces, and they adored, and they blessed, toward heaven, him that had prospered them.
4:56And they kept the dedication of the altar for eight days, and they offered holocausts with joy, and sacrifices of salvation and praise.
4:57And they adorned the face of the temple with crowns of gold and small shields. And they dedicated the gates and the adjoining chambers, and they set up doors on them.
4:58And there was very great rejoicing among the people, and the disgrace of the Gentiles was averted.
4:59And Judas, and his brothers, and all the assembly of Israel decreed that the day of the dedication of the altar must be kept in its time, from year to year, for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, with joy and gladness.

Luke 19: 45- 48

19:45And entering into the temple, he began to cast out those who sold in it, and those who bought,
19:46saying to them: “It is written: ‘My house is a house of prayer.’ But you have made it into a den of robbers.”
19:47And he was teaching in the temple daily. And the leaders of the priests, and the scribes, and the leaders of the people were seeking to destroy him.
19:48But they could not find what to do to him. For all the people were listening to him attentively.