Sunday

Luke 4:31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. 32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. 33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, [n]“Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. 36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

38 Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was [o]sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her. 39 So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.

40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are [p]the Christ, the Son of God!”

And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to [q]speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.

42 Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; 43 but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” 44 And He was preaching in the synagogues of [r]Galilee.

Prayer:  We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee, for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

 

Monday

Navarre Commentary on Luke 4 concluding verses:

In the public life of Jesus we find many touching episodes (cf. for example Lk 19:1; Jn 2:1) which help us realize his high expectation of everyday family life. Here we can clearly see the effectiveness of prayer on behalf of other people:

“No sooner did they pray to the Saviour,” St Jerome says, “than he immediately healed the sick: from this we learn that he also listens to the prayers of the faithful for help against sinful passions” (Expositio in Evangelium sec. Lucam, in loc.).

St John Chrysostom refers to this total instantaneous cure: “Since this was a curable type of illness he displayed his power through the way he brought healing, doing what medicine could not do. Even after being cured of fever, patients need time to recover their former strength, but here the cure was instantaneous”

Prayer:

O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.

 

Tuesday

Luke 5: So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they [a]forsook all and followed Him.

Prayer:

But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Wednesday

NC on Luke 1-9: “If you were to fall into the temptation of wondering, ‘Who’s telling me to embark on this?,’ we would have to reply, ‘Christ himself is telling you, is begging you.’ ‘The harvest is plentiful enough, but the labourers are few. You must ask the Lord to whom the harvest belongs to send labourers out for the harvesting’ (Mt 9:37-38). Don’t take the easy way out. Don’t say, ‘I’m no good at this sort of thing; there are others who can do it; it isn’t my line’. No, for this sort of thing, there is no one else: if you could get away with that argument, so could everyone else. Christ’s plea is addressed to each and every Christian. No one can consider himself excused, for whatever reason — age, health or occupation. There are no excuses whatsoever. Either we carry out a fruitful apostolate, or our faith will prove barren”

Perfection is not simply a matter of leaving all things but of doing so in order to follow Christ — which is what the Apostles did: they gave up everything in order to be available to do what God’s calling involved.

We should develop this attitude of availability, for “Jesus isn’t satisfied ‘going halves’: he wants the lot” (Friends of God)

Prayer:

Yea, O Lord King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

Thursday
Matthew 5:12 And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and [b]implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

13 Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”

15 However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. 16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present [c]to heal them. 18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.

20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

Prayer:  O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake.

Friday

NC on Luke:  The words of the leper are a model prayer. First, they show his faith. “He did riot say, ‘If you ask God for it …’, but ‘If you will’” (Chrysostom, Horn, on St Matthew, 25). He rounds this off by saying “You can” — an open confession of Christ’s omnipotence. The psalmist expressed this same faith: “Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the deep” (Ps 135:6). Along with this faith he shows confidence in God’s mercy.

Jesus listens to the leper’s petition and cures him of his disease. All of us suffer from spiritual ailments and our Lord is waiting for us to approach him: “He is our physician, and he heals our selfishness, if we let his grace penetrate to the depths of our soul. Jesus has taught us that the worst sickness is hypocrisy, the pride that leads us to hide our own sins. We have to be totally sincere with him. We have to tell the whole truth, and then we have to say, ‘Lord, if you will’ — and you are always willing — ‘you can make me clean’ (Mt 8:2). You know my weaknesses; I feel these symptoms; I suffer these failings. We show him the wound, with simplicity, and if the wound is festering, we show the pus too. Lord, you have cured so many souls; help me to recognize you as the divine physician, when I have you in my heart or when I contemplate your presence in the tabernacle” (St Josemaria)

Prayer:  Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Saturday
Healing of the paralytic lowered through the roof NC  commentary:

Our Lord is touched when he sees these friends of the paralytic putting their faith into practice: they had gone up onto the roof, taken off some of the tiles and lowered the bed down in front of Jesus. Friendship and faith combine in obtaining a miraculous cure. The paralytic himself had a like faith: he let himself be carried around, brought up on the roof and so forth. Seeing such solid faith Jesus gives them even more than they expect: he cures the man’s body and, what is much more, cures his soul. Perhaps he does this, as St Bede suggests (cf. In Lucae Evangeliurn expositio, in loc.), to show two things: that the illness was a form of punishment for his sins and therefore the paralytic could only get up once these sins had been forgiven; and that others’ faith and prayer can move God to work miracles.

In some way, the paralytic symbolizes everyone whose sins prevent him from reaching God. For example, St Ambrose says: “How great is the Lord who on account of the merits of some pardons others, and while praising the former absolves the latter! …Therefore, let you, who judge, learn to pardon; you who are ill, to beg for forgiveness. And if the gravity of your sins cause you to doubt about the possibility of being forgiven, have recourse to intercessors, have recourse to the Church, who will pray for you, and the Lord will grant you forgiveness, out of love for her, though he might refuse you” (St Ambrose, commentary)

 

Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have Mercy on me a sinner.