Sunday

*Commentary from the Navarre Bible this week

Luke 8:Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd. 20 And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.”

21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Commentary: These words of our Lord show us that fulfilment of the Will of God is more important than kinship and that, therefore, our Lady is more united to her Son by virtue of her perfect fulfilment of what God asked of her, than by the Holy Spirit’s using her to make Christ’s body

Prayer:
Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will among men.

Monday
Luke 8: 22  Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in [j]jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”

Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”

And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

Commentary: Jesus falls asleep; he was tired. In other passages the Gospel describes similar situations: he sits wearily beside a well (Jn 4:6); he is thirsty and asks the Samaritan woman for a drink (In 4:7). Passages of this kind show the humanity of Jesus, true God and true man. “How generous our Lord is in humbling himself and fully accepting his human condition! He does not use his divine power to escape from difficulties or effort. Let’s pray that he will teach us to be tough, to love work, to appreciate the human and divine nobility of savoring the consequences of self-giving” (J. Escrivá, Christ is passing by)

Prayer:   May the Strength of God guide us. May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us. May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us. May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us. – Against the snares of the evil one.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick Part 1

Tuesday
Luke 8: 26 Then they sailed to the country of the [k]Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons [l]for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!” 29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.

30 Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.

32 Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. 33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.

34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was [m]healed. 37 Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the [n]Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned.

38 Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

Prayer:
May Christ be with us! May Christ be before us! May Christ be in us, Christ be over all!
May Thy Grace, Lord, Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick  Part 2

 

Wednesday
Commentary on the Demon Possessed Man…

The attitude of local people towards this miracle reminds us that meeting God and living a Christian life require us to subordinate personal plans to God’s designs.  If we have a selfish or materialistic outlook we fail to appreciate the value of divine things and push God out of our lives, begging him to go away, as these people did.

Prayer:
Glory to Jesus Christ – Glory forever!

Thursday
Matthew 8: 40 So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. 41 And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. 43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.

45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”

When all denied it, Peter [o]and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, [p]and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” 47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.

48 And He said to her, “Daughter, [q]be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Prayer:
For as many have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ…Alleluia

Friday
Commentary on the healed woman…. Jesus Christ asks faith of those who approach him; but he does not require us all to show him respect and reverence in exactly the same way. “There are always sick people who, like Bartimaeus, pray with great faith and have no qualms about confessing their faith at the top of their voices. But notice how, among those whom Christ encounters, no two souls are alike. This woman, too, has great faith, but she does not cry aloud; she draws near to Jesus without anyone even noticing. For her it is enough just to touch his garment, because she is quite certain she will be cured. No sooner has she done so than our Lord turns round and looks at her. He already knows what is going on in the depths of her heart and he has seen how sure she is: ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well’ (Mt 9:22)” (J. Escrivá, Friends of God, 199).

Prayer:
Christ is in our midst – He is and always shall be

Saturday
More on the healed woman…

St John Chrysostom (Horn. on St Matthew, 31) observes that the curing of the woman with the haemorrhage also has the purpose of strengthening Jairus’ faith, because he was about to be given the news of his daughter’s death. The combination of the two miracles reveals God’s loving plan to cause those present to have a deeper faith.

“The Lord requires faith of those who invoke him,” St Athanasius comments, “not because they really need it (for he is the Lord, he is the giver of faith), but in order that they do not think that he dispenses his graces in an arbitrary way; and so he shows that he favours those who believe him, to ensure that they do not receive his benefits without faith, and if they lose them it only happens through their unfaithfulness. When he does good, Christ wants grace to endure, and when he cures he wants the cure to be permanent”

“There are some who pass through life as through a tunnel, without every understanding the splendour, the security and the warmth of the sun of faith”

Prayer:
Preserve O Lord while waking and guard us while sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.