Sunday<\/p>\n
Luke 4:31\u00a0<\/sup>Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. <\/span> 32\u00a0<\/sup>And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. <\/span> 33\u00a0<\/sup>Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, <\/span> 34\u00a0<\/sup>saying, \u201cLet us<\/i> alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are\u2014the Holy One of God!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 35\u00a0<\/sup>But Jesus rebuked him, saying, [n<\/a>]<\/sup>\u201cBe quiet, and come out of him!\u201d<\/span> And when the demon had thrown him in their<\/i> midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. <\/span> 36\u00a0<\/sup>Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, \u201cWhat a word this is!<\/i> For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.\u201d <\/span> 37\u00a0<\/sup>And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.<\/span><\/p>\n 38\u00a0<\/sup>Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon\u2019s house. But Simon\u2019s wife\u2019s mother was [o<\/a>]<\/sup>sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her. <\/span> 39\u00a0<\/sup>So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.<\/span><\/p>\n 40\u00a0<\/sup>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. <\/span> 41\u00a0<\/sup>And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, \u201cYou are [p<\/a>]<\/sup>the Christ, the Son of God!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And He, rebuking them,<\/i> did not allow them to [q<\/a>]<\/sup>speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n 42\u00a0<\/sup>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; <\/span> 43\u00a0<\/sup>but He said to them, \u201cI must<\/span> preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> 44\u00a0<\/sup>And He was preaching in the synagogues of [r<\/a>]<\/sup>Galilee.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee, for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Monday<\/p>\n Navarre Commentary on Luke 4 concluding verses:<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n \u201cNo sooner did they pray to the Saviour,\u201d St Jerome says, \u201cthan he immediately healed the sick: from this we learn that he also listens to the prayers of the faithful for help against sinful passions\u201d (Expositio in Evangelium sec. Lucam, in loc.).<\/p>\n St John Chrysostom refers to this total instantaneous cure: \u201cSince 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\u201d<\/p>\n Prayer:<\/p>\n O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tuesday<\/p>\n Luke 5:\u00a0So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, <\/span> 2\u00a0<\/sup>and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their<\/i> nets. <\/span> 3\u00a0<\/sup>Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon\u2019s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.<\/span><\/p>\n 4\u00a0<\/sup>When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, \u201cLaunch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 5\u00a0<\/sup>But Simon answered and said to Him, \u201cMaster, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.\u201d <\/span> 6\u00a0<\/sup>And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. <\/span> 7\u00a0<\/sup>So they signaled to their<\/i> partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. <\/span> 8\u00a0<\/sup>When Simon Peter saw it,<\/i> he fell down at Jesus\u2019 knees, saying, \u201cDepart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 9\u00a0<\/sup>For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; <\/span> 10\u00a0<\/sup>and so also were<\/i> James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, \u201cDo not be afraid.<\/span> From now on you will catch men.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> 11\u00a0<\/sup>So when they had brought their boats to land, they [a<\/a>]<\/sup>forsook all and followed Him.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer:<\/p>\n But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Wednesday<\/p>\n NC on Luke 1-9:\u00a0\u201cIf you were to fall into the temptation of wondering, \u2018Who\u2019s telling me to embark on this?,\u2019 we would have to reply, \u2018Christ himself is telling you, is begging you.\u2019 \u2018The 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\u2019 (Mt 9:37-38). Don\u2019t take the easy way out. Don\u2019t say, \u2018I\u2019m no good at this sort of thing; there are others who can do it; it isn\u2019t my line\u2019. No, for this sort of thing, there is no one else: if you could get away with that argument, so could everyone else. Christ\u2019s plea is addressed to each and every Christian. No one can consider himself excused, for whatever reason \u2014 age, health or occupation. There are no excuses whatsoever. Either we carry out a fruitful apostolate, or our faith will prove barren\u201d<\/p>\n Perfection is not simply a matter of leaving all things but of doing so in order to follow Christ \u2014 which is what the Apostles did: they gave up everything in order to be available to do what God\u2019s calling involved.<\/p>\n We should develop this attitude of availability, for \u201cJesus isn\u2019t satisfied \u2018going halves\u2019: he wants the lot\u201d (Friends of God)<\/p>\n Prayer:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thursday 13\u00a0<\/sup>Then He put out His<\/i> hand and touched him, saying, \u201cI am willing; be cleansed.\u201d<\/span> Immediately the leprosy left him. <\/span> 14\u00a0<\/sup>And He charged him to tell no one, \u201cBut go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them,<\/span> just as Moses commanded.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nMatthew 5:12\u00a0<\/sup>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<\/i> face and [b<\/a>]<\/sup>implored Him, saying, \u201cLord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n