H. Blasius is the patron saint of those suffering from throat disorders. Died probably circa 316 . He is said to have been Bishop of the Armenian city of Sebaste.
St Ansgarius was Apostle of the North. Founded the first church in Sweden and the first school in Denmark Patron saint of Scandinavia Lived from 801-865.
Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
Faith is mentioned in the Hebrews letter in the same breath as tribulation, and perseverance in tribulation. Those who have gone before us in this were ordinary people of flesh and blood, given powers by God that went far beyond the human. We are not asked to copy their deeds and lives: God has given us talents and gifts that help us to persevere in our faith in our lives, in the circumstances we face. And when those circumstances become very hard to bear, when our wishes and dreams collapse through misfortune, evil or illness, the Lord will stand by us and give us the strength to persevere in the trial. He hears all who call on Him.
FIRST READING Heb 11:32-40
By faith our forefathers overthrew kingdoms. God has something better in mind for us.
From the letter to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters,
What else shall I say?
I lack the time to tell stories of Gideon,
Barak, Samson and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.
By faith they overthrew kingdoms,
exercised justice,
enforced the fulfilment of promises.
They have shut lions’ maws,
extinguished the glow of fire,
they escaped the sharpness of the sword.
Their weakness became strength,
they became mighty in war,
driving enemy armies to flight.
Women regained their dead through resurrection from the dead.
Others were tortured to death
and rejected their release
to gain a better resurrection.
Still others endured ridicule and beatings
and shackles and imprisonment.
They were stoned,
sawn in half,
executed with the sword.
They roamed around in sheepskins and goatskins,
prey to deprivation, persecution, abuse.
They were too good for this world.
They fled in deserts and on mountains,
they hid in caverns and caves in the ground.
They too all
acquired a name by their faith.
Yet none of them saw the promise fulfilled.
God had something better in mind for us and did not want
for them to reach their consummation without us.
INTERLUDIUM Ps 31(30), 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Take courage and be fearless
all you who hope in the Lord.
How great are thy benefits, Lord,
which Thou hast destined for those who fear Thee.
Thou givest them to every one who comes to Thee,
perceptible to all men.
The radiance of Thy Face always protects him
when men turn against him.
Thou takest him into Thy tent,
sheltered from evil tongues.
Blessed be the Lord, for his wonderful goodness
has protected me like a fortified city.
Defeated and despondent, I said :
Thou hast completely lost sight of me.
But no, Thou hast heard my pleading,
my voice calling loudly to Thee.
Love then the Lord all his pious ones,
the Lord preserve all who remain faithful to Him.
But whoever turns against Him in pride
He repays with usury.
ALLELUIA cf. Lk. 8, 15
Alleluia; Blessed are those who keep the Word of God which they heard
in a good and noble heart
And bring forth fruit by their steadfastness.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Mk. 5, 1-20
Unclean spirit, depart from that man.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
At that time Jesus and his disciples came
across the lake
in the land of Gerasenes.
Hardly had He stepped out of the boat,
when there, out of the cavernous caverns, walked towards Him a man
who was in the power of an unclean spirit.
He dwelt in the tombs and no one was able to
to bind him even with a chain,
for already several times he had been
been chained in foot and handcuffs ,
but the handcuffs he had pulled apart
and shattered the footcuffs.
So no one was in a position to overwhelm him.
Day and night he was uninterrupted
screaming in the burial pits and in the mountains
and pounding himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus in the distance
he rushed towards Him and fell at His feet.
Shouting loudly he cried out :
‘What hast Thou to do with me, Jesus!
Son of God, the Most High?
‘I beseech Thee by God, torment me not!’
For Jesus had told him :
‘Unclean spirit, depart from that man.’
Thereupon Jesus asked him :
‘What is thy name?’
He replied :
‘My name is Legion
For we are many.’
And he implored Jesus with insistence
that He would not drive them out of the region.
Now there, against the mountainside
herding a large herd of boars.
They begged Him :
‘Send us into those swine and let us go in them.’
He allowed them.
The unclean spirits went out of the possessed,
fed into the swine
and the troop plunged from the steep bank into the lake,
about two thousand,
and they drowned.
The boar herders took flight
and told about it in town and in the country.
Thereupon people came to see what had happened.
They came to Jesus and saw the possessed one sitting down,
clothed and in his right mind,
the same one who had been in the power of Legion ;
and they were seized with fear.
Those who had seen it
told them how it had gone with the possessed man ,
and also told of the swine.
Thereupon they began to urge Him
to leave their region.
But when Jesus got into the boat
the man who had been possessed
to stay with Him.
Jesus, however, did not allow this,
but told him :
‘Go home ,
to yours
and tell them all that the Lord has done to you
and how He has shown you mercy.’
The man went away and began to proclaim in Dekapolis everything
what Jesus had done to him.
And all stood amazed.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
178. In the face of so many petty forms of politics, which are
focused on immediate interest, I recall that ‘political
grandeur manifests itself, when in difficult moments one
acts on great principles and thinks of the common good in the
long term. Political power has great difficulty in incorporating this duty
into a project for the nation and even more so into a common
project for present and future humanity. Thinking of those
who will come does not serve electoral purposes, but is what an
authentic justice requires because, as the bishops of
Portugal have taught, the earth ‘is a loan that each generation
receives and must pass on to the next generation’.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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