A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 3:7-12)
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.
The crowd following Jesus was so large—people from Jerusalem, Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon—that he asked the disciples to have a boat ready for him so that, as Mark tells us, “they would not crush him.” Among the crowd were those possessed by unclean spirits, who made known loudly that Jesus was the Son of God. Today’s Gospel begins with the words “Jesus withdrew.” He withdrew so that he could be with his Father in prayer and receive strength from the Holy Spirit to continue his mission. Healing and teaching throughout the region, Jesus perfectly accomplished the will of his Father and his time of fulfillment had not yet come, so he warned the people from whom he drove out demons not to make his divine identity known.
Father in heaven, I want to run in so many directions at the start of each day. Give me the grace to remember to return to you as I can throughout the day, even in brief moments, to withdraw to you in singlemindedness, and remain free from all distress. Then let me know your love and the strength of the Holy Spirit. Help me be an instrument of that love and strength to cure what I can with compassion and be on guard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. Grasp me by the hand today and keep me in your care. “In God I trust,” the psalmist says, “I shall not fear.”
From the Gospel acclamation: “Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.