Tag: demons

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

From the Gospel acclamation: “Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (today’s readings)

She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.

Mark tells us about two intertwined miracles performed by Jesus: the healing of a woman with a hemorrhage and the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead. Jairus, a synagogue leader, falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him to go to his young, dying daughter. As Jesus makes his way, a woman who has been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years approaches him with a condition that has worsened over time. Believing that if she can just touch Jesus’ clothes, she will be healed of her affliction, she touches his garment and is immediately healed and tells Jesus “the whole truth.” Jesus then goes to Jairus’s daughter and hears that she has already died. He continues anyway, and despite facing ridicule for saying she is only sleeping, Jesus takes the girl by the hand, tells her to arise, and she immediately rises to new life. Jesus heals in two ways: by responding to Jairus’s desperate plea and by restoring the woman through her quiet faith. In both miracles, faith is the key.

Father in heaven, let me remember to come to you today whether for long-held afflictions or for acute, urgent needs. The quiet faith of the woman and the distressed prayer of Jairus both reveal ways to call out to you for your grace and healing. Strengthen my faith, Lord, and let me trust that when I bring myself before you, you already know what I need and will provide.

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.

“All that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” | Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

From the Gospel acclamation: “A great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (today’s readings)

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”

Following the calming of a storm at sea, Jesus and the disciples arrive at the region of Gerasenes and encounter a man possessed by demons. Living among the tombs and restrained by chains and shackles he smashed, the demon-possessed man meets Jesus at the shore. Night and day, Mark tells us, the man cried out and bruised himself with stones. Recognizing Jesus by name, the demons identifying themselves as Legion, beg Jesus not to torment them. Granting their request, Jesus sends the demons into a nearby herd of pigs, which immediately rush down a steep bank into the sea. The man returns to his right mind, and the witnesses and nearby townspeople beg the man to leave, who first attempts to go with Jesus and then travels to the Decapolis to proclaim what Jesus has done for him. The people are amazed, and word of Jesus begins to spread. Sometimes life would have us living among tombs, possessed by inner demons. If Jesus drove out Legion, he can drive out any of those who name themselves or any who dwell in us in anonymity. “Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.”

God, stay beside me this moment and throughout the day as I meditate on the power of Jesus Christ your Son to name and cast out any evil within me. Thanks be to you, Lord, for the gifts of baptism and reconciliation and the true food and true drink of the Eucharist. Jesus commanded the possessed man to do one thing. Let me open my heart in gratitude to his command and find joy in it: “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Help me remember your compassion, Lord, as I place my trust in you.

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.

“To preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” | Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

“The Apostles” flickr photo by Lawrence OP https://flickr.com/photos/paullew/48247330176 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 3:13-19)

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

Mark names two reasons Jesus commissioned apostles: to preach and to drive out demons. The reasons seem, at first, to be limited. Of all things an apostle commissioned by Christ might do, Mark mentions only these two. Yet, countless times in the Gospel, the evangelists say that Jesus went throughout the region, preaching and driving out demons. With a word, himself the living Word, Jesus cast out unclean spirits. So in commissioning them to preach and drive out demons, Jesus gives unlimited authority to the Twelve to teach and heal as he taught and healed. The teaching and healing authority of Christ lives today in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church—Mother and Teacher—in apostolic succession, in proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and in the sacraments.

God, help me trust in the living succession of faith that Jesus Christ your Son established in commissioning the Twelve. They were the first to sit at the feet of Christ and hear and take in the Word. It’s miraculous that the deposit of faith has been transmitted unbroken from generation to generation. Give me the grace, Lord, to be humble and grateful in receiving your Word as it has been passed down from age to age. What is the truth about Jesus and the foundation of the Church? Glory to you, Lord, this is not shrouded in mystery and lost to the ages; truth is a person, present in the Mystical Body of Christ and boldly proclaimed in the Church.

From the Gospel acclamation: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

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.

“Jesus withdrew . . .” | Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

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.

“For this purpose have I come.”| Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 1:29-39)

The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Jesus never stops healing and preaching to fulfill his mission, moving in an ever-widening circle. Starting with Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus heals her of her fever. As the whole town gathers at the door in the evening, he then goes on to drive out demons and cure the sick. Rising well before dawn the next day, Jesus goes off to a deserted place to pray until Peter finds him, saying, “Everyone is looking for you.” Jesus responds by picking up and going “throughout the whole of Galilee.” The servant of servants, he tells Peter, the rock on which he builds his Church: “For this purpose have I come.” Love starts at home and spirals ever outward through God’s grace. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta said: “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do. It is to God Almighty—how much we do it does not matter, because He is infinite, but how much love we put in that action. How much we do to Him in the person that we are serving.”

God, just as Jesus grasped Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand and moments later she waited on her family, grasp me by the hand today to make clear your will. Samuel learns to respond to your repeated calls, finally saying, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” In hearing and responding to you, I move from contemplation to action. In describing the infinite love you give to your people, Saint Teresa repeats twice the phrase “how much love we put in the action.” It’s in that willingness to show extravagant love to those you put in our way that we grasp the love of the Almighty and to serve your Son in serving others. “For this purpose have I come,” Jesus tells Peter. Lord, as you did for Peter’s mother-in-law, do for me today: approach me, grasp my hand, help me up.

From the responsorial psalm: “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, ‘Behold I come.’ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

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.