My Saturday Daily Blessings
Be still, quiet your heart and mind, the Lord is here loving you,
talking to you.................
Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite Calendar)
*First Reading: Lam 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
The Lord has consumed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob;
He has torn down in his anger the fortresses of daughter Judah;
He has brought to the ground in dishonor her king and her princes.
On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion;
They strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment;
My gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, As child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town.
In vain they ask their mothers,
He has torn down in his anger the fortresses of daughter Judah;
He has brought to the ground in dishonor her king and her princes.
On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion;
They strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment;
My gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, As child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town.
In vain they ask their mothers,
"Where is the grain?"
As they faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city,
And breathe their last in their mothers' arms.
To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem?
What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion?
For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you?
Your prophets had for you false and specious visions;
They did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate;
They beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents.
Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion!
Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night;
Let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes.
Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch;
Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones
Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street.
As they faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city,
And breathe their last in their mothers' arms.
To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem?
What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion?
For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you?
Your prophets had for you false and specious visions;
They did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate;
They beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents.
Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion!
Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night;
Let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes.
Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch;
Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones
Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street.
*Responsorial Psalm: Ps 74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21
"Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones."
*Gospel Reading: Mt 8:5-17
**Reflection:
What kind of faith and trust does the Lord Jesus want you to place in him? In Jesus’ time the Jews hated the Romans because they represented everything the Jews stood against – including pagan beliefs and idol worship, immoral practices such as abortion and infanticide, and the suppression of the Israelites' claim to be a holy nation governed solely by God's law. It must have been a remarkable sight for the Jewish residents of Capernaum to see Jesus conversing with an officer of the Roman army. Why did Jesus not only warmly receive a Roman centurion but praise him as a model of faith and confidence in God? In the Roman world the position of centurion was very important. He was an officer in charge of a hundred soldiers. In a certain sense, he was the backbone of the Roman army, the cement which held the army together. Polybius, an ancient write, describes what a centurion should be: "They must not be so much venturesome seekers after danger as men who can command, steady in action, and reliable; they ought not to be over-anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard pressed, they must be ready to hold their ground, and die at their posts."
**Prayer:
Sources:
*Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
**Don Schwager
Author and Writer
Sword of the Spirit and
The Word Among Us
Amen.
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."
He said to him, "I will come and cure him."
The centurion said in reply,
"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."
And Jesus said to the centurion, "You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you."
And at that very hour his servant was healed.
Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.
When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:
He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.
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