January 12
Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – Parishioners of Holy Cross
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli, a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent. One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”
Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you,” Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect. Thus all Israel from Dan to Beersheba came to know that Samuel was an accredited prophet of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 40:2 and 5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust;
who turns not to idolatry
or to those who stray after falsehood.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
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.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me.
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Gospel Acclamation
John 10:27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord.
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mark 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. 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.
Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
“Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”
Reflection
He heard the Lord’s voice…She had her hand grasped by Him...
It’s worth noting in our readings today is that both Samuel and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law respond to encountering the Lord’s gentle presence by humbly being moved to service; they each have a disposition of discipleship—rather immediately, I might add. “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” “The fever left her and she waited on them” [NB: “waited on them” from the Greek diakoneo, the word which comes becomes the standard for referring to Christian ministry (see Acts 6:2, for example)] Peter’s mother-in-law and Samuel must have had the openness to such an encounter, they must have had hearts like vessels ready for the Lord to fill. Otherwise his gracious activity around them might have otherwise been missed.
Yet before us is an ever-present pattern that we continue to see wherever the faith is alive: having been transformed by the living presence of God, life takes on a deeper sense of mission and purpose that shifts focus and our attention away from ourselves and opens us always to/for the other. One becomes moved to share from a place of gratitude; recognition of God’s generous grace as a game-changer—no going back to old ways again having encountered the living God. In this space, the world no longer revolves around me, but rather the Lord is the center, and now it is his initiative and invitation that ever informs and sustains life.
May we receive anew from the Lord today a share of the same grace Samuel and Peter’s mother-in-law experienced—may we moved again to more fervent discipleship from the moment the Lord reveals himself to us, and may we respond with courage: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.”
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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