Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Intention: For all caregivers in this time of pandemic, that they may be blessed with strength, resilience, and confidence as they continue in their ministry of healing and hope for all those that they serve.
Today’s Gospel | Mark 7:24-30
Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
From the Seventh Meditation for the Time of Retreat | St. John Baptist de La Salle
The reason that Saint Paul gives for this is that God’s secret plan was unveiled to him. He had received the grace of unveiling to the nations the incomprehensible riches of Jesus Christ, so that those who previously were deprived of Jesus Christ and were strangers to the covenant of God, without hope in his promises, now belong to Jesus Christ and are strangers no longer. They have become fellow citizens with the saints and servants of God’s household. They are the structure that has been built on the foundation of the Apostles and raised up by Jesus Christ. They have become the sanctuary where God dwells through his Holy Spirit.
Prayer
Eternal Father, we thank you today for sustaining us in our times of need. Thank you for your steadfast love that never ceases to show us your mercy, especially when we are feeling far from you. Thank you for understanding our weakness and restoring us to fullness with your grace. Help us to be instruments of your healing to one another, walking with one another on our journey to build your Kingdom. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.