Religious Sisters of Charity

The text on the slides above come from a book of sayings from the foundress of the Religious Sisters of Charity, Mary Aikenhead. The book is available from Veritas Publications, 7/8 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland, or click on the photograph of the book to order online.

Prayer Requests

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Scripture Readings

You may like to take time to reflect on the current Sunday readings from Scripture. The following notes are intended to be used in any way which will be of help to readers in their task of proclaiming the Word of God or perhaps of stimulating discussion amongst scripture or liturgy groups in parishes and communities.

Sunday, 5th February 2012 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
THE GOSPEL
The Gospel, Mark 1:29-39, continues the account Mark gives us of a day in the life of Jesus. It is a Sabbath day, and in the synagogue Jesus has healed a very troubled man. He then leaves the synagogue and together with James and John. They go to the house of Simon and Andrew, where they discover that Simon’s mother-in-law has taken to her bed with a fever. Jesus goes to her bedside and simply takes her hand, and helped her up whereupon the fever left her and she is better. The words helped her up also mean raised her up, the very words used for the resurrection of Jesus. So Mark is not simply telling a story. He is introducing us to the life and ministry – and indeed the mystery of Jesus. Later that day, after the Sabbath rest, people came crowding to this man who had healed the man in the synagogue. And Jesus healed many (the word includes everyone) sick people and cast out devils which he silenced – they knew who he was, we are told. Evidently Jesus did not want to court fame for himself. This is also indicated early the following morning when Simon and his companions discovered him praying in a lonely place. They seem to think that because everyone is looking for Jesus he should return. Not so. He wants to reach many people in other places so that he could preach to them too. That, he says, is why he came. This concludes the account Mark gives of what a typical day in Jesus life was like. He prayed, with the community and also alone, privately. He worked wonders for people who were afflicted, but did not seek to be made much of. His ministry was begun. He would go to other towns now.
THE FIRST READING
The First Reading is Job 7:1-4, 6-7. The book of Job examines the mystery of suffering. It is told as the story of a good man living a happy life until disaster strikes. His friends assume he has done great wrong and that suffering is the result, but Job knows this is not so. In today’s passage he expresses something of the effects of suffering. Drudgery, delusion, nights of grief followed by long days of sorrow; life seems to have flown yet each day drags. He thinks he will never again be happy. This reading prepares us to meet in the Gospel - and hopefully in our own lives - Jesus’ approach to suffering. We will hear more about this as we continue to hear Mark’s Gospel, week by week.
THE PSALM
Our Response is from Psalm 146. We offer praise to God who heals broken hearts, tends our wounds, is great and almighty and wise.
THE SECOND READING
The Second Reading is 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23. Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul explains his commitment to the preaching of the Gospel. He is not boasting. He is stating a fact. It is his duty to do it, he would deserve to be punished if he did not do it. He has not expected to be paid. He feels privileged to be able to serve the church freely. So he is not bound to anyone. Still, he acts as though he were obliged to preach the gospel. He tells them (and us) that he adapted his teaching according to the ability of the Corinthians to hear and understand the Good News that he was preaching. His aim was to help everyone to come to know the gospel. He does this for the sake of the gospel itself, no matter what it cost him personally, and so that he too might share in the blessing that is the gospel.

Sunday, 12th February 2012 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
THE GOSPEL
The Gospel, Mark 1:40-45, can be read as a miracle story showing Jesus’ compassion and power to heal. It is that, but there is much more to it than appears at first glance. We read that a leper came to Jesus. But this man had no right to approach him. The man was an outcast, forbidden to come into contact with anyone who was not afflicted with this dreadful disease. While it makes sense to try to protect others from contagion, added to the fear of contracting leprosy was the assumption that it was a judgment for sin, that God punished sin by allowing a person to become a leper. So a leper had to live apart, outcast both by man and, it seemed, by God too. Yet this leper had the courage to defy religious convention and to plead with Jesus for healing. (Evidently he had somehow heard of the healing Jesus had worked on the Sabbath day, as we read last week.) If you want to, you can cure me, he says. Jesus replies that he does of course want to; and the man is healed. Jesus tells him to say nothing to anyone but to do what the law required – to show himself to the priest, to make an offering for his recovery. We now see a reversal of fortunes for the healed man, who now can move freely in society, and for Jesus, who cannot go about openly – he has taken the place of the leper and had to stay outside. And still people came to him.
THE FIRST READING
The First Reading, Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46, is concerned with leprosy and how the community is to deal with it. These rules were made for the safeguarding of the community. Since there was no knowledge about how the disease was transmitted from person to person and no known cure, it was seen as necessary to isolate the sufferer. To make sure he would be seen to be a leper from a distance, he had to dress in torn clothing, his hair was to be unkempt, he was to avoid allowing his breath to touch anyone and, should someone approach him he must call out that he was “Unclean, unclean”. Sometimes a different skin problem would be diagnosed, wrongly, as leprosy. If that healed, the person could return to normal life once the priest declared him healed. The parallel between leprosy, a disease of the body, and sin, a disease of the spirit, is indicated to us by this reading and the today’s Gospel passage.
THE PSALM
Our Response is from Psalm 31. It celebrates the forgiveness of our sins and the joy that comes with our awareness of God’s love.
THE SECOND READING
The Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, concludes our readings from this letter of St Paul. He tells us that all the ordinary things we do every day – eating, drinking, anything at all that we do – can be done for the glory of God. The Reader who is privileged to proclaim this today should do so slowly and deliberately to give it a chance to sink in to our consciousness and encourage us all to be mindful that we can, in fact, give glory to God in every aspect of our daily lives. Paul goes on to remind us that we must never offend anyone – Jews, Greeks, or Christians. So any trace of racial prejudice is out. Paul points out that he tries to be helpful at all times, for the good of others. Not so that he can get something out of it for himself, but so that others may be saved.