Monday, October 24, 2011 (Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
By humble and faithful prayer, the soul acquires, with time and perseverance, every virtue.
-- St Catherine of Siena

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Romans 8:12-17
12 So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.
13 For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.
14 Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children.

15 For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!”
16 God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.
17 Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.
Psalms: Psalm 68:2, 4, 6-7, 20-21
2 As smoke is blown away, so he drives them off; as wax melts in front of the fire, so do the wicked perish in God's presence.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; prepare a way for him who rides on the clouds. His name is the Lord—be glad in his presence!
6 He gives the lonely a home to live in and leads prisoners out into happy freedom, but rebels will have to live in a desolate land.
7 O God, when you led your people, when you marched across the desert,
20 Our God is a God who saves; he is the Lord, our Lord, who rescues us from death.
21 God will surely break the heads of his enemies, of those who persist in their sinful ways.
Gospel: Luke 13:10-17
(Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath)
10 One Sabbath Jesus was teaching in a synagogue.
11 A woman there had an evil spirit that had kept her sick for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not straighten up at all.
12 When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, “Woman, you are free from your sickness!”
13 He placed his hands on her, and at once she straightened herself up and praised God.
14 The official of the synagogue was angry that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, so he spoke up and said to the people, “There are six days in which we should work; so come during those days and be healed, but not on the Sabbath!”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Any one of you would untie your ox or your donkey from the stall and take it out to give it water on the Sabbath.
16 Now here is this descendant of Abraham whom Satan has kept in bonds for eighteen years; should she not be released on the Sabbath?”
17 His answer made his enemies ashamed of themselves, while the people rejoiced over all the wonderful things that he did.