Tuesday, January 17, 2012 {St. Anthony, Abbot (Memorial)}

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
The patient and humble endurance of the Cross - whatever nature it may be - is the highest work we have to do.
-- St Katherine Drexel

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-13
(David Is Anointed King)
1 Yahweh said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons.
2 Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. Yahweh said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I am come to sacrifice to Yahweh.
3 Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do: and you shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.
4 Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Come you peaceably?
5 He said, Peaceably; I am come to sacrifice to Yahweh: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
6 It happened, when they had come, that he looked at Eliab, and said, Surely Yahweh’s anointed is before him.
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for Yahweh sees not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, Neither has Yahweh chosen this.
9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, Neither has Yahweh chosen this.
10 Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, Yahweh has not chosen these.
11 Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? He said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he come here.
12 He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful face, and goodly to look on. Yahweh said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he.
13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Psalms: Psalm 89:20-22, 27-28
20 I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,
21 With whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him.
22 No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.
27 I will also appoint him my firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my loving kindness for him forevermore. My covenant will stand firm with him.
Gospel: Mark 2:23-28
(The Question about the Sabbath)
23 It happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.
24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
25 He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and they who were with him?
26 How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”
27 He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”