MASS READINGS & SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Saturday - December 04, 2021

Saturday - December 04, 2021

For God says: Pray wholeheartedly. . . though you may feel nothing, though you may see nothing . . . for in dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in weakness, then is your prayer most pleasing to Me.

~~St. Julian of Norwich

 December 4, 2021

Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Lectionary: 180

 

Reading 1                                                     Is 30:19-21, 23-26

Thus says the Lord GOD,

    the Holy One of Israel:

O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem,

    no more will you weep;

He will be gracious to you when you cry out,

    as soon as he hears he will answer you.

The Lord will give you the bread you need

    and the water for which you thirst.

No longer will your Teacher hide himself,

    but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:

    “This is the way; walk in it,”

    when you would turn to the right or to the left.

 

He will give rain for the seed

    that you sow in the ground,

And the wheat that the soil produces

    will be rich and abundant.

On that day your flock will be given pasture

    and the lamb will graze in spacious meadows;

The oxen and the asses that till the ground

    will eat silage tossed to them

    with shovel and pitchfork.

Upon every high mountain and lofty hill

    there will be streams of running water.

On the day of the great slaughter,

    when the towers fall,

The light of the moon will be like that of the sun

    and the light of the sun will be seven times greater

    like the light of seven days.

On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people,

    he will heal the bruises left by his blows.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

 

R  Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

 

Praise the LORD, for he is good;

    sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;

    it is fitting to praise him.

The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;

    the dispersed of Israel he gathers.

R.    Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

He heals the brokenhearted

    and binds up their wounds.

He tells the number of the stars;

    he calls each by name.

R.    Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

Great is our LORD and mighty in power:

    to his wisdom there is no limit.

The LORD sustains the lowly;

    the wicked he casts to the ground.

R.    Blessed are all who wait for the Lord.

 

Alleluia                                                                      Is 33:22                     

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The LORD is our Judge, our Lawgiver, our King;

he it is who will save us.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,

teaching in their synagogues,

proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,

and curing every disease and illness.

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them

because they were troubled and abandoned,

like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples,

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;

so ask the master of the harvest

to send out laborers for his harvest.”

 

Then he summoned his Twelve disciples

and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out

and to cure every disease and every illness.

 

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,

“Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Cure the sick, raise the dead,

cleanse lepers, drive out demons.

Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

 

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God Hears You When You Cry Out

Saturday's first reading assures us that God will be gracious to you when you cry out. As soon as he hears you he will answer you.

But do you have complete faith in that? Hopefully we all know that he hears and answers us, but I have my doubts about the next verse:

"The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst."

Has the Lord given you everything you need? I've been waiting a long time for his miraculous interventions in a few of my thirsts. Having faith in the promises of God doesn't always mean that our experiences match what faith tells us. Right?

For a long time, my morning prayers have included: "Come Holy Spirit, renew me. Come Holy Spirit, increase in me the gift of faith for miracles." But then I learned that it's important to add: "Forgive me for disbelieving Your Word. Gift me the gift of faith for miracles and the experiences that will increase my faith and the faith of others." That's the reason why I went to Encounter Ministries' School of Healing a couple of weekends ago. I put myself where such experiences would be available. And, indeed, God increased my faith there.

The training ended with a public healing service. My husband Ralph and I teamed up to pray over three people. God ministered to all three through supernatural words of knowledge and through the laying on of hands for healing. God worked through us to heal lungs, legs, tinnitus, and long-term back pain. We also witnessed several people regain their sense of smell after losing it to Covid. There were other healings, too, but that last one stands out for me because it shows God's power over Covid -- a victory that the world should see every day!

"The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst." Relying on God for supernatural help is supposed to be normal Christian living. Where people gather to praise and worship the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, the results can be like what we read about in the Book of Acts. When the earliest Christians gathered, their faith and enthusiasm were so strong that it converted unbelievers. If you have that available, put yourself into those opportunities often! The world needs the witness of God's supernatural love.

I've been studying the experiences of those who have the level of faith that allows divine intervention to flow freely. They put a lot of time and effort into it. For example, one worship leader and his team fast and pray before every meeting, praising the Lord and doing spiritual warfare while walking the perimeter of the room for at least an hour. Thus, their meetings are so full of the glory of the Lord that even first-timers see angels. What if a prayer team in your parish did that every Saturday for the weekend celebrations of Mass?

Miracles are not meant to be extraordinary events. They evangelize non-believers and build the faith of half-believers. The people of today's world desperately need this witness of God's divinity. 

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”