Word of the day

MK 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 

He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest 
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

MK 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,
"Why does this generation seek a sign?
Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."
Then he left them, got into the boat again,
and went off to the other shore.

"God does not act as a sorcerer. God has his way of going forward: his patience. Every time we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation we sing a hymn to God’s patience. The Lord carries us on his shoulders, with great patience. The Christian life has to be carried out with this music of patience, because it was the music of our fathers: the people of God. The music of those who believed in the Word of God, who followed the commandment which the Lord had given to our father Abraham: Walk before me and be blameless. When we go to the parishes, we find people who are suffering, who have problems, who have disabled children, or have diseases, but carry on in life with patience. They are people who do not ask for a miracle but live with God’s patience, reading the signs of the times. Consider pure joy, my brothers, know that your faith, with many trials, produces patience. And patience will have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing". (Santa Marta, 17 February 2014)