Saint Agnes, Virgin, Martyr
January 21st, 2010
Mark 3, 7-12
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must renounce himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” says the Lord.
Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude follow him, hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the regions of Tyre and Sidon
The passage tells of the enthusiastic reception given to Jesus.
The people are coming to him from all directions.
Whenever the unclean spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and shouted,
“You are the Son of God.” But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.
Jesus is the Son of God and he has ultimate victory over all evil.
Prayer
Prayer : God our Father may our lives converge on Jesus, our real source of attraction.
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Just a Thought
Hope
John XXIII, referred to as the ‘caretaker Pope’, realising the widening gap between the Church and the world of his day, wrote: “An old world is disappearing. Another one is being formed, and with this I am trying to conceal some good seed or other that will have its springtime, even if it is somewhat delayed, and comes after I’m dead.”
Thomas Merton writes: “One must not give in to defeatism and despair: just as one must hope for life in a mortal illness which has been declared incurable.”
Even when dark clouds surround us, even when everything appears to be falling apart, we must continue to believe for a better future. Whatever the problem, there is a way forward.
So, my hope is in God alone because I believe in him; this is my faith. It is in him I put my faith and that faith, my belief in God’s love for me and all his creation, is the bedrock in which like an anchor, I put my hope. Together with that hope and faith is my love and fidelity in responding to that God in whom I live and move and have my being. In him I place my hope.
“Hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:15-19).
