Reading 1 Gn 2:18-25

The LORD God said:
"It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs
and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman
the rib that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:

"This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called 'woman,'
for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."

That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

R. (see 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Alleluia Jas 1:21bc

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, "Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She replied and said to him,
"Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."
Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter."
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.

From: Genesis 2:18-25

The Creation of Eve

[18] Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
make him a helper fit for him.” [19] So out of the ground the Lord God formed
every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to
see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature,
that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all, cattle, and to the birds of
the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a hel-
per fit for him. [21] So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,
and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; [22]
and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman
and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was ta-
ken out of Man.” [24] Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and
cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. [25] And the man and his wife
were both naked, and were not ashamed.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

2:18-25. God continues to take care of man, his creature. The sacred writer con-
veys this by means of a human metaphor, depicting God as a potter who realizes
his creation is not yet perfect. The creation of the human being is not yet over:
he needs to be able to live in a full and deep union with another of his kind. The
animals were also created by God, but they cannot provide complete companion-
ship. So God creates woman, giving her the same body as man. From now on it
is possible for the human being to communicate. The creation of woman, there-
fore, marks the climax of God’s love for the human being he created.

This passage also shows us man’s interiority: he is aware of his own aloneness.
Although here loneliness is more a possibility and a fear rather than a real situ-
son, we are being told that it is through awareness of being alone that man can
appreciate the benefit of communion with others.

2:19-20. Like man, animals are created out of matter, but they are not said to
have received from God the breath of life. Only man is given the breath of life,
and this is what makes him essentially different from animals: man has a form
of life given him directly by God; that is to say, he is animated by a spiritual prin-
ciple which enables him to converse with God and to have real communion with
other human beings. We call this “soul” or “spirit”. It makes man more akin to
God than to animals, even though the human body is made from the earth and
belongs to the earth just as an animal’s body does (cf. the notes on 1:26 and
2:7).

“The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to
be the ‘form’ of the body (cf. Council of Vienne, “Fidei Catholicae”): that is, it is
because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, hu-
man body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their
union forms a single nature” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 365).

2:21-22. This sleep is a kind of death; it is as if God suspended the life he gave
man, in order to re-shape him so that he can begin to live again in another way—
by being two, man and woman, and no longer alone. By describing the creation
of woman as coming from one of Adam’s ribs, the sacred writer is saying that,
contrary to people’s thinking at the time, man and woman have the same nature
and the same dignity, for both have come from the same piece of clay that God
shaped and made into a living being. The Bible is also explaining the mutual
attraction man and woman have for one another.

2:23 When man—now in the sense of the male human being—recognizes woman
as a person who is his equal, someone who has the same nature as himself, he
discovers in her the fit “helper” God wanted him to have. Now indeed the creation
of the human being is complete, having become “man becomes the image of God
not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion” (John
Paul II, General Audience, 4 November 1979).

The first man’s acclaim for the first woman shows the capacity both have to asso-
ciate intimately in marriage. Man’s attitude to woman as it comes across here is
that of husband to wife. “In his wife he sees the fulfillment of God’s intention: ‘It is
not good that the man should he alone; I will make him a helper fit for him,’ and
he makes his own the cry of Adam, the first husband: ‘This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh.’ Authentic conjugal love presupposes and requires
that a man have a profound respect for the equal dignity of his wife: ‘You are not
her master,’ writes St Ambrose (”Hexaemeron”, 5, 7, 19) ‘but her husband; she
was not given to you to be your slave, but your wife [...]. Reciprocate her atten-
tiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love”’ (John Paul II, “Familiaris Con-
sortio”, 25).

2:24. These words are a comment by the sacred writer in which, having told the
story of the creation of woman, he depicts the institution of marriage as some-
thing established by God at the time when human life began. As John Paul II ex-
plains, “this conjugal communion sinks its roots in the natural complementarity
that exists between man and woman, and is nurtured through the personal wil-
lingness of the spouses to share their entire life-project, what they have and what
they are: for this reason such communion is the fruit and the sign of a profoundly
human need” (”Farniliaris Consortio”, 19).

By joining in marriage, man and woman form a family. Even the earliest transla-
tions of the Bible (Greek and Aramaic), interpreted this passage as meaning “the
two will become one flesh”, thereby indicating that marriage as willed by God
was monogamous. Jesus also referred to this passage about the origin of man to
teach the indissolubility of marriage, drawing the conclusion that “what God has
joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:5 and par.) The Church teaches
the same: “The intimate partnership of life and the love which constitutes the mar-
ried state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own
proper laws: it is rooted in the contract of its partners, that is, in their irrevocable
personal consent. It is an institution confirmed by the divine law and receiving its
stability, even in the eyes of society, from the human act by which the partners
mutually surrender themselves to each other; for the good of the partners, of the
children, and of society this sacred bond no longer depends on human decision
alone. For God himself is the author of marriage and has endowed it with various
benefits and with various ends in view” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 48,).

2:25. Here we can see how man and his body were totally in harmony, as were
man and woman; this harmony will be broken due to the sin the narrative goes
on to report.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 7:24-30

The Curing of the Syrophoenician Woman

[24] And from there he (Jesus) arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Si-
don. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could
not be hid. [25] But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed
by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. [26] Now
the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast
the demon out of her daughter. [27] And he said to her, “Let the children first be
fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” [28]
But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the
children’s crumbs.” [29] And he said to her, “For this saying you may go your
way; the demon has left your daughter.” [30] And she went home, and found the
child lying in bed, and the demon gone.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

24. The region of Tyre and Sidon is nowadays the southern part of Lebanon —
Phoenicia in ancient times. The distance from the lake of Gennesaret to the
frontier of Tyre and Sidon is not more than 50 kms (30 miles). Jesus withdrew
from Palestine to avoid persecution by the Jewish authorities and to give the
Apostles more intensive training.

27. Our Lord actually uses the diminutive—”little dogs” to refer to the Gentiles
— thereby softening a scornful expression which Jews used. On the episode
of the Canaanite woman cf. notes on parallel passages, Mt 15:21-28.

[The notes on Mt 15:21-28 states:

21-22. Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast, in
present-day Lebanon. They were never part of Galilee but they were near its
north-eastern border. In Jesus’ time they were outside the territory of Herod An-
tipas. Jesus withdrew to this area to escape persecution from Herod and from
the Jewish authorities and to concentrate on training His Apostles.

Most of the inhabitants of the district of Tyre and Sidon were pagans. St. Mat-
thew calls this woman a “Canaanite”; according to Genesis (10:15), this district
was one of the first to be settled by the Canaanites; St. Mark describes the wo-
man as a “Syrophoenician” (Mark 7:26). Both Gospels point out that she is a
pagan, which means that her faith in our Lord is more remarkable; the same
applies in the case of the centurion (Matthew 8:5-13).

The Canaanite woman’s prayer is quite perfect: she recognizes Jesus as the
Messiah (the Son of David)—which contrasts with the unbelief of the Jews; she
expresses her need in clear, simple words; she persists, undismayed by obsta-
cles; and she expresses her request in all humility: “Have mercy on me.” Our
prayer should have the same qualities of faith, trust, perseverance and humility.

24. What Jesus says here does not take from the universal reference of His tea-
ching (cf. Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16). Our Lord came to bring His Gospel
to the whole world, but He Himself addressed only the Jews; later on He will
charge His Apostles to preach the Gospel to pagans. St. Paul, in his missionary
journeys, also adopted the policy of preaching in the first instance to the Jews
(Acts 13:46).

25-28. This dialogue between Jesus and the woman is especially beautiful. By
appearing to be harsh He so strengthens the woman’s faith that she deserves
exceptional praise: “Great is your faith!” Our own conversation with Christ should
be like that: “Persevere in prayer. Persevere, even when your efforts seem barren.
Prayer is always fruitful” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 101).]

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible by Darton, Longman & Todd

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading	Genesis 2:18-25 ©

The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’ So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:

‘This at last is bone from my bones,

and flesh from my flesh!

This is to be called woman,

for this was taken from man.’

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.

Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 127(128):1-5 ©

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord

and walk in his ways!

By the labour of your hands you shall eat.

You will be happy and prosper.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

in the heart of your house;

your children like shoots of the olive,

around your table.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Indeed thus shall be blessed

the man who fears the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion

all the days of your life!

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation	Ps144:13

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord is faithful in all his words

and loving in all his deeds.

Alleluia!

Or	Jm1:21

Alleluia, alleluia!

Accept and submit to the word

which has been planted in you

and can save your souls.

Alleluia!

Gospel	Mark 7:24-30 ©

Jesus left Gennesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.

Mark
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Mark 7
24.	And rising from thence he went into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon: and entering into a house, he would that no man should know it, and he could not be hid.	Et inde surgens abiit in fines Tyri et Sidonis : et ingressus domum, neminem voluit scire, et non potuit latere.	και εκειθεν αναστας απηλθεν εις τα μεθορια τυρου και σιδωνος και εισελθων εις οικιαν ουδενα ηθελεν γνωναι και ουκ ηδυνηθη λαθειν
25.	For a woman as soon as she heard of him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at his feet.	Mulier enim statim ut audivit de eo, cujus filia habebat spiritum immundum, intravit, et procidit ad pedes ejus.	ακουσασα γαρ γυνη περι αυτου ης ειχεν το θυγατριον αυτης πνευμα ακαθαρτον ελθουσα προσεπεσεν προς τους ποδας αυτου
26.	For the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.	Erat enim mulier gentilis, Syrophœnissa genere. Et rogabat eum ut dæmonium ejiceret de filia ejus.	ην δε η γυνη ελληνις συραφοινικισσα τω γενει και ηρωτα αυτον ινα το δαιμονιον εκβαλη εκ της θυγατρος αυτης
27.	Who said to her: Suffer first the children to be filled: for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs.	Qui dixit illi : Sine prius saturari filios : non est enim bonum sumere panem filiorum, et mittere canibus.	ο δε ιησους ειπεν αυτη αφες πρωτον χορτασθηναι τα τεκνα ου γαρ καλον εστιν λαβειν τον αρτον των τεκνων και βαλειν τοις κυναριοις
28.	But she answered and said to him: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children.	At illa respondit, et dixit illi : Utique Domine, nam et catelli comedunt sub mensa de micis puerorum.	η δε απεκριθη και λεγει αυτω ναι κυριε και γαρ τα κυναρια υποκατω της τραπεζης εσθιει απο των ψιχιων των παιδιων
29.	And he said to her: For this saying go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter.	Et ait illi : Propter hunc sermonem vade : exiit dæmonium a filia tua.	και ειπεν αυτη δια τουτον τον λογον υπαγε εξεληλυθεν το δαιμονιον εκ της θυγατρος σου
30.	And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out.	Et cum abiisset domum suam, invenit puellam jacentem supra lectum, et dæmonium exiisse.	και απελθουσα εις τον οικον αυτης ευρεν το δαιμονιον εξεληλυθος και την θυγατερα βεβλημενην επι της κλινης

24. And from thence he arose, and sent into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
25. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
26. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27. But Jesus said to her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
28. And she answered and said to him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
29. And he said unto her, For this saying go your way; the devil is gone out of your daughter.
30. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

THEOPHYL. After that the Lord had finished His teaching concerning food, seeing that the Jews wore incredulous, He enters into the country of the Gentiles, for the Jews being unfaithful, salvation turns itself to the Gentiles; wherefore it is said, And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon.

PSEUD-CHRYS. Tyre and Sidon were places of the Canaanites, therefore the Lord comes to them, not as to His own, but as to men, who had nothing in common with the fathers to whom the promise was made. And therefore He comes in such a way, that His coming should not be known to the Tyrians and Sidonians. Wherefore it continues: And entered into a house, and would have no man know it. For the time had not come for His dwelling with the Gentiles and bringing them to the faith, for this was not to be, till after His cross and resurrection.

THEOPHYL. Or else His reason for coming in secret was that the Jews should not find occasion of blame against Him, as if He bad passed over to the unclean Gentiles. It goes on, But he could not be hid.

PSEUDO-AUG. But if He wished to do so and could not, it appears as if His will was impotent; it is not possible however that our Savior's will should not be fulfilled, nor can He will a thing, which He knows ought not be. Therefore when a thing has taken place, it may be asserted that He has willed it. But we should observe that this happened amongst the Gentiles, to whom it was not time to preach; nevertheless not to receive them, when they came to the faith of their own accord, would have been to grudge them the faith. So then it came to pass that the Lord was not made known by His disciples; others, however, who had seen Him entering the house, recognized Him, and it began to be known that He was there. His will therefore was that He should not be proclaimed by His own disciples, but that others should come to seek Him, and so it took place.

BEDE; Having entered also into the house, He commanded His disciples not to betray who He was to any one in this unknown region, that they, on whom He had bestowed the grace of healing, might learn by His example, as far as they could, to shrink from the glory of human praise in the showing forth of their miracles; yet they were not to cease from the pious work of virtue, when either the faith of the good justly deserved that miracles should be done, or the unfaithfulness of the wicked might necessarily compel them. For He Himself made known His entry into that place to the Gentile woman, and to whomsoever lie would.

PSEUDO-AUG. Lastly, the Canaanitish woman came in to Him, on hearing of Him; if she had not first submitted herself to the God of the Jews, she would not have obtained their benefit. Concerning her it continues: For a woman , whose daughter had an unclean spirit, as soon as she had heard of him, came in and fell at his feet.

PSEUD-CHRYS. Now by this the Lord wished to show His disciples that He opened the door of faith even to the Gentiles, wherefore also the nation of the woman is described when it is added, The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician by nation, that is, from Syria of Phaenice. It goes on: And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

AUG. It appears however, that some question about a discrepancy may be raised, because it is said that the Lord was in the house when the woman came to her, asking about her daughter. When, however, Matthew says that His disciples had suggested to Him, Send her away, for she cries after us, he appears to imply nothing less than that the woman uttered supplicating cries after the Lord, as He walked. How then do we infer that she was in the house, except by gathering it from Mark, who says that she came in to Jesus, after having before said that He was in the house? But Matthew in that he says, He answered her not a word, gave its to understand that He went out, during that silence, from the house; thus too the other events are connected together, so that they now in no way disagree.

It continues; But He said unto her, Let the children be first filled.

BEDE; The time will come when even you who are Gentiles will obtain salvation; but it is right that first the Jews who deservedly are wont to he called by the name of children of God's ancient election, should be refreshed with heavenly bread, and that so at length, the food of life should be ministered to the Gentiles. There follows: For it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to the dogs.

PSEUD-CHRYS. These words He uttered not that there is in Him a deficiency of virtue, to prevent His ministering to all, but because His benefit, if ministered to both Jews and Gentiles who had no communication with each other, might he a cause of jealousy.

THEOPHYL. He calls the Gentiles dogs, as being thought wicked by the Jews; and He means by bread the benefit which the Lord promised to the children, that is, to the Jews. The sense therefore is, that it is not right for the Gentiles first to be partakers of the benefit, promised principally to the Jews. The reason, therefore, why the Lord does not immediately hear, but delays His grace, is, that He may also show that the faith of the woman was firm, and that we may learn not at once to grow weary in prayer, but to continue earnest till we obtain.

PSEUD-CHRYS. In like manner also to show the Jews that He did not confer healing on foreigners in the same degree as to them, and that by the discovery of the woman's faith, the faithfulness of the Jews might be the more laid bare. For the woman did not take it in, but with much reverence assented to what the Lord had said. Wherefore it goes on, And she answered and said unto him, Truth, Lord, but the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

THEOPHYL. As if she had said, The Jews have the whole of that bread which comes down from heaven, and you benefit also; I ask for the crumbs, that is, a small portion of the benefit.

PSEUD-CHRYS. Her placing herself therefore in the rank of dogs is a mark of her reverence; as if she said, I hold it as a favor to be even in the position of a dog, and to eat not from another table but from that of the Master himself.

THEOPHYL. Because therefore the woman answered with much wisdom, she obtained what she wanted; wherefore there follows, And he said unto her, &c. He said not, My virtue has made you whole, but for this saying, that is, for your faith, which is shown by this saying, go your way, the devil is gone out of your daughter.

It goes on, And when she was come into her house, she found her daughter laid upon the bed, and the devil gone out.

BEDE; On account then of the humble and faithful saying of her mother, the devil left the daughter; here is given a precedent for catechizing and baptizing infants, seeing that by the faith and the confession of the parents, infants are freed in baptism from the devil, though they can neither have knowledge in themselves, or do either good or evil.

PSEUDO-JEROME; Mystically however the Gentile woman, who prays for her daughter, is our mother the Church of Rome. Her daughter afflicted with a devil, is the barbarian western race, which by faith has been turned from a dog into a sheep. She desires to take the crumbs of spiritual understanding, not the unbroken bread of the letter.

THEOPHYL. The soul of each of us also, when he falls into sin, becomes a woman; and this soul has a daughter who is sick, that is, evil actions; this daughter again has a devil, for evil actions arise from devils. Again, sinners are called dogs, being filled with uncleanness. For which reason we are not worthy to receive the bread of God, or to be made partakers of the immaculate mysteries of God; if however in humility, knowing ourselves to be dogs, we confess our sins, then the daughter, that is, our evil life, shall be healed.

Catena Aurea Mark 7

Jesus, High Priest

We thank you, God our Father, for those who have responded to your call to priestly ministry.

Accept this prayer we offer on their behalf: Fill your priests with the sure knowledge of your love.

Open their hearts to the power and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Lead them to new depths of union with your Son.

Increase in them profound faith in the Sacraments they celebrate as they nourish, strengthen and heal us.

Lord Jesus Christ, grant that these, your priests, may inspire us to strive for holiness by the power of their example, as men of prayer who ponder your word and follow your will.

O Mary, Mother of Christ and our mother, guard with your maternal care these chosen ones, so dear to the Heart of your Son.

Intercede for our priests, that offering the Sacrifice of your Son, they may be conformed more each day to the image of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Saint John Vianney, universal patron of priests, pray for us and our priests

This icon shows Jesus Christ, our eternal high priest.

The gold pelican over His heart represents self-sacrifice.

The border contains an altar and grapevines, representing the Mass, and icons of Melchizedek and St. Jean-Baptiste Vianney.

Melchizedek: king of righteousness (left icon) was priest and king of Jerusalem. He blessed Abraham and has been considered an ideal priest-king.

St. Jean-Baptiste Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests.

Pray a Rosary each day for our nation.

1. Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. The Apostles Creed: I BELIEVE in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

3. The Lord's Prayer: OUR Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

4. (3) Hail Mary: HAIL Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen. (Three times)

5. Glory Be: GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

6. Fatima Prayer: Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy.

Announce each mystery, then say 1 Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, 1 Glory Be and 1 Fatima prayer. Repeat the process with each mystery.

End with the Hail Holy Queen:
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears! Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Final step -- The Sign of the Cross

The Mysteries of the Rosary By tradition, Catholics meditate on these Mysteries during prayers of the Rosary. The biblical references follow each of the Mysteries below.

The Luminous Mysteries or Mysteries of Light (Thursdays) see Rosarium Virginis Mariae
1. Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan (II Corinthians 5:21, Matthew 3:17 and parallels) [Spiritual fruit - Gratitude for the gift of Faith]
2. Jesus' self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana (John 2:1- 12) [Spiritual fruit - Fidelity]
3. Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with His call to conversion (Mark 1:15, Mark 2:3-13; Luke 7:47- 48, John 20:22-23) [Spiritual fruit - Desire for Holiness]
4. Jesus' Transfiguration (Luke 9:35 and parallels) [Spiritual fruit - Spiritual Courage]
5. Jesus' institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery. (Luke 24:13-35 and parallels, 1 Corinthians 11:24-25) [Spiritual fruit - Love of our Eucharistic Lord]

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February 9, 2017

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Gn 2:18-25

Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

Alleluia Jas 1:21bc

Gospel Mk 7:24-30

Readings at Mass