?He took her by the hand and the fever left her. She got up and began to wait on them.? ? Matthew 8:15

The above passage briefly describes my walk with Jesus.
      He took me by the hand and led me out of the meaninglessness of my life. That was in 1995 when I started feeling the emptiness of an otherwise busy life.
      The fever left me. My fears, my anxieties, and my wounds ? they started getting healed. God sent people who lent their healing presence to me.
      I got up and began to wait on them. Once He had removed the stumbling blocks  within me, service naturally followed. Not something extraordinary ? but something that emanated from the very gifts that He has blessed me with.
      But the cycle never ends. From time to time, an old or new wound surfaces, and I?d go by the same route ? the Lord taking me by the hand, me getting healed, and serving the Lord anew in a more joyful spirit! TessVA

REFLECTION:
Is there something in your life that needs healing? Allow Jesus to take your hand and heal you.

Lord, You know the ?fevers? of my life. Heal me and make me serve You in return.

________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

  GOALS FOR THE QUARTER

  Priority areas God wants me to work on

________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

PRAYER SHEET FOR MY LIFE
Things I will pray for regularly

  
DATE          PERSONAL NEED       DATE        GOD?S ANSWERS
When the  ?Until now, you have not  When I   ?Ask and you shall receive,
answer      asked for anything My      in started  that your joy may be full.?
  came        Name.? John 16: 24         praying-          - John 16: 24b

________________________________________________________

   _________________________________________________________ 

   _________________________________________________________

  _________________________________________________________   

_________________________________________________________

  _________________________________________________________ 
 

PRAYER SHEET FOR MY LIFE
Things I will pray for regularly

     EVANGELISM LIST                          CARING LIST  
     People God wants me to                     People God wants me to
        bring closer to Him                       pray for and show more love to
  
   ________________________________________________________

 _________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________   
  
________________________________________________________

   ________________________________________________________ 
 
 1st READING
  
Lam 2:2.10-14, 18-19

The Book of Lamentations is exactly that, a lament for the sufferings caused by sin. The Jews understood that much of their suffering was a result of their sin. Certainly this would have been true, or at least some of it. The reading today is a call to repentance. It is a call for us all to weep for our sins and the suffering that they bring. Let us heed the call and the understanding that underlies it and so work hard to remove sin from our lives.

2 The Lord has consumed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob; he has torn down in his anger the fortresses of daughter Judah; he has brought to the ground in dishonor her king and her princes. 10 On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion; they strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth; the maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground. 11 Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment; my gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, as child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town. 12 They ask their mothers, ?Where is the cereal?? ? in vain, as they faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city, and breathe their last in their mothers? arms. 13 To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion? For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you? 14 Your prophets had for you false and spacious visions; they did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate; they beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents. 18 Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion! Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night; let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes. 19 Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street.

P S A L M

Psalm 74:1-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21

R: Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

1 Why, O God, have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? 2 Remember your flock which you built up of old, the tribe you redeemed as your inheritance, Mount Zion, where you took up your abode. (R) 3 Turn your steps toward the utter ruins; toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary. 4 Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine; they have set up their tokens of victory. 5 They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees. (R) 6 With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary. 7 They set your sanctuary on fire; the place where your name abides they have razed and profaned. (R)  20 Look to your covenant, for the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of violence. 21 May the humble not retire in confusion; may the afflicted and the poor praise your name. (R)

G O S P E L

Matthew 8:5-17

True authority is a wonderful thing. It is always a delight to see a person in authority and give instructions that are immediately followed without any hesitation or complaint. This comes only when the authority has been earned through the example of the person?s life. True authority will never harm a person; it will always build them up and contribute to the growth of the community. Let us pray for our leaders that they will be able to exercise authority well and submit to those over them.

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, 6 saying, ?Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.? 7 He said to him, ?I will come and cure him.? 8 The centurion said in reply, ?Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ?Go,? and he goes; and to another, ?Come here,? and he comes; and to my slave, ?Do this,? and he does it.? 10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ?Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, 12 but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.? 13 And Jesus said to the centurion, ?You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.? And at that very hour [his] servant was healed. 14 Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. 16 When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, 17 to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: ?He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.?

my reflections
think: True authority will never harm a person. It will always build them up and contribute to the growth of the community.

  ________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

God?s special verse/thought for me today________________

_________________________________________________________
  
T O D A Y ? S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

_______________________________________________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Sirach 1-4

One of the most remarkable aspects of Jesus? ministry is the authority that He exercised when He spoke. The centurion in today?s Gospel knows what it means to both exercise and live under authority. He is a soldier and when he receives his orders he knows exactly what he has to do. When he gives orders he expects that they will be followed. This is the dynamic that we need to get used to when we are working in the Kingdom of God. This does not mean that we should be giving and receiving orders all the time. But when we are undertaking a task, then our word should be good for what we commit ourselves to doing.
      The centurion does not require the presence of Jesus in his house to know that whatever Jesus says will be carried out. This trust is not necessarily faith when taken in the context of an army situation; however, here it expresses a depth of faith that Jesus is yet to encounter. And the man is not even a Jew! Jesus expresses surprise at the man?s response but realizes the military connection and how that has disposed him to trusting in the word of another, especially a superior. Thus, not only is the centurion a man of great faith, but he has also received some level of insight into the identity of Jesus. At the very least he recognizes that Jesus is a greater person than he is and thus deserves to be both obeyed and trusted.
      We now have to apply these lessons to our own lives. What does it all mean for you and me? Well, how good are we at living under authority? I can remember many times of testing, some of which I failed dismally, when I was a child. As children, we live under the authority of our parents and guardians. We ought to respect their wishes when it comes to our conduct and our basic disposition should be one of obedience. As we grow older we gain greater autonomy and thus grow in responsibility for our actions. As such, we may even expect others to follow our wishes. Fr. Steve T.

REFLECTION QUESTION:
In all of this, is the fundamental dynamic of order at work in our lives or have we become laws? Unto ourselves or so submissive to others that we never take responsibility for anything?

Lord, I pray that I will be able to find the right balance in my life between exercising authority over others in good order and living under rightful authority as well. Help me to be a good example of this to others.

St. Gall, bishop, pray for us.