4th Week, Monday, Feb 1
Hebrews 11:32-40 / Mark 5:1-20
These heroes suffered much; A dream born of faith sustained them.
Concert musician Itzhak Perlman says that before he was four years old two things happened to shape his future in an irreversible way: he was stricken with polio, and he heard a recording of violinist Jascha Heifetz. The polio took away his legs, but Heifetz’s music gave him wings. It gave him a dream that set him on the road to musical greatness. Perlman is a faint, modern reflection of the great, great heroes of the old Testament. They also suffered much, but they also had a dream that set them on the road to spiritual greatness.
3rd Week, Saturday, Jan 30
3rd Week, Saturday, Jan 30
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 / Mark 4:35-41
Imitate
your forefathers; Be strong in faith!
Sandra Hook is a Vancouver schoolteacher. She spent the summer of 1984 working among the dying in Calcutta, India, as one of Mother Teresa’s volunteers. She tells how one day she shuddered at the thought of bathing a very sick woman.
3rd Week, Friday, Jan 29
3rd Week, Friday, Jan 29
Hebrews 10:32-39 / Mark 4:26-34
Joel Weldon, an expert on human potential, says that it takes five years for the sprout of a bamboo tree to emerge after the bamboo seed is planted. Once the sprout does emerge, it soars to a height of 90 feet in six weeks. Impossible? “Not at all,” says Weldon.
3rd Week, Thursday, Jan 28
3rd Week, Thursday, Jan 28
Hebrews 10:19-25 / Mark 4:21-25
Jesus’
death changed our situation; We should rouse each other to good works.
Ted Kennedy, Jr., lost his leg to cancer at the age of 12. In his 20’s he spent a lot of time giving inspirational talks to the handicapped in the United States and Europe.
3rd Week, Wednesday, Jan 27
Hebrews 10:11-18 / Mark 4:1-20
The Lord speaks; “Their sins I will remember no more.”
Years ago, This Week magazine carried a moving story about a 17-year-old Dutch boy. He was a prisoner who was sentenced to death for trying to escape from a Nazi concentration camp. Before his execution he wrote to his father: “Read this letter alone, and then tell mother carefully....In a little while at five o’clock it is going to happen I feel so strongly my nearness to God. I am fully prepared to die....I have confessed all my sins ... and have become very quiet.”
3rd Week: Jan 25-30
Jan 25-30: Jan 25 Monday: (Conversion of the Apostle Paul): Mk 16:15-20: (The feast of the conversion St. Paul) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/conversion-of-saint-paul/ Paul, the “Apostle to the Gentiles” and the greatest missionary of the Apostolic age, was a Roman citizen by his birth in Tarsus (in Cilicia), and a Jew born to the tribe of Benjamin. His Hebrew name was Saul. Since he was a Pharisee, Saul was sent to Jerusalem by his parents to study the Mosaic Law under the great rabbi Gamaliel. As a student, he also learned the trade of tent-making.
2nd Week, Saturday, Jan 23
Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14 / Mark 3:20-21
Jesus is our new high priest; By his blood we have been cleansed.
Years ago, divers located the wreckage of a 400-year-old Spanish ship buried off the coast of Northern Ireland. Among the treasures found in the wreckage was a man’s gold wedding ring.
2nd Week, Friday, Jan 22
Hebrews 8:6-13 / Mark 3:13-19
We are under the new covenant; God forgives our past.
A Dutch soldier, stationed in Indonesia, bought a small monkey as a pet. After a few days he noticed the tiny animal was sensitive around its waist. Closer inspection showed that someone had put a wire around it when the monkey was a baby.
2nd Week, Thursday, Jan 21
Hebrews 7:25 - 8:6 / Mark 3:7-12
Jesus reigns in heaven; He intercedes for us before God.
At one point during World War II, the city of London was bombed almost nightly by German planes. People lost their homes and their businesses at the drop of a bomb. People also suffered all kinds of injuries, many of which doctors were too busy to treat.
2nd Week, Wednesday, Jan 20
Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17 / Mark 3:1-6
Abraham meets Melchizedek; Abraham gave him a tenth of his booty.
Most people over 40 remember the comedian Jack Benny. A recurring Jack Benny theme was his violin playing. Another was his stinginess. In one of his radio shows a thief put a gun to Benny’s head and said, “Your life or your money?” Benny didn’t answer.
2nd Week, Monday, Jan 18
Hebrews 5:1-10 / Mark 2:18-22
A priest was invited to a school for the deaf to give a talk to its students. An interpreter translated everything he said into sign language. During his talk the priest noticed the interpreter frequently pointing gracefully to the palms of her hands. He learned later that pointing to the palms of the hand is the sign for Jesus Christ. How fitting a sign for Jesus, he thought.
1st Week, Saturday, Jan 16
Hebrews 4:12-16 / Mark 2:13-17
We have a great high priest; He was tempted but did not sin.
In 1982 Archbishop Jozef Glemp of Warsaw wrote a letter urging Polish young people not to become discouraged or frustrated in their quest for change.
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