DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9
1 But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? 4 For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apol'los," are you not merely men? 5 What then is Apol'los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apol'los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 32(33):12-15, 20-21
Response: Blessed the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
The LORD looks down from heaven,
he sees all the sons of men.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
From where he sits enthroned he looks forth
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all,
and observes all their deeds.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and shield.
Yea, our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
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GOSPEL
He laid his hands on every one and healed them
LUKE 4:38-44
38 And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they asked him about her. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she rose and served them. 40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 42 And when it was day he departed and went into a lonely place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them; 43 but he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose." 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Jesus the Chief Physician, by Jerome (347-420 AD)
"'Now Simon's mother-in-law was kept in her bed sick with a fever.' May Christ come to our house and enter in and by his command cure the fever of our sins. Each one of us is sick with a fever. Whenever I give way to anger, I have a fever. There are as many fevers as there are faults and vices. Let us beg the apostles to intercede for us with Jesus, that he may come to us and touch our hand. If he does so, at once our fever is gone. He is an excellent physician and truly the chief Physician. Moses is a physician. Isaiah is a physician. All the saints are physicians, but he is the chief Physician."
(excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 75.1)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.