General. The Eucharist is a prayer of thanksgiving in itself, thanking God for all His doings among us while giving Him all due praise. A particular prayer is raised today that He may look upon our family and be our help and strength in these troubled times of moral upheaval and danger to the family concept. Yet it is only God’s grace, which we obtain through the same Eucharist, which will ultiately see us through these troubled times.

Job meditates on the reality of man’s life, labour, mental anguish and sleepless nights. His only hope, as he sees his strength withering away, is in the Lord. As they say, experience is a comb which God gives to man when he is bald, but hardly does man ever realise this before experiencing that life is as short as a breath and passes away in a jiffy. Perhaps it is only when gets to that maturity of thought that he turns his gaze to God and meditates on His ways with him through his past life.

Psalm 146. The greatness of the Lord is sung by the Psalmist who, recognising his own weakness and frailty, attributes to God the power of healing and building anew that which has fallen apart. It is through God’s wisdom that man’s healing is achieved, when man realises that his individual history lies in God’s hands and that only He can reconstruct one’s life on a newly found humility.

First Letter to the Corinthians. For St Paul preaching the Gospel is a duty imposed by means of a mission entusted to him by God. For that reason, Paul has to die unto himself and adapt his character to all those he preached to even unto becoming their servant and condescend to their weakness. All this he did for no gain other than that of their salvation.

St Mark. Prayer was the strength which Jesus achieved to accomplish his mission. He used to pass nights out in a secluded place praying the Psalms that he might incarnate them in himself and live them out. During the day, tired as he was, he went arount healing the sick and evangelizing to all, bidding them to repent and amend their ways according to the Word they had received. Jesus also casts out devils, a task which can only be achieved through prayer and fasting.

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