DAILY- HOMILY

January 9, 2018 – TUESDAY, 1st Week in Ordinary Time

Green.

1 Sm 1: 9- 20 / Mk 1: 21 - 28

[Quiapo, Manila: Feast of the Black Nazarene]

FROM THE 1ST READING:             1 Sm 1: 19b- 20

When Elkanah slept with his wife Hannah, Yahweh took compassion on her, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son and called him Samuel because she said, "I have asked Yahweh to give him to me."

FROM THE GOSPEL READING:       Mk 1: 23 - 28

It happened that a man with an evil spirit was in their synagogue and he shouted, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: You are the Holy One of God."" Then Jesus faced him and said with authority, "Be silent and come out of this man!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and, with a loud shriek, came out of him.

All the people were astonished and they wondered, "What is this? With what authority he preaches! He even orders evil spirits and they obey him!" And Jesus' fame spread throughout all the country of Galilee.

REFLECTION

In the first reading Yahweh took pity on Hannah and gave her a child Samuel whom she then offered for service to the Lord.

In the Gospel reading Jesus expels an evil spirit from a possessed man, to the amazement of all, "What is this? With what authority he preaches! He even orders evil spirits and they obey him!"

Demons and evil spirits are for real. This is something I came to appreciate only as we became more involved in Church and community service. Before that my wife and I attributed evil happenings to some kind of bad luck or coincidence: for example, we saw the smallest issues breaking out into major and painful disagreements.

In our community and Church service, we began to realize how evil spirits somehow cunningly work at breaking down relationships: this has been a most important awareness that has allowed us to overcome distractions and destructive disagreements.

However helpful this awareness may be, much more important is the belief and realization that, no matter how cunning the devil and his associates may be, we have someone even more powerful than the devil, our Lord Jesus himself.

The devil may be powerful but prayer and faith in Jesus are much more powerful than the devil. The Lord assures us that, with him at our side, we should not fear. There is nothing we cannot overcome provided we cling to the Lord for courage and strength.

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER INTENTIONS:

BIRTHDAY 

     Andrew Lu Clemente

     Benedict Patrick S. Syling

     Nazarina de Jesus 

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

     Tony & Una Buenafe

     Atty. Antero Jr & Mila Sison

     Michael & Ceylilona Tong

     Rowie & Angela Torres

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most. 

Have a good day!

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   |  The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the

   |  priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish

   |  distributed free and for personal use only.  

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