The Healing Hand of God

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Apollinaris (martyr 1st or 2nd century)

Readings of the Day:
RB: Ch 41 The Times for Community Meals
Mass: Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Resp Ps (Is 38); Mt 12:1-8


Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord:'O Lord, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you.'
Hezekiah wept bitterly. The Lord responds through the prophet Isaiah: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you. We have all had cause to join Hezekiah in his hymn of thanksgiving at one time or another in our lives. The Lord hears us. The God of the living heals us.
O Lord, by these things people live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live! Surely it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness;but you have held back my life from the pit of destruction,for you have cast all my sins behind your back.The living, the living, they thank you, as I do this day; fathers make known to children your faithfulness.The Lord will save me, and we will sing to stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the Lord.(Is 38:16-17, 19-20)