Wednesday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings
First Reading – 2 Sam 24:2, 9-17
King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number.” Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered: in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service; in Judah, five hundred thousand. Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people, and said to the LORD: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish.” When David rose in the morning, the LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying: “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.’” Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land, or to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you, or to have a three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what I must reply to him who sent me.” David answered Gad: “I am in very serious difficulty. Let us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful; but let me not fall by the hand of man.” Thus David chose the pestilence. Now it was the time of the wheat harvest when the plague broke out among the people. The LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel from morning until the time appointed, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died. But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD regretted the calamity and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people, “Enough now! Stay your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these are sheep; what have they done? Punish me and my kindred.”
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7 (R. see 5c)
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.R.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin.R.
For this shall every faithful man pray to you
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach him.R.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round. R.
Gospel – Mk 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him and a large crowd followed him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.
Featured Saints
St. Joan of Valois, queen (†1505). Wife of King Louis XII, of France, she consecrated herself to the service of God after her marriage was annulled. She founded the Order of the Holy Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bourges.
St. Rabanus Maurus, bishop (†856). Abbot of the monastery of Fulda, he was elected Archbishop of Mainz, Germany.
St. Isidore, priest (†circa 449). Desiring to imitate the life of St. John the Baptist, he abandoned the world and became a monk in Pelusium, Egypt. He intervened in the debates surrounding the Nestorian heresy.
St. Gilbert of Sempringham, priest (†1189). Consecrated to the serviceof the Church since his youth, he founded the Gilbertine Order in England, with two rules of life: the rule of St. Benedict for nuns and that of St. Augustine for the clergy.
St. Joseph of Leonessa, priest (†1612). Capuchin Franciscan; he aided Christian captives in Constantinople and preached the Gospel, even in the palace of the sultan. He died in Amatrice, Italy.
St. John de Britto, priest and martyr (†1693). Portuguese Jesuit sent to the missions in India, where he suffered martyrdom after converting many people to the Catholic Faith.
St. Nicholas the Studite, monk (†868). Abbot of the Monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople; he was exiled repeatedly for defending the cult of images.
Blessed John Speed, martyr (†1594). Layman condemned to death during the persecution of Elizabeth I for aiding Catholic priests.
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