Monday I
Monday
In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 90
1 [Prayer Of Moses, man of God]
Lord, you have been our refuge
from age to age.
2 Before the mountains were born,
before the earth and the world came to birth,
from eternity to eternity you are God.
3 You bring human beings to the dust, by saying,
'Return, children of Adam.'
4 A thousand years are to you
like a yesterday which has passed,
like a watch of the night.
5 You flood them with sleep
in the morning they will be like growing grass:
6 in the morning it is blossoming and growing,
by evening it is withered and dry.
7 For we have been destroyed by your wrath,
dismayed by your anger.
8 You have taken note of our guilty deeds,
our secrets in the full light of your presence.
9 All our days pass under your wrath,
our lives are over like a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years
eighty for those who are strong
but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble,
they are over in a moment and we are gone.
11 Who feels the power of your anger
or who that fears you, your wrath?
12 Teach us to count up the days that are ours,
and we shall come to the heart of wisdom.
13 Come back, Yahweh!
How long must we wait?
Take pity on your servants.
14 Each morning fill us with your faithful love,
we shall sing and be happy all our days;
15 let our joy be as long as the time that you afflicted us,
the years when we experienced disaster.
16 Show your servants the deeds you do,
let their children enjoy your splendour!
17 May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us,
to confirm the work we have done!
Gospel according to Mark (5,1-20)
1 They reached the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the lake,
2 and when he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit at once came out from the tombs towards him.
3 The man lived in the tombs and no one could secure him any more, even with a chain,
4 because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him.
5 All night and all day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones.
6 Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet
7 and shouted at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God's name do not torture me!'
8 For Jesus had been saying to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit.'
9 Then he asked, 'What is your name?' He answered, 'My name is Legion, for there are many of us.'
10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the district.
11 Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding,
12 and the unclean spirits begged him, 'Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.'
13 So he gave them leave. With that, the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned.
14 The men looking after them ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about; and the people came to see what had really happened.
15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there -- the man who had had the legion in him -- properly dressed and in his full senses, and they were afraid.
16 And those who had witnessed it reported what had happened to the demoniac and what had become of the pigs.
17 Then they began to implore Jesus to leave their neighbourhood.
18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to stay with him.
19 Jesus would not let him but said to him, 'Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.'
20 So the man went off and proceeded to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.
Let us pray:
Lord, our God, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our brother, and the Spirit who calls you in our hearts, we confess you our Father and acknowledge ourselves as your children. May our thanksgiving and our marvel at the beginning of this new day rise to you and make us enter more and more into the divine life that you opened for us with infinite mercy. God, living now and for all ages of ages.
– Amen.