WEDNESDAY 15  febRuary

SAINT WALFRID

He was born in Pisa. He married and had five sons and at least one daughter. After a time, they decided to follow the Benedictine Rule of Monte Casino. St. Walfrid’s cultus was confirmed in 1861.

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 30: 3-4       

Be my protector, O God, a mighty stronghold to save me. For you are my rock, my stronghold! Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name.

Collect         

O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading: Genesis 8: 6-13, 20-22

At the end of forty days Noah opened the porthole he had made in the ark and he sent out the raven. This went off, and flew back and forth until the waters dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of the earth. The dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to him in the ark, for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out his hand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him. After waiting seven more days, again he sent out the dove from the ark. In the evening, the dove came back to him and there it was with a new olive-branch in its beak. So Noah realised that the waters were receding from the earth. After waiting seven more days he sent out the dove, and now it returned to him no more.  It was in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month and on the first of the month, that the water dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the hatch of the ark and looked out. The surface of the ground was dry!  Noah built an altar for the Lord, and choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelt the appeasing fragrance and said to himself, “Never again will I curse the earth because of man, because his heart contrives evil from his infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done. As long as earth lasts, sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall cease no more.”

Psalm 115(116):12-15,18-19

R/ A thanksgiving sacrifice I make to you, O Lord.

How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.

My vows to the Lord I will fulfil before all his people. O precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful.

My vows to the Lord I will fulfil before all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Gospel Acclamation: Ps 118: 105       

Alleluia, alleluia! Your word is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path. Alleluia!

Gospel: Mark 8: 22-26    

Jesus and his disciples came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man whom they begged him to touch. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Then putting spittle on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked, “Can you see anything?” The man, who was beginning to see, replied, “I can see people; they look like trees to me, but they are walking about.” Then he laid his hands on the man’s eyes again and he saw clearly; he was cured, and he could see everything plainly and distinctly. And Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

Prayer over the Offerings          

May this oblation, O Lord, we pray, cleanse and renew us and may it become for those who do your will the source of eternal reward. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon: Cf. Ps 77: 29-30

They ate and had their fill, and what they craved the Lord gave them; they were not disappointed in what they craved.

Prayer after Communion        

Having fed upon these heavenly delights, we pray, O Lord, so that we may always long for that food by which we truly live. Through Christ our Lord.

Meditation

The discretion with which Jesus miraculously opens the eyes of the blind man should inspire us when we decide to do good to someone. There is no need to ring bells and draw attention to ourselves when we make a kind act. Progressively, by his grace, Jesus opens the eyes of this blind man until he sees clearly. In the same way, he gradually opens our eyes, giving us the grace of faith. Since he made the blind man see reality, he also makes us see the world clearly and lucidly with the eyes of faith. This is the new way of looking at the world; seeing it differently just the way Noah and his people did when they left the ark after the flood. May we look at the realities of this world with such renewed vision of faith and conversion.