Daily Readings for February 15, 2017

1ST READING

In times of trial and tribulation let us hold on to the promise that God gave Noah – that He will never allow us to be totally destroyed. There will always be a faithful remnant who will keep the Gospel alive no matter how dark the days become. God will prevail over evil. Let this give us hope.

Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, 7 and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. 9 But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. 10 He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. 11 In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. 12 He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back. 13 In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. 20 Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offering on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: “Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. 22 As long as the earth lasts, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

P S A L M

Psalm 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

R: To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.

12 How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? 13 The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. (R) 14 My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. (R) 18 My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. (R)

GOSPEL 

Jesus heals the blind man gradually. We are “works in progress” and God is working bit by bit to help us grow in holiness and faith. Let us place our hope in the victory of good over evil, and God over all other things. Let us choose the way of God over the ways of sin and the world.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.

Mark 8:22-26

22 When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” 25 Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. 26 Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”