This weekend, the Church celebrates the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Today’s Gospel comes from Mark 1:29-39, where we hear what Jesus does in a single day. In the morning, He taught and exorcised demons at the synagogue, in the afternoon He healed Peter’s mother-in-law and others at Peter’s house, and in the evening, Jesus went off to pray. From this, we can reflect on we arrange time for work and prayer in our daily lives as Jesus had. Although He was extremely busy, He still took the time to pray, showing us how important prayer is. A saint once said, “The one who preserves order will be preserved by order.” We need a schedule to order our time, so that we will cherish it and not waste it. We must arrange regular times to work, rest, and pray to yield good fruit and make the glory of God and the salvation of souls the core motivation of our lives. The Virgin Mary once appeared to two children in France, telling them to pray the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary once every morning and evening. If they had more time, they ought to pray more. Lately, many of us are unable to receive the Eucharist, but we ought to use this opportunity to know God’s Word better. There is an app called iBreviary which provides the morning and evening prayers and daily readings for Lectio Divina. This can help us increase our discipline for prayer and reading. We ought to imitate Christ and set regular times for work and prayer, so that we can improve our communication skills and increase our friendship with God.
“Spiritual Talk” – The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Fr. Anthony Ho
