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Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 13:10-17

In today’s Gospel, Jesus declared the crippled woman’s condition to be the work of Satan. After all, the physician Luke stated that the woman “had a spirit of infirmity.” Such spirits are not from God. This spirit was so debilitating that she was unable to look up; hunched over, she could only look down.

When Jesus laid hands upon her and straightened her, she looked God in the face and gave Him praise! However, since this miracle took place in a synagogue on the Sabbath, the officials told the people to come any other day to be healed. Yet the unnamed woman did not ask Jesus – He just healed her!

Why didn’t she ask Jesus to cure her? Is it possible that she had not heard of Jesus? Did she not know of the power of God?

Perhaps, after eighteen years, she had given up hope. In her crippled position, she just bent over even more and wallowed in her suffering. Satan can use sickness to bring us down. A spirit of infirmity causes us not to look to God, but only at ourselves. Then, a person might define herself by her disability, not by her dignity. She may even blame God for the illness. This is the evil work of a spirit of infirmity.

We are not bound by such spirits. Because Jesus took on our infirmities, we can praise Him even in our sickness. Our illnesses can actually help to build up the kingdom of God. We can unite our sufferings with Jesus’ and participate in His saving work.

Jesus performed a wondrous miracle for the crippled woman that Sabbath day, but the bigger, more wonderful miracle is the one He works through our infirmities, big and small, every day.

 

Ponder:

 

Is there some suffering that I can offer up to God today?

 

Pray:


Jesus, Divine Physician, I bring (names) to You for Your healing touch, but if it is not Your will that they be healed, I will praise You still. Thank You for sanctifying our infirmities that we can serve You still.

 

Click to tweet:
Jesus performed a wondrous miracle for the crippled woman that Sabbath day, but the bigger, more wonderful miracle is the one He works through our infirmities, big and small, every day. #DailyGospel

Daily Gospel 2

 

Copyright 2023 Kelly Guest

About the Author

Kelly Guest

Kelly Guest

Kelly Guest was blessed to be a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia for five years. There she received the many graces she draws upon today as a wife and mother of nine children. Wishing to share with other moms encouragement on our quest to become holy through motherhood, she blogs at Nun2Nine.com and CatholicMom.com. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram @nun2nine. Kelly's book, Saintly Moms: 25 Stories of Holiness, is due out October 1, 2021.