Gospel and Saint of the day: 16 January 2020

First book of Samuel 4,1-11.
Samuel's word turned to all of Israel. In those days the Philistines gathered to fight against Israel. Then Israel took the field to battle the Philistines. They camped at Eben-Ezer while the Philistines had camped in Afek.
The Philistines lined up to attack Israel and the battle broke out, but Israel had the worst of the Philistines and about four thousand men fell on the field of their host.
When the people returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked themselves: “Why did the Lord strike us today in front of the Philistines? Let's go and take the ark of the Lord from Silo, so that it may come among us and free us from the hands of our enemies. "
The people immediately sent to Silo to take the ark of the God of armies that sits on the cherubs: with the ark of God there were the two sons of Eli, Cofni and Pìncas.
As soon as the ark of the Lord reached the camp, the Israelites raised a scream so loud that the earth shook.
Even the Philistines heard the echo of that scream and said: "What does it mean to resound this scream so loud in the Jewish camp?". Then they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to their field.
The Philistines were afraid of it and said to each other: "Their God has come to their field!", And they exclaimed: "Woe to us, because it was not like that neither yesterday nor before.
Woe to us! Who will free us from the hands of these powerful gods? These deities have struck Egypt in the desert with every scourge.
Awaken your courage and be men, or Philistines, otherwise you will be slaves to the Jews, as they were your slaves. So be men and fight! ".
Then the Philistines attacked battle, Israel was defeated and each was forced to flee to his tent. The massacre was very great: three thousand foot soldiers fell on the side of Israel.
In addition, the ark of God was taken and the two sons of Eli, Cofni and Pìncas, died.

Salmi 44(43),10-11.14-15.24-25.
But now you've turned us away and covered in shame,
and you no longer go out with our hosts.
You made us flee in front of the adversaries
and our enemies have stripped us.

You have made us happy with our neighbors,
mockery and disgrace to those around us.
You made us the story of the peoples,
about us the nations shake their heads.

Wake up, why are you sleeping, Lord?
Awake, do not reject us forever.
Why are you hiding your face,
do you forget our misery and oppression?

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark 1,40-45.
At that time, a leper came to Jesus: he begged him on his knees and said to him: «If you want, you can heal me!».
Moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand, touched him and said, "I want it, heal!"
Soon the leprosy disappeared and he recovered.
And, admonishing him severely, sent him back and said to him:
«Be careful not to say anything to anyone, but go, introduce yourself to the priest, and offer for your purification what Moses ordered, as a testimony for them».
But those who left, began to proclaim and divulge the fact, to the point that Jesus could no longer enter publicly in a city, but he was outside, in deserted places, and they came to him from all sides.

16 JANUARY

BLESSED GIUSEPPE ANTONIO TOVINI

Secular, Franciscan tertiary

Cividate Camuno, Brescia, March 14, 1841 - Brescia, January 16, 1897

"Our Indies are our schools." Blessed Giuseppe Tovini of Brescia wanted to become a missionary. And in his 55 years of life (he was born in Cividate Camuno in 1841 and died in Brescia in 1897) he was an apostle in the most diverse social fields: school, in fact, and then advocacy, journalism, banks, politics , the railways, the workers' societies, the university. After his studies, he worked for the Corbolani lawyer from Brescia. He married his daughter Emilia, with whom he had 10 children. Countless the positions he held and the institutions he created: mayor, provincial and municipal councilor, president of the diocesan Committee of the Opera dei Congressi; founder of rural coffers, of Banca San Paolo of Brescia, of Banco Ambrosiano of Milan, of the newspaper "Il Cittadino di Brescia" and of the magazine "Scuola italiana moderne", of various other pedagogical works and of the "Unione Leone XIII", which will flow into the Fuci. Activities that drew inspiration from an intense Franciscan-style spiritual life (tertiary era). (Avvenire)

PRAYER

Lord God, the origin and source of all holiness, who in your servant Giuseppe Tovini have poured out treasures of wisdom and charity, grant us that his light will flood us to salvation. You have placed him in the Church as a faithful witness of your mystery, and you have made him in the world an ardent apostle of the Gospel and a courageous builder of the civilization of love. In him, humble and integral servant of man, continue to reveal the eternal meaning of the Christian vocation and the heavenly value of earthly commitment. We implore you, glorify him for your Name. Make his and our land rediscover the taste for life, the love for the education of youth, the cult of family unity, a great enthusiasm for universal peace and the will to cooperate in the common good in the ecclesial field and social. To you, O God, the glory and the blessing over the centuries. Amen.

Our father