Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 27, 2024
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up,
rebuked the wind,
and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
Earlier in the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to the disciples and crowds using parables. Even the disciples have difficulty understanding his message, and now, amid this squall, their faith is again tested.
Today’s reading is a perfect choice for Ignatian contemplation, a method of prayer where we imagine ourselves in the scene of the Gospel and ask where we see Jesus present there. We can use our senses to imagine the sights, sounds, and smells of this terrifying scene on the boat in the Sea of Galilee. We might then recall the “storms” in our own lives that have tested our faith.
When I imagined today’s Gospel, I was first struck by seeing Jesus sleeping during the disciples’ time of need, but then I thought that he was human like us and his ministry was exhausting work. It won’t be long before the disciples fall asleep during Christ’s hour of need in Gethsemane.
Thinking about my own life, Jesus is never asleep at the switch. If anything, I am responsible for a faith life going dormant, allowing the busyness of life to create obstacles and distractions in prayer.
It comes as no surprise that Jesus heroically saves the day by quickly calming the seas. Our storms, however, may not be as promptly calmed or meet our desired outcomes. When my father passed away last summer, my faith was unexpectedly strengthened as I experienced Christ’s presence through the love and support of family and friends. Whether we get the answer we are hoping for or not, Jesus is always with us.
As we begin this new year, we are invited by Christ to navigate the calm waters and stormy seas of our lives with him. Be not afraid and keep watch, for he is always at our side.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, as your church—the barque of Peter—sails the sea of time, it is often beset by the storms of division and persecution. In our lives, too, we encounter headwinds and squalls: physical illnesses, wounded relationships, the grief of loss, and the shame of our sins. When we can feel as if the waves breaking over us are too much and are filled with fear, rouse our faith in you whom even wind and sea obey, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Angela Merici was a laywoman in fifteenth-century Italy who revolutionized the education of women as well as religious life.
She was born in 1474, the younger of two girls. By the time Angela was 15, the sisters were orphaned and sent to live with an uncle. Angela was distraught when her older sister died suddenly without receiving a final anointing. This event sent Angela to prayer—she joined a group of laypeople who lived in the spirituality of St. Francis, and she prayed fervently for the soul of her sister. She eventually received a vision in which she saw her sister celebrating in heaven.
Angela was admired for her beauty, and people found her hair especially pretty. To divert attention from herself, Angela covered her hair in ashes.
When she was 20, her uncle died, and she returned to her family home. She saw a great need for Christian education for girls—at the time women were educated only if they were rich or if they became religious sisters. Angela, herself, had only received an education by her own hard work.
At the time, girls fell through cracks in the educational system because women were not allowed to be teachers. Unmarried women could not do their own work outside of the house, and nuns lived in cloisters and could not leave the convent.
In response, Angela turned her house into a school to teach girls in her city of Brescia. Other young women joined her there; she formed these teachers into a community dedicated to the education of young women, and their work began to spread. “You have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service,” she told her companions.
In 1524, she took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, she stopped in Crete and was suddenly struck blind. She continued on the pilgrimage, visiting all the sites as though she could see. When she was returning home, she stopped in Crete again, and her sight was restored while she was praying in front of a crucifix. For this reason, she is a patron saint of sick people and those who are disabled.
When the pope heard of the good work she was doing, he invited her to move to Rome. Angela saw this opportunity as a temptation to pride and decided to remain in Brescia with the community she had formed.
In 1534, she chose 12 of the women who shared her work and established a formal religious community, known as the Company of St. Ursula (now known as the Ursulines, or the Angelines). These sisters dedicated their lives to serving God and others but were not to remove themselves from the world, as cloistered orders do. The sisters would live celibate lives in their own homes.
When she died in 1540, there were 24 different communities of Ursuline sisters, and today these sisters lead educational institutions throughout the world. They were the first religious sisters to land in the New World when they arrived in Canada in 1639. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus, and her image appears in these stained glass windows in the Basilica.
St. Angela Merici, teacher of young women and patron saint of those who are disabled—pray for us!