1st book of Kings 12:26-32.13:33-34.
Jeroboam thought to himself: “The kingdom will return to David’s house.
If now this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me.”
After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.
This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan.
He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the people who were not Levites.
Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month to duplicate in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah, with sacrifices to the calves he had made; and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built.
Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this event, but again made priests for the high places from among the common people. Whoever desired it was consecrated and became a priest of the high places.
This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.

Psalms 106(105):6-7.19-20.21-22.
We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong and are guilty.
Our ancestors in Egypt did not attend to your wonders. They did not remember your great love; they defied the Most High at the Red Sea.
At Horeb they fashioned a calf, worshiped a metal statue.
They exchanged their glorious God for the image of a grass-eating bull.
They forgot the God who saved them, who did great deeds in Egypt,
Amazing deeds in the land of Ham, fearsome deeds at the Red Sea.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8:1-10.
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said,
My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied.
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them
and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
Commentary of the day : Baldwin of Ford
“Taking the seven loaves he gave thanks and broke them”

Friday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time

Today the Church celebrates : St Benedict of Anian, Abbot (c.750 – 821)

See commentary below or click here
Saint Ephrem : “He put his finger into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”

1st book of Kings 11:29-32.12:19.

At that time Jeroboam left Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. The two were alone in the area, and the prophet was wearing a new cloak. Ahijah took off his new cloak, tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself; the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will tear away the kingdom from Solomon’s grasp and will give you ten of the tribes. One tribe shall remain to him for the sake of David my servant, and of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. and Israel went into rebellion against David’s house to this day.

Psalms 81(80):10-11.12-13.14-15.

There must be no foreign god among you; you must not worship an alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it.’
But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me.
So I gave them over to hardness of heart; they followed their own designs.
But even now if my people would listen, if Israel would walk in my paths,
In a moment I would subdue their foes, against their enemies unleash my hand.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:31-37.

Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And (immediately) the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and (the) mute speak.”

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB

Commentary of the day :

Saint Ephrem (c.306-373), Deacon in Syria, Doctor of the Church
Sermon « On our Lord», 10-11

“He put his finger into the man’s ears and… touched his tongue”

Divine strength, untouchable by man, has come down to us and is clothed in a palpable body that those who are poor may touch it and, in touching the humanity of Christ, might perceive his divinity. Through fingers of flesh the deaf-mute felt his ears and tongue being touched. Through palpable fingers he perceived the impalpable divinity when his tongue’s bond was broken and the closed doors of his ears were opened. For the architect and fashioner of the body has come even to him and, with words of sweetness, has painlessly created openings in his deaf ears. Then, too, this closed mouth that up to then had been unable to utter a word, brought forth praise of him who thus caused his barrenness to bear fruit.

In the same way, our Lord made a paste with saliva and spread it over the eyes of the man born blind (Jn 9,6) so that we might understand that he was lacking something – like the deaf-mute. An inborn defect in our human clay was removed due to the leaven that emanates from his perfect body… To make up what was lacking in these human bodies of ours he gave us something of himself, just as he gives himself to be eaten [in the eucharist]. This is how he causes our deficiencies to disappear and raises up the dead, so that we might recognize that, thanks to his body «in which dwells all the fullness of the deity» (Col 2,9), the defects in our humanity are filled up and true life is given to mortal men through that body in which true life dwells.

Thursday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time 1st book of Kings 11:4-13. When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been. By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done. Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (for though the LORD had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him). So the LORD said to Solomon: “Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant. I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son whom I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” Psalms 106(105):3-4.35-36.37.40. Happy those who do what is right, whose deeds are always just. Remember me, LORD, as you favor your people; come to me with your saving help, But mingled with the nations and imitated their ways. They worshiped their idols and were ensnared by them. They sacrificed to the gods their own sons and daughters, So the LORD grew angry with his people, abhorred his own heritage. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:24-30. From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Commentary of the day : Saint John Chrysostom Humble and insistent prayer //