September 9 // Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Responsorial Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Reading II: James 2:1-5
Gospel: Mark 7:31-37

When Ruth Kinsey was the pastor of Farmington Friends Quaker Meeting House in Pumpkin Hook (Farmington), her macular degeneration worsened and she needed her computer to speak to her. And I gladly recorded a book she wanted to “read.”

Another couple of friends record books through the Association of the Blind. And others translate books into Braile. Louis Braille (1809-1852), creator of the Braille alphabet at fifteen, was repeatedly told he would never succeed at such a task! He became blind as a small child and persisted at his creation to help many people “see.”

Mary Dee led the English as a Second Language Department in the Rochester City School district until ALS claimed her in 1993. She made learning English a delight as she empowered many to teach our language. I recall a child newly arrived in the USA starting school the day after Easter. He knew not one word of English when he joined our class but was fluent in two months. His classmates gave him the gift of speech.

Last November 9, RocACTS empowered a health care worker who had never spoken in public before to speak of being unable to pay for basic necessities; her income for working more than 40 hours a week caring for elderly and ill people does not provide a living wage. God empowers us to give speech to the mute and sight to the blind.

Yes, all of the baptized are spiritually gifted to do as Jesus did. For most of us it is doing small things with great love!

Deni Mack, DMin

Pastoral Associate