“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.”
[Mark 7.32-35]
“Make no mistake about it, no one makes a fool of God! A man will reap only what he sows. If he sows in the field of the flesh, he will reap a harvest of corruption; but if his seed-ground is the spirit, he will reap everlasting life.”
[Galatians 6. 7-8]
“While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer.’ Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
‘Do not be afraid; just have faith.’”
[Mark 5. 35-36]
“Set, O Lord, a guard
over my mouth;
keep watch at the door of my lips!
Do not turn my heart to things that are wrong, to evil deeds with men
who are sinners.”
[Psalm 141]
“For the Most High knows all that be made known, and he looks into
the signs of the age.
He declares what has been and what is to be, and he reveals
the tracks of hidden things.
No thought escapes him, and not one word is hidden from him.
He has ordained the splendors of his wisdom, and he is from
everlasting and to everlasting.
Nothing can be added or taken away, and he needs no one
to be his counselor.”
[Sirach 42.18-21]
“A love that desires to see God may not have reasonableness on its side, but it is the evidence of filial love. It gave Moses the temerity to say: If I have found favor in your eyes, show me your face. It inspired the psalmist to make the same prayer: Show me your face. Even the pagans made their images for this purpose: they wanted actually to see what
they mistakenly revered.”
[Saint Peter Chrysologus]
“He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.’”
[Mark 4.26-27]