Standing Up Straight

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For 30 October 2023, Monday of week 30 in Ordinary Time, based on Luke 13:10-17

(Photo: Romanisches Fresko im ehemaligen Läuthaus des Stiftes Lambach: Christus heilt in der Synagoge von Capernaum einen Besessenen. Zwei Männergruppen betrachten das Geschehen, die zwölf Personen links sind wahrscheinlich die zwölf Apostel. Public Domain.)


Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.


Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Henderson

About Ruth Anne Henderson, O.P.

Born and raised in Scotland, she was a university teacher in Wales until moving in 1979 to Italy, where until her retirement she was a professor of English Language at the University of Turin. She was President of the European Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities from May 2011 to May 2014, and is a translator and text editor for the Curia Generalizia of the Order.