When we choose to give, we change, and the people around us change. When we move from awareness to action, miracles happen. When we allow giving to be our idea, a world of possibilities opens up before us, and we discover new levels of joy.

“The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the miraculous also.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Gospel Text: (MK 7:31-37)

Jesus 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."

As we consider Jesus' miraculous cure of the deaf and dumb man, we are invited to reflect on how we use our gift of speech. Do our words help and build up others? Or do our words so often discourage and destroy others? Do we speak in joy and gratitude of the many blessings we receive? Or do we so often speak only of discontent and complaints?  How often have our words disappointed and hurt others? Have we used our gift of speech to spread God's Good News and Kingdom?