Scripture Readings
The first Book of Samuel opens with Hannah, the devout barren wife of Elkanah, praying for a child in the temple at Shiloh. She promises that if she has a son she will give him to the Lord as a Nazirite. The priest Eli added his prayers.
Their prayers were answered, and Hannah gave Samuel up into Eli’s care in the temple. Hannah’s song of thanks is echoed by Mary’s Magnificat in Luke’s gospel, and Luke based the birth of John the Baptist on the miraculous birth of Samuel.
The Lord told Eli his dynasty would die, and the Lord himself would choose a faithful priest to succeed him. In our first reading Eli realises it is Samuel who is to succeed him as prophet to bring the word of the Lord to the people.
Paul devotes several parts of his letter to the Corinthians to sexual immorality, which some Corinthians did not see as sins, but Paul sees as sinning against your own body.
In John’s Gospel the Baptist prophetically points Jesus out to his disciples as the “Lamb of God”, so they follow him instead. Like the rest of Jesus’ disciples, they come to Jesus through the testimony of others, responding to the invitation to “Come and see”.
Psalm Response: Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
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