Gospel of St. John: "You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you." (John xv. 14 )
MONDAY.
The Woman Cured of the Issue of Blood.
I. " And behold a woman, who was troubled with an issue of blood, twelve years, who had bestowed all her substance on physicians, and could not be healed by any, •came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment." (Luke ix. 43.) Admire the humility of this woman, who did not presume to ask Christ to cure her, nor to appear before Him, but privately touched His garment. Her confidence was equally great: "She said within herself, if I shall but touch His garment, I shall be healed." Those Christians, in a spiritual sense, labor under the disease of this woman, who spend their time in pursuing the vain and perishable things of this earth, and direct all their actions to them: they spend their substance in vain on physicians, who cannot cure them; for the deceitful pleasures and idle enjoyments of the world can never cure the ailments of an immortal soul, whose capacity nothing but God can fill.
II. When the woman had touched Christ's garment, she received perfect health, as a reward for her faith. With how much more reason may those expect to receive perfect spiritual health who touch not only the garment of Christ, but receive in the Eucharist His own all-healing body and blood. Remark how this touch of the woman did not escape Christ's knowledge; and learn hence, that no action of yours, however secret, can be
