Day 40 - Chapter 7, Verses 31-37

Again he 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."

This word, Ephphatha, has come into our baptismal liturgy. The ears and mouth are touched, with the prayer (May the Lord Jesus) touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father.

In your reading of Mark thus far, how have your ears been opened? How has your faith been deepened? (If it has been challenged, that is all to the good. Nothing can be stretched bigger without challenge!)