First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7

Is not human life on earth just conscript service? Do we not live a hireling's life?  Like a slave, sighing for the shade, or a hireling with no thought but for his wages, I have months of futility assigned to me, nights of suffering to be my lot.  Lying in bed I wonder, 'When will it be day?' No sooner up than, 'When will evening come?' And crazy thoughts obsess me till twilight falls.  Swifter than a weaver's shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.  Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.

Psalm: Psalm 147:1-6

Alleluia! Praise Yahweh - it is good to sing psalms to our God - how pleasant to praise him.

Yahweh, Builder of Jerusalem! He gathers together the exiles of Israel,

healing the broken-hearted and binding up their wounds;

he counts out the number of the stars, and gives each one of them a name.

Our Lord is great, all-powerful, his wisdom beyond all telling.

Yahweh sustains the poor, and humbles the wicked to the ground.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it.  If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me.  What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me.  So though I was not a slave to any human being, I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could. …. To the weak, I made myself weak, to win the weak. I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation.  All this I do for the sake of the gospel, that I may share its benefits with others.

Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

And at once on leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew.  Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her.  He went in to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them.  That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils.  The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.  In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.  Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you.'  He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because that is why I came.'  And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out devils.