DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

JANUARY 24, 2025

FRIDAY - MEMORIAL OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES, BISHOP AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

FIRST READING

HEBREWS 8:6-13 OR (EPHESIANS 3:8-12)

6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israeland with the house of Judah; 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the handto lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. 10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach every one his fellowor every one his brother, saying, `Know the Lord, 'for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." 13 In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 85:8, 10-14 OR (PSALMS 37:3-6, 30-31)

Response: Kindness and truth shall meet.

Show us thy steadfast love, O LORD,
and grant us thy salvation.
Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.

R. Kindness and truth shall meet.

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.

R. Kindness and truth shall meet.

Yea, the LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him,
and make his footsteps a way.

R. Kindness and truth shall meet.
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GOSPEL

"Jesus appointed twelve to be with him"

MARK 3:13-19 OR (JOHN 15:9-17)

13 And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons: 16 Simon whom he surnamed Peter; 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home.

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

The renaming of Matthew by Jesus, by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.

"We must not pass over the fact that Matthew had two names, for he was also called Levi, and that name too bears witness to the grace granted to him. Levi means 'added' (or 'a joining') or 'taken up,' signifying that he was 'taken up' through being chosen by the Lord, and 'added' to the number of the apostolic band. Mark and Luke generously chose to use this name alone, so as to not make glaringly conspicuous his former way of life, for he was now their companion in the work of the Gospel (Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27). In setting down the list of the twelve apostles, they simply called him Matthew, not mentioning Levi (Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15). Matthew himself, on the other hand (in accord with what is written, 'The just man is the first accuser of himself; his friend came and searched him out' - Proverbs 18:17), calls himself by his ordinary name when telling of being called from his tax-collector's place, but adds pointedly 'the publican' (Matthew 10:3) - 'Thomas,' he says, 'and Matthew the publican.' In this way he offers to publicans and sinners greater confidence in securing their salvation."

(excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.21)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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