DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
JANUARY 28, 2025
TUESDAY - MEMORIAL OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
FIRST READING
HEBREWS 10:1-10 OR (WISDOM 7:7-10, 15-16)
1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near.2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin.3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me;6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure.7 Then I said, `Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God, 'as it is written of me in the roll of the book."8 When he said above, "Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),9 then he added, "Lo, I have come to do thy will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The Word of the Lord
_
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 39(40):2, 4, 7-8, 10-11 OR (PSALMS 119:9-14)
Response: Here am I Lord; I come to do thy will.
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
R. Here am I Lord; I come to do thy will.
Sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire;
but thou hast given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
thou hast not required.
Then I said, “Lo, I come".
R. Here am I Lord; I come to do thy will.
"In the roll of the book it is written of me;
I delight to do thy will, O my God;
thy law is within my heart.”
I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
lo, I have not restrained my lips,
as thou knowest, O LORD.
R. Here am I Lord; I come to do thy will.
I have not hid thy saving help within my heart,
I have spoken of thy faithfulness and thy salvation;
I have not concealed thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness
from the great congregation.
R. Here am I Lord; I come to do thy will.
_
GOSPEL
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister
MARK 3:31-35 OR (MATTHEW 23:8-12)
31 And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother."
The Gospel of the Lord
_
REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
The cross of Christ as victory, by Augustine of Hippo, 430-543 A.D.
"[Mary] did the Father's will. It was this in her that the Lord magnified, not merely that her flesh gave birth to flesh... When he said, 'Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it' (Luke 11:28), he was in effect saying: 'My mother whom you have called blessed is blessed for the reason that she keeps the Word of God, not that the Word was made flesh in her and dwelt among us (John 1:14), but that she keeps the very Word of God through which she was made and which was made flesh in her."
(excerpt from TRACTATE ON JOHN 10.3.2)
_
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.