DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

JANUARY 31, 2025

FRIDAY - MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOHN BOSCO, PRIEST

FIRST READING

HEBREWS 10:32-39 OR (PHILIPPIANS 4:4-9)

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. 37 "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 36(37):3-6, 23-24, 39-40 OR (PSALMS 103:1-4, 8-9, 13-14, 17-18)

Response: The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.

Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your vindication as the light,
and your right as the noonday.

R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.

The steps of a man are from the LORD,
and he establishes him in whose way he delights;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the LORD is the stay of his hand.

R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.

The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in the time of trouble.
The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked, and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.

R. The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
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GOSPEL

What the kingdom of God is like

MARK 4:26-34 OR (MATTHEW 18:1-5)

26 And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." 30 And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

God gave us what was most precious, by Isaac of Nineveh (a Syrian monk, teacher, and bishop), 613-700 A.D.

"The sum of all is God, the Lord of all, who from love of his creatures has delivered his Son to death on the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it. Not that he was unable to save us in another way, but in this way it was possible to show us his abundant love abundantly, namely, by bringing us near to him by the death of his Son. If he had anything more dear to him, he would have given it to us, in order that by it our race might be his. And out of his great love he did not even choose to urge our freedom by compulsion, though he was able to do so. But his aim was that we should come near to him by the love of our mind. And our Lord obeyed his Father out of love for us."

(excerpt from ASCETICAL HOMILY 74.28)
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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.