DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
FEBRUARY 25, 2025
TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING
SIRACH 2:1-11
1 My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation. 2 Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be hasty in time of calamity. 3 Cleave to him and do not depart, that you may be honored at the end of your life. 4 Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. 5 For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. 6 Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him. 7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; and turn not aside, lest you fall. 8 You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail; 9 you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for everlasting joy and mercy. 10 Consider the ancient generations and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who ever called upon him and was overlooked? 11 For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of affliction.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 36(37):3-4, 18-19, 27-28, 39-40
Response: Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.
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. Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.
The LORD knows the days of the blameless,
and their heritage will abide for ever;
they are not put to shame in evil times,
in the days of famine they have abundance.
R. Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.
Depart from evil, and do good;
so shall you abide for ever.
For the LORD loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
R. Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.
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. Commit your life to the Lord, and he will help you.
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GOSPEL
Who is the greatest in God's kingdom?
MARK 9:30-37
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. 33 And they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34 But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." 36 And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Downward roots enable upward growth, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Observe a tree, how it first tends downwards, that it may then shoot forth upwards. It fastens its root low in the ground, that it may send forth its top towards heaven. Is it not from humility that it endeavors to rise? But without humility it will not attain to higher things (Proverbs 18:12). You are wanting to grow up into the air without a root. Such is not growth, but a collapse."
(excerpt from THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, SERMON 38.2)
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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.