DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
MARCH 4, 2025
TUESDAY OF THE EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
(OPTIONAL MEMORIAL OF SAINT CASIMIR)
FIRST READING
SIRACH 35:1-12 OR (PHILIPPIANS 3:8-14)
1 He who keeps the law makes many offerings; he who heeds the commandments sacrifices a peace offering. 2 He who returns a kindness offers fine flour, and he who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering. 3 To keep from wickedness is pleasing to the Lord, and to forsake unrighteousness is atonement. 4 Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed, 5 for all these things are to be done because of the commandment. 6 The offering of a righteous man anoints the altar, and its pleasing odor rises before the Most High. 7 The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable, and the memory of it will not be forgotten. 8 Glorify the Lord generously, and do not stint the first fruits of your hands. 9 With every gift show a cheerful face, and dedicate your tithe with gladness. 10 Give to the Most High as he has given, and as generously as your hand has found. 11 For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold. 12 Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it; and do not trust to an unrighteous sacrifice; for the Lord is the judge, and with him is no partiality.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 49(50):5-8, 14, 23 OR (PSALMS 15:2-5)
Response: To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
I do not reprove you for your sacrifices;
your burnt offerings are continually before me."
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows to the Most High;
He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me;
to him who orders his way aright
I will show the salvation of God!”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
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GOSPEL
We have left everything and followed you
MARK 10:28-31 OR (JOHN 15:9-17)
28 Peter began to say to him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed you." 29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many that are first will be last, and the last first."
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
The spiritual sense of leaving the family, by Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 A.D.
"Do not let this passage trouble you. Put it side by side with the still harder saying Jesus delivered in another place in the words, 'Whoever hates not father, and mother, and children, and his own life besides, cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26). Note that the God of peace, who exhorts us to love our enemies, does not arbitrarily require us literally to hate or abandon those dearest to us. But if we are to love our enemies, it must be in accordance with right reason that, by analogy we should also love our nearest relatives... But insofar as one's father, or son, or brother, becomes for you a hindrance to faith or an impediment to godly life, one should then not collude with that temptation. Attend to the spiritual, rather than the fleshly, meaning of the command."
(excerpt from SALVATION OF THE RICH MAN 22.13)
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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.