Jan 22, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Tuesday of week 3 in Ordinary Time
St Marianne Cope (1838 - 1918)
Gospel – Mark 3:31-35
“The mother and brothers of Jesus arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him”. This attitude of the Mother Mary and relatives of Jesus arriving to see Jesus, standing outside and sending a message asking for Him is really touching. They are not presumptuous. The wait out patiently and sending a message for Him. Arriving to see Jesus, Waiting to see Jesus, and Messaging to see Jesus. Many times we also face ourselves in this situation. We want answers, and we want solutions. We come to Jesus. But we forget to follow the example to Mother Mary. The example of Mother Mary to wait and to message. To wait for the answer. To ask for Jesus. It’s very important we know how to wait for the answer of the Lord for our requests and our questions. And the answer is what Jesus says. The answer is our relationship with the will of God. Let’s reflect. Our relationship with the will of God depends on my reaching out to Jesus, my waiting for Jesus, and my messaging to Jesus.
Jan 21, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of week 3 in Ordinary Time
Saint Vincent, Deacon, Martyr
Gospel-Mark 3:22-30
“Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’” This accusation sounds so senseless. Yes, it’s because with this they are denying the existence of Holy Spirit who distributes the grace of God. The scribes who think of themselves as erudite group is really turning their back to the source of grace. They want to place the Evil Spirit in the place of the Holy Spirit. Their motive is that Jesus is not following their teachings. So, they want to manipulate the teaching of Jesus so much that they not only want to hide the light but even the source of light. That is why Jesus says that “but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness”. They cannot have forgiveness because they deny the source and willingly place another source. Let’s reflect: We must not deny the source of Grace in each situation for our personal motives.
Jan 20, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Word of God
St Agnes
Gospel - Mark 1:14-20
Three verbs Jesus is using in His proclamation. “The Kingdom of God Is close at hand”, “Repent”, and “believe the Good News”. These verbs, we must understand in the context of the Sunday of the Word of God in which the importance of the Word of God in our life has to be understand. It’s important the Word of God in our life to understand that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. It’s the Word of God that helps us with that. It’s important the Word of God so that we can repent. Only the Word of God can really invite us for repentance. Then at last, it’s important the help of the Word of God to believe in the Good News. The closer we are with the Word of God, the easier we understand that the kingdom of God is at hand. The dearer the Word of God is for us, easier we will repent. The deeper the Word of God is in us, it’s easier for us to believe in the Good News. Let’s reflect: We must be close to the Word of God, to recognize the closeness of the Kingdom of God, to repent and to believe in the Good News.
Jan 19, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Saturday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Saint Sebastian, Martyr
Gospel - Mark 3:20-21
This is a very family situation where we find Jesus. Jesus went home. All the people arrived there, and the crowd was such that they could not even have a meal. People wanted more and more of Jesus. But when the relatives of Jesus heard this, they set out to take charge of Jesus. Because they thought that Jesus was out of his mind. The relatives of Jesus trying to take Jesus away from the crowd because they did not understand the mission of Jesus. We always have this challenge. People who are close to us and who love us, do not understand our mission. They will try to persuade to abandon our mission, or to take away from our mission, or to deviate from our mission. Let’s reflect: In the midst of people who does not our mission, we must continue to give witness to Jesus Christ.
Jan 19, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Gospel - Mark 3:13-19
“Jesus went up into the hills and summoned those he wanted. So they came to him and he appointed twelve”. Jesus went up into the hills. And then He summoned those He wanted. That means, when Jesus went up into the hills, these people followed Him. These people were with him. From those who followed Him, He summoned those He wanted. So, these were people who followed Him where He went. And then there is another important point, from all those who were following Him, only twelve got called. Others were not called; they kept following Him. They were following Him because they wanted to follow Him. They did not expect anything other than to be in His presence. All the Apostles belong to this group which just wanted to follow Jesus. From our desire to follow Jesus begins our mission to be testimonies of His love. Let’s reflect: I must follow Jesus from my desire to be with Him and there I will be called to be a witness of His love.
Jan 17, 2024 | DAILY BREAD
Thursday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
Gospel - Mark 3:7-12
“And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned them strongly not to make him known”. Jesus warns strongly not to speak about him. Because He did not want a testimony from the unclean spirits. The testimony for Jesus is His love. Not His miracle. Jesus wants that His love is His testimony. This reveals an important element of our witness of Jesus. Our witness or our testimony must be our personal relationship with Jesus. It must not be a miracle or something we received from Him. Our witness must be our relationship with Jesus. Our witness must be the statement of His love we received in our life. Our witness must be more than the revelation of His identity. It must the revelation of our relationship with Him. Let’s reflect: Jesus wants that our testimony of Him be the testimony our relationship with Him.
