Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection February 06, 2025

06th February 2025 (Thursday)

Psalter: Week 4

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24

Brothers and sisters: You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them. Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

Psalm 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11 (R. see 10)

R/. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Alleluia

R/. Alleluia

V/. The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.

R/. Alleluia.

Gospel: Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Thursday – 4th Week in Ordinary Time

Main Point: Firmness and steadfastness is one main thing that is lacking in the life of many. Instead, we find a lot of shakiness and wavering and compromising. This is all because of a lack of rootedness in God and in convictions

To be a follower of Jesus is not merely to give intellectual assent to certain beliefs, not merely to know and believe certain doctrines, not merely to subscribe to certain truths. It means much more than that. In the first place, it means, to be ever conscious and alert to being called for a deep personal communion with the Lord, to be with him and to be sent out on his mission. It means to readily and humbly expose oneself to the saving touch of the Lord, by his own cleansing blood. It means to be constantly directed toward eternal destiny, the heavenly Jerusalem. It means to seek ardently to be enrolled among the heavenly assembly of the just and the begotten by the Spirit. It means to be partners and partakers of the new covenant.

In the second place, being a follower of Jesus also implies being constantly sent out on his mission. It is a mission to preach repentance and to heal. Strikingly it is a “collective” mission, ‘two by two’, which calls for team-spirit and team-work. Lord’s mission is not a private affair or an individual enterprise. It is a task in communion, in collaboration and coordination.

Being a follower of Jesus requires some equipments. But the requirements are not anything physical or material. The greatest requisite and security is his own power and authority.

My Practice: A disciple of Jesus is required to fulfil his mission, in a spirit of detachment and deprivation, shunning all pulls of accumulation and material securities. Irrespective of acceptance or rejection, their sole concern is to bear testimony to the Lord.