Daily Bible Readings

March 2, 2011

1st READING

Trust is important in discipleship. Without entrusting our lives to the goodness and love of God it is impossible for us to be His disciple and to grow in holiness. The Jews cry out to God to look after them and assure that their interests are not neglected on the world stage. We, too, need to learn to entrust our needs to the Lord and so give Him the opportunity to demonstrate His eternal faithfulness to us.

Sirach 36:1, 4-5, 10-17
1 Come to our aid, O God of the universe, and put all the nations in dread of you! 4 Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you. 5 Give new signs and work new wonders. 10 Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as of old, 11 show mercy to the people called by your name; Israel, whom you named your first-born. 12 Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place. 13 Fill Zion with your majesty, your temple with your glory. 14 Give evidence of your deeds of old; fulfill the prophecies spoken in your name, 15 reward those who have hoped in you, and let your prophets be proved true. 16 Hear the prayer of your servants, for you are ever gracious to your people; 17 thus it will be known to the very ends of the earth that you are the eternal God.

P S A L M

Psalms 79:8, 9, 11, 13
R: Show us, O Lord, the light of your kindness.
8 Remember not against us the iniquities of the past; may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. (R) 9 Help us, O God our savior, because of the glory of your name; deliver us and pardon our sins for your name’s sake. (R) 11 Let the prisoners’ sighing come before you; with your great power free those doomed to death. 13 Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; through all generations we will declare your praise. (R)

G O S P E L

Self-promotion may be an important means of moving ahead in the world but it is anathema in the Kingdom of God. The heart of the life of a disciple of Jesus is humility. Until we are able to lose our self-interest, it is not possible to progress in holiness. It is no mistake that this teaching of Jesus immediately follows one of the predictions of His Passion. It is in His Passion that we see the depth of the humility of Jesus, His willingness to embrace even death on a cross, and thus we learn humility’s central role in the life of discipleship and obedience to the will of God.

ALLELUIA
R: Alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
R: Alleluia, alleluia

Mark 10:32-45
32 The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. 33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles 34 who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.” 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?” 37 They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am
baptized?” 39 They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. 42 Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. 43 But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; 44 whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

my reflections
t h i n k : W e need to learn to entrust our needs to the Lord and so give Him the opportunity to demonstrate His eternal faithfulness to us.

God’s special verse/thought for me today________________
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T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST
Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Joshua 1-4