Daily Mass Readings For Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading I:
Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
Alleluia:
John 14:23
Gospel:
Mark 8:14-21
Liturgical vestments: Green
Tuesday, February 18, 2025: Readings & Responsorial Psalm & Gospel
Each day, the Mass readings invite us into a deeper encounter with God. Through Scripture, we hear His voice speaking to our hearts, guiding us, comforting us, and calling us to a life of holiness. The Word of God is not just a story from the past; it is alive, relevant, and transformative.
Every reading is an opportunity for grace. Some days, the words challenge us to grow; other days, they console us in our struggles. But always, they nourish our souls, strengthening our faith and drawing us closer to Christ.
Let us open our hearts to the Word of God daily. May we not just hear it but live it, allowing it to shape our actions and deepen our love for Him. Lord, speak to us today, and help us to follow You more faithfully. Amen.
Reading I
Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth,
and how no desire that his heart conceived
was ever anything but evil,
he regretted that he had made man on the earth,
and his heart was grieved.
So the LORD said:
“I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created,
and not only the men,
but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air,
for I am sorry that I made them.”
But Noah found favor with the LORD.
Then the LORD said to Noah:
“Go into the ark, you and all your household,
for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.
Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs,
a male and its mate;
and of the unclean animals, one pair,
a male and its mate;
likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs,
a male and a female,
and of all the unclean birds, one pair,
a male and a female.
Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth.
Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth
for forty days and forty nights,
and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth
every moving creature that I have made.”
Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.
As soon as the seven days were over,
the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord;
and my Father will love him
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.”
They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them,
“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?
And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?”
They answered him, “Twelve.”
“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?”
They answered him, “Seven.”
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
Reflection
“Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, lest anyone among you should be corrupted, since by your savour you shall be convicted.” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch)
“By denouncing the ‘leaven’ of Herod, Jesus Christ unmasks one of the facets of the sinful temptation: the appearance of realism. When making decisions is when the question arises: what really matters in my life?” (Benedict XVI)
“As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth ‘rise’ by the Spirit of Christ. This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 2832)
The Lord wants us to have a compassionate heart like his. He wants mercy, not sacrifice. Indeed, the Holy Father stressed, a heart without compassion is an idolatrous and self-sufficient heart that is sustained by its own selfishness and becomes strong only with ideologies. (…) When hearts become hardened, one forgets about the grace of salvation and gratuitousness and we are led to quarrel, war and selfishness. Indeed, he stressed God’s greatest message of salvation is God’s compassion for us, as the Gospel often repeats. “Jesus is the compassion of the Father” and he is the “slap to every hardness of heart”. (…) Every one of us, has something that has hardened within our hearts. “Let us remember and let it be the Lord who gives us a righteous and sincere heart where the Lord dwells. The Lord cannot enter hardened and ideological hearts. He enters hearts that are like His heart: open and compassionate. May the Lord give us this grace. (Santa Marta, 18 February 2020)