As we enter the Lenten Season and prepare our hearts for Easter, let’s continue to share these Daily Bible Readings from Sacred Space this February.
Feb. 1, 2021: Mark 5: 1-20
Do you sometimes feel guilt from the past, inability to do what you wish to do, or fear of the future? Ask God to liberate you. God wants you to be free and will heal you!
Feb. 2: Luke 2: 22-40
When opposition or pain comes our way, let us ask God to help us welcome it and grow through it.
Feb. 3: Mark 6: 1-6
Even after all the miracles of healing that Jesus worked, he still was not accepted in his own town. But Jesus continued his work, knowing that God was with him. May I, too, recognize God’s presence in my experiences each day.
Feb. 4: Mark 6: 7-13
Jesus wanted his disciples to be dependent entirely on God and the presence of God in one another. May we have the courage to witness to the Good News, as the first disciples did.
Feb. 5: Mark 6: 14-29
We are called to become strong in face of the world’s evil. We remember the voiceless, the victims of injustice. May we have the courage to protest against injustices.
Feb. 6: Mark 6: 30-34
We I reach out to God in prayer, I find that God is more central to me than my own thoughts. I feel at peace.
Feb. 7: Mark 1: 29-39
When we have good health, we thank God for it as a means by which we can serve others, as Simon’s mother-in-law did when Jesus healed her.
Feb. 8: Mark 6: 53-56
I bring my friends in need to God in prayer. Jesus shows us that God is so approachable and ready to help and to heal.
Feb. 9: Mark 7: 1-13
The kingdom of God is always unexpected; it catches me by surprise and demands responses from me that jolt me out of my mediocrity. Its values are countercultural. The poor come first; despised people are important; wealth is for sharing; hatred is out; forgiveness is in; love is all that matters in the end.
Feb 10: Mark 7: 14-23
Jesus says that what matters is the heart. He meant that what is inside us matters: moods, thoughts, plans, attitudes, choices, conscience, knowledge, and love. All these must be kept clean. Create in me a pure heart, O Lord. Take away my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, so that I may become as compassionate as you are.
Feb. 11: Mark 7: 24-30
Here is one of the great women of the Gospels. She is focused intensely on Jesus and on what she needs from him. She has no concern about herself but only for her little daughter. Jesus is no match for her; she won’t go away, she beats him in the argument, she breaks down his resistance. And she trusts him. This story has a lot to teach us about real prayer.
Feb. 12: Mark 7: 31-37
Jesus shows great care and sensitivity in his encounter with this deaf man. Deaf people often say they feel cut off from life and that they are forced to live in a world of their own. Jesus opens out his world again. I also can sometimes be deaf. I ask to hear God’s life-giving words and speak clearly about how God is working in my life.
Feb. 13: Mark 8: 1-10
Jesus had compassion for the crowd and showed that God is the God of abundance.
Do I have a sense of the compassion of God toward me?
Feb. 14: Mark 1: 40-45
Jesus was moved with pity. There were no lengths to which he would not go to help this man. He touches him, speaks to him, and gives him his freedom to be fully human again. Do I have compassion for others in need? Whom do I touch?
Feb. 15: Mark 8: 11-13
The Pharisees are hostile; they have decided that Jesus is their enemy. From now on in the Gospel they will be testing Jesus, trying to find his weaknesses, so they can do away with him. Nothing he does will satisfy them; their heats are closed. Let us pray not to be wavering disciples
Feb. 16: Mark 8: 14-21
The disciples cannot understand what Jesus is capable of doing for them. Lord, help me believe that with you I truly live. Help me see that you yourself are the bread I need to stay alive. Help me to put all my hope in you.
Feb. 17, Ash Wednesday: Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18
Jesus asks us to depend on him, to let his spirit come to life. Help me, Lord, to receive courage and strength to act in unexpected and life-giving ways.
Feb. 18: Luke 9: 22-25
Taking up one’s cross is not a matter of simply putting up with the ordinary troubles of life, but of being prepared to be true followers of Jesus with all the dangers that that implies. Trying to save one’s own life by denying Jesus will result in the loss of intimate union with God.
Feb. 19: Matthew 9: 14-15
Lent calls me to walk humbly with God in company with and in prayer for others. God rejoices in our company.
Feb. 20: Luke 5: 27-32
Who are those who are hated and despised today? Jesus would sit with them all. They all need God’s grace.
Feb. 21, First Sunday of Lent: Mark 1: 12-15
Jesus enters the wilderness to find God, to seek God and belong to him totally. Only then does he come into Galilee and proclaim good news. Lord, come with me into my wilderness. Speak to my preoccupied heart. Reveal to me what blocks my path. Only when I am free from that can I be good news to others and become part of the solution to the world’s problems.
Feb. 22: Matthew 16: 13-19
Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” How do we respond?
Feb. 23: Matthew 6: 7-15
The phrases of The Lord’s Prayer are very familiar to us. Let just one of them sink in and take it with you through the day. Debts, evil, trespasses are all brought before God and assume their proper place. I am drawn to God, being made holy, nourished and forgiven.
Feb. 24: Luke 11: 29-32
The people of Nineveh repented at the proclamation of Jonah. Open my eyes to God’s work in my sisters and brothers.
Feb. 25: Matthew 7: 7-12
Prayer opens the heart for good things from God. Be grateful at the end of prayers for time spent with the God of all goodness. Prayer time is always productive time in making us people of more love.
Feb. 26: Matthew 5: 20-26
We are called not only to do love but also to think love! I ask God to create in me a more loving and respectful heart. I pray to be a more loving, kinder, more merciful and just person; to be transformed.
Feb. 27: Matthew 5: 43-48
As I pray for those who bring blessings to me, I pray that I may include others in a widening circle of compassion. The love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit helps us to bless even those who hate or wrong us.
Feb. 28, Second Sunday of Lent: Mark 9: 2-10
With Jesus, Peter, James and John, experienced the presence of God—in wonder and delight. Let us, too, rejoice in God’s presence with us.