February 20, 2025 // Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Mark 8:27-33
Reflect on the Word //
I rested in her consoling beauty as I looked up at the glowing statue of Our Lady of Grace. In that silence, our dear Mother touched that core part of my heart which knows how to ask to be rooted only and always in the Lord. At once, I saw the source of my distraction and how I wasted precious time being worried about what people were thinking in this new place.
I had just moved from the other side of the country. Three time zones and many climates away from my old home, I was relieved that our beautiful and gentle Mother sweetly encouraged me to recognize that I would not feel displaced here or anywhere if I simply remained in her and our good God.
The Gospel today is written by Saint Mark, a close disciple of Saint Peter who probably heard this story from Peter himself. The Lord plunges Simon Peter to the root of their relationship today. Jesus asks him, “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29) as if none of the answers that preceded his mattered. “Who do you, Peter, say that I am?” He sees our hearts. He knows Peter needs to pronounce his faith out loud, perhaps to own it more. We, too, are called to pronounce Who Jesus is in our prayer to Him and our interior answer will be given evidence through our actions.
Jesus also rebukes Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mark 8:33). Peter had been living and ministering alongside Jesus Christ for years, but Jesus needed to clearly rebuke him for not submitting in obedience to Who Jesus is—the One Who will suffer greatly, be rejected, be killed, and rise after three days.
You and I, like Peter and the other Apostles, are unfathomably blessed to have the Mother of God who waits to be allowed to teach us how to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, how to grow in our capacity to say an ever more all-encompassing yes, and to allow God to be God.
Relate to the Lord // How is your relationship with our Lady? Pray a Hail Mary now and invite her to walk with you today.
Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, after twenty years in religious life, is discerning a call to found a community of consecrated religious women dedicated to Our Lady and who will pray reparation for sins against the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, pray for conversions, and work for the evangelization of those who have left the Church or feel furthest from the Church.
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