Thursday 6 June 2024

Today is Thursday 6 June, in the 9th week of Ordinary Time.


‘Love your God with all your heart and soul and mind’. As Paul Zach with the Porter’s Gate sings ‘The Greatest Commandment’, reflect on these words as you begin a time of prayer today…

Love the Lord your God
With all your heart and soul and mind
And love your neighbour as yourself
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart and soul and mind
And love your neighbour as yourself
Let us be known, let us be known
By the way we love
Let us be known, let us be known
By the way we love
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart and soul and mind
And love your neighbour as yourself
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart and soul and mind
And love your neighbour as yourself
Love the Lord your God (Let us be known)
With all your heart and soul and mind (Let us be known)
And love your neighbour as yourself (By the way we love)




Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 12: 28-32

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”.

How do you respond to Jesus’s description of the first commandment, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? What does that mean to you?

How do you feel as you listen to Jesus’s words? How do you want to respond to the commandments to love God and neighbour?

As you listen to the reading again, imagine the encounter between this scribe and Jesus. Notice the attitude of Jesus towards the scribe, how he looks at him, the way he speaks to him, and how Jesus reacts to this man's wisdom.

Take a few minutes to talk to Jesus about the feelings his words stir in you, and how you want to respond.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.