Daily Gospel Reflection for January 31, 2025

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Mark 4:26-34

Today’s Gospel offers a parable that compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, which becomes the greatest of all shrubs. I had no idea how small an actual Middle Eastern mustard seed is until a priest friend shared some with me. The mustard trees in the United States have a much larger seed than those in the Middle East. The kind Jesus referred to is the size of a sharpened pencil point!

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. John Bosco, an Italian saint whose father died when he was two. His mother raised him and his two brothers on her own. They were poor, and she probably felt she had little to offer her boys. Young John Bosco liked to play tricks on his friends, and his mother might have wondered what would become of such a prankster. Was the little mustard seed of faith she planted in him enough?

She need not have worried. What she planted in her son was more than enough. He grew up to become a priest who ministered to poor boys on the streets of Turin, Italy. He soon realized that he would need to take in some of the boys as boarders, so his mom came to help him run a home for orphans. Within a few years, they were caring for 500 boys, 150 of whom were boarders.

As a mom, you may feel that you are not giving enough to your energetic children, but take heart! The seeds planted by St. John Bosco’s mom grew into a beautiful shrub, that in turn took care of many, many more children. Plant your seeds. Let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest.

Ponder:

What little mustard seed can I plant today?

Pray:

Lord, help me to trust that the mustard seeds I plant are enough and to leave the rest to You.

Copyright 2025 Amy J. Cattapan