Opening the Word: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (03/02/2025)

Opening the Word is a series of prompts from The Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies to help focus our minds and hearts on the Sunday Mass Readings. After Jesus revealed Himself to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Our Lord desires to enflame our hearts also by revealing Himself to us in His Word. Take this opportunity to pause, and allow the Lord to make Himself known to you through the opening of the Scriptures which will ready your eyes to see Him in the breaking of the bread.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: March 2, 2025

First Reading: Sirach 27:4-7 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:54-58

Gospel: Luke 6:39-45

Step 1: Begin in prayer, asking the Lord to open your heart to receive how He wants to make Himself known to you. Then, attentively read the Scriptures. 

Step 2: Consider these meditation prompts that follow from the readings:

1. As we come to the close of Ordinary Time and look ahead to the season of Lent, the readings this week focus largely on the virtue of our speech. “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks” (Sir 27:4). Likewise, our Lord instructs us, “for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Our Lord is inviting us through these readings to evaluate how our speech is either a help or a hindrance toward our salvation. Especially as the season of Lent is upon us—a time when we examine our hearts and ask the Lord how we can grow in holiness—take some time in prayer with these readings to consider how we witness to Christ in the words we speak to others. Perhaps bring it to a priest in Confession and ask for the grace to be purified in your speech.

2. Secondly, if your speech perhaps needs refining, or if other sins and trials weigh heavily on your heart, take encouragement in the words of St. Paul from the second reading: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Take time in prayer now and especially as you prepare for the season of Lent to leave your sins and trials at the foot of the Cross so that the victory of Jesus may shine brightly through them.

Step 3: Conclude with a prayer of gratitude and ask the Lord to keep these Words in your heart.