Opening the Word: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 16, 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.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: February 16, 2025

First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-8

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20

Gospel: Luke 6:17, 20-26

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. This weekend’s readings invite us to consider what it means for someone to be blessed. The Psalm tells us “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, . . . but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night.” Likewise, we read of Luke’s account of the Beatitudes in the Gospel, where Jesus pronounces blessing on the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and others. The Lord desires for us live a life of abundant joy and fulfillment—and we learn the shape of that life in this Sunday’s readings. Take this time to consider where am I trying to find joy in the world, apart from Jesus, and how can I give that to the Lord to allow Him to fill me with the things that will bring true happiness and blessing?

2.  Lastly, as a part of this life of blessing that we are called to, we are promised by God that death is not the end of our lives. St. Paul reminds us that Christ is the model for all of us in His Resurrection. Take this time to meditate on the future glory that awaits our bodies and souls in Heaven, and how the saints and angels, and even our loved ones who have gone before us, eagerly await our joining to them in this state of eternal blessing.  

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