Saint Mark the Evangelist

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 St Mark the Evangelist



Happy Feastday 

Mark was not one of the twelve Apostles, though it's more than likely that hew knew Jesus personally. Ir is interesting that many ecclesiastical writers see a sort of hidden signature of Mark in his Gospel, in the recounting of the young man present at the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane , who                                                                                                                             "followed Him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked"                                                                                 Maybe it's significant that only Mark mentions this incident. 

Mark was, from an early age part of the group of  first Christians who were close to Our Lady and the Apostles and would have known them well. He was with Paul and Barnabas on their first apostolic journey, though for some reason left them to go back to Jerusalem which  upset Paul and caused him to distrust him.                                                                     Later he more than  makes up  for his mistake and works hard for the Church, helping both Peter, and Paul in their mission of spreading Christ's kingdom.

I find St Mark is a great source of hope and consolation in living a Christian, contemplative life today. Like Mark we can start again, turning back to God when we've been weak and cowardly and .gone in another direction, and in humility being more united to Jesus , drawing our  strength from Him. Our faults should not be a cause us to turn away from the Lord or to  abandon our apostolate. It should not surprise us that we are weak creatures .       We only need to turn back to Jesus and ask Him for pardon and help.                                 Then we can begin again immediately. 


The Gospel for today tells us to Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news. This is the apostolic mandate recorded by St Mark.

You and I are also called to receive  the Gospel message and pass it on in turn.                  "The Christian knows  that God works miracles, that He performed them centuries ago , and that He still works them now" ( St Josemaria)                                                               We too,you and I, today,  with God's help, will also work miracles in the souls of relatives and friends and others, if  we need are  united to Christ through prayer.

With God's Grace we can be the ones who, today, in our own time "go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good news.                                                           

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