Saturday, April 13, 2024
Liturgical Season: 
VII The Season of Sleebo
Special Significance: 
Mar Zeraphion

Rom 15:14-21

Apostle to the Gentiles. 14* I myself am convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness,* filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another. 15But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by Godm 16to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy Spirit.n 17In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in what pertains to God. 18For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to lead the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,o 19by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit [of God], so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum* I have finished preaching the gospel of Christ. 20Thus I aspire* to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation,p 21but as it is written:q

“Those who have never been told of him shall see,

and those who have never heard of him shall understand.”*

Mk 8:34-38

The Conditions of Discipleship. 34He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said* to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.j 35For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel* will save it.k 36What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37What could one give in exchange for his life? 38Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”l