Happy Feast Day! Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist who wrote the Gospel that takes his name.

There are various traditions about who St. Mark was, but one likely one tells that he was probably one of the 72 (or 70) disciples who Jesus sent out two by two to preach the Gospel, and later would become a confidant of St. Peter and write his Gospel largely with stories relayed to him by Peter. His mother, Mary, is also traditionally a woman who was important in the early Church and whose home was a meeting place for Christians.

Whatever the history, though, we know of St. Mark because he was one of the people divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to be an author of one of the Gospels, the stories of Christ's life. St. Mark was certainly one of the people in the early Church who helped spread Christ's name to all of the world, through the people he encountered in his life as well as through his writing. As our Gospel talks about, he very well could have been one of those people who had the word he was proclaiming "confirmed through accompanying signs."

No matter what sort of signs St. Mark did, or what the history of his life is, one thing is certain: he wrote about the life of Christ because he first let himself be saved by Jesus Christ. When we have come face to face with the reality that, as the Gospel today says, once we "believe and are baptized" we will be saved, our lives necessarily look different. With that knowledge, we go forward and spread the Gospel, we can work amazing miracles and we will see incredible things happen, but we will see it all not because of ourselves but because we know that we have a Savior.

As we celebrate the feast of this great saint, let's be reminded that the first step is to let the Lord save us, to break into our lives and have a personal and intimate relationship with us. After that, everything falls into place. After we're saved by Jesus Christ, we will be able to put everything else into perspective. Happy feast day, my friends. St. Mark, please pray for us.

“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned."

What areas of my life am I still holding back from the salvation offered me?

What are the things coming this week that I'm worried about, that I'm trying to handle on my own?

Who are the people I know I'm going to encounter today and this week that God is asking me to share the Gospel with?

Who are the saints I look to as my example and pray to for intercession? How can I work on relying on their intercession more?

Lord Jesus, thank you for saving me.

While the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

Celebrate today this great feast by trusting in the fact that Jesus has saved you, and take joy in that reality.