Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
January 31, 2025
Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
My Hungarian grandmother was an amazing gardener. Like magic, everything she touched thrived, and to walk around her backyard on a summer day was to see an almost endless bounty of fresh vegetables sprouting from every corner. Somehow, though, this talent seems to have gotten lost in the gene pool. Each year, I try to grow just a few tomatoes and cucumbers, but the results, despite all of my very best efforts and attention, would charitably be described as meager.
Fortunately, today’s gospel offers hope for my gardening struggles. Jesus assures us that even while we sleep, God is at work raising up the kingdom for our benefit. When we rise each morning, we simply need to recognize his blessings and handiwork all around us. Our challenge, then, is to join in this renewal, even if we believe our talents and faith are small and insignificant.
As the parable of the mustard seed shows, the tiniest of gifts, the tiniest of seeds, when given over completely to our creator and master gardener, can yield an amazing harvest. We put the seeds in the ground, but the future of that seed, all of its growth and development, is not our doing.
Our hope, then, should be that in trusting in God’s loving care and surrendering the precious gift of faith planted within us, we can grow beyond all expectations like the mustard plant and become shade and comfort for all in need of his grace and healing.
Prayer
You scatter the seed of your Word into our minds and hearts. Give us the grace this day to recognize the seed that you have planted, waiting, like the mustard seed, to sprout into the largest of plants. As we continue celebrating Catholic Schools Week, may we thank our teachers who do the work of the sower by speaking the word to their students and planting the Good News of the Gospel through their example. We ask this through the name of Christ the Teacher. Amen.
Saint of the Day

When he was just nine years old, St. John Bosco had a vivid dream that revealed to him the vocation that would shape his life: serving children.
John Bosco was born in 1815 in Northern Italy, and his father died when he was only 2. As a boy, John dreamed that he stood in a crowd of children who were fighting and cussing and he was failing to quiet them. A mysterious lady appeared and told him, “You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. Take your shepherd’s staff and lead them to pasture.” As she spoke, the children turned into wild beasts and then into lambs.
John was disturbed by the dream, as he felt that what it commanded was an impossible task. Still, he could not let the vision go, and as he matured, it led him to minister to the poor and neglected boys who lived in Turin, Italy. He would perform magic tricks and juggling and acrobatics in order to gain their attention, and then he would teach them about the faith and invite them to attend Mass with him.
He soon had a constant crowd of several hundred boys following him around. When other priests or nuns tried to help, they tired or became frustrated. He had little money and many thought him to be out of his mind.
He opened several centers where young people could come to play and pray but was set back by finances and many people’s unwillingness to let a crowd of unruly children run through any property they owned. Don Bosco was undeterred and even began to let some of the children live in his home with his mother.
Money started to come in for his cause, and he opened a church for these children as well as a home and school. He encouraged boys to learn trades to become shoemakers and tailors, and persuaded many who had a vocation to the priesthood. Soon Don Bosco was serving, training, housing, and educating hundreds of boys, all with a gentleness and patience that these lost boys found nowhere else.
He became known as a popular preacher because of his eloquence and there were reports of miracles attributed to his intercession. At the height of an anti-clerical movement—when even the Jesuits had been expelled and several convents suppressed—he founded an order of priests to assist in this work with children. He named it the Salesians, after his favorite saint, St. Francis de Sales, and founded another order of women to work with girls, called the Daughters of Our Lady, Help of Christians. The Salesian family also includes a community of brothers. The work of these orders continues today.
St. John Bosco died on January 31, 1888, and is honored as a patron saint of children and magicians. His story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. John Bosco, who loved neglected and unruly children with patience and gentleness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. John Bosco is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.