Friday January 30, 2026 - Good News Ministries

Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica

Every day, we all encounter small and sometimes large opportunities to serve the kingdom of God.

Good News Reflection for:

Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time
January 30, 2026

Today’s Prayer:

You conquer my heart bit by bit, waiting for me lovingly and seeking me every moment, every day. Praised be to You, Lord, because Your love is unique, special and endless. Amen.

IMPROVE YOUR DAY!
Powerful Catholic prayers are available on our YouTube channel.

Today’s Readings:

2 Samuel 11:1-4-10a,13-17
Ps 51:3-7,10-11
Mark 4:26-34
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013026.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-january-30-2026

Growing seeds that bear fruit

Today, something is going to happen to you that will give you the opportunity to touch someone’s life with God’s love. If you consciously choose to make the most of the situation, you will feel challenged, perhaps a bit nervous or intimidated, but you will experience the joy of making a difference for the kingdom of God. And you might be surprised at how well you do!

You’ll do well because God has been preparing you for this situation for a long time. Your trials, your spiritual education, your personal purification process, your prayer-time insights, your Christ-centered conversations with others — all these and more have been part of the preparation.

You are like the seed in today’s Gospel passage. Life’s circumstances have fertilized you, watered you, tilled your soil. And over time, the seed sprouted, the plant grew, and the flowers began to produce good fruit.

Every day, we all encounter small and sometimes large opportunities to serve the kingdom of God. We don’t have to be full-time volunteers nor paid employees of the Church to work for God. He touches the world through us in our homes, our workplaces, our parishes, in the grocery store, in the traffic tie-ups, on the Internet, and everywhere we go.

Have any of your seeds sprouted into a tree that withered from neglect or got chopped down by others? This happens to all of us. The good news is: In every dead tree at least one fruit remains, shriveled up and barely hanging from a lifeless branch, but secretly holding a very valuable seed.

We are to take those ugly, dead fruits and plant them in the freshly tilled soil of today. New life most assuredly will break through the ground. A new tree will grow and it will become taller and stronger and more abundantly fruitful than the tree from which it came, because the decay from the original tree is now additional fertilizer in the soil.

For example, these daily Good News Reflections would never have started if not for the destruction of the first Good News Ministries “tree”. Our original chaplain’s alcoholism and unloving attitudes ruined our local reputation. At that time, our mission was limited to local retreats, courses, and parish missions. When those doors closed, a new field to seed opened up in 1999.

A few friends and I began to share by email our thoughts on the readings from Mass. Soon, my gift and calling as a writer grew into a sapling tree and then a sturdy ministry, which was spread by readers sharing it with their friends, giving shade and fruits all around the world to many thousands of subscribers and uncountable readers of forwarded reflections, social networking sites, and website visitors.

And that’s only one of the ways that the Good News Ministries orchard has grown and is still multiplying. To taste the fruits of our expansive orchard, visit our website at gnm.org. To find out about exciting new developments, be sure to read my weekend Insiders’ View newsletters.

In everything that happens to you today, remember: You have good fruits to share; God has been nurturing their growth. You are ready!

For more help on this topic, see our WordByte called: “God does the extraordinary with ordinary people” @ https://wordbytes.org/master-needs-you/the-extraordinary-with-ordinary-people/

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