Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life.

Hi and welcome back later this week. I am heading to the great land down under. I'm going to Australia for my second time and I am so excited to be doing a six day speaking tour there in Melbourne and in Sydney but I want to share with you

something that I'm going to be teaching on with the school teachers and the Diocese

of Parramatta there later this week and I'm so excited it's in the Gospel of

Mark last year I was blessed to walk through

Salvation History, a big picture look at the Bible this year. We're going to be working with the

school teachers on the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel for this year.

And I want to give you one verse in Mark's Gospel

that really is a key for unlocking the entire gospel.

If you know this one verse well, then you're going to have a framework for your own reading and

studying of Mark's gospel and just even hearing it at mass. We've been hearing the gospel of Mark a lot in the

liturgy this last year and this could be really helpful for you.

So I'd like to say if Mark's gospel could be summed up in one sentence, you would find that sentence in the very opening verse,

Mark's gospel chapter 1, verse 1. I want to unpack that with all of you today.

But first, just a little bit of background on who this man is, St. Mark.

St. Mark, according to ancient tradition, was a disciple of St. Peter, the first Pope.

We read about this in some of the early church leaders, Papius says that this gospel was written

by a disciple of Peter. Papius writing at the end of the first century

into the early second century.

You've got Clement of Alexandria, second century church

father as well of Saint Uranius,

also making this point Mark's gospel being written by a disciple of St. Uranius also making this point Mark's Gospel being written by a disciple of

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