On today's feastday of St Mark we listen, appropriately, in the scripture readings at Mass, the last part of his Gospel. It's the very end of it: and the other reading also is an ending, the end of St Peter's first letter where Mark is mentioned as sending his greetings, too, to Peter's readers. Although it's the end of the Gospel, the words of Mark are about a new beginning: the "Eleven" being given a commission by Jesus, and going out to preach everywhere. Like all Mark's Gospel, there is a great urgency and a sense of speediness in these verses. Things happen fast. Christ's disciples quickly take up their commission: they are on the move, and things happen that confirm the Lord is truly working with them and through them. We modern disciples of Christ have the same commission, to do in our own ways and time something like Mark did - tell the Good News. It's not something we can do in our own strength or efforts, but the Lord's work. And the proof of that is in the marvellous things that happen when we do trust in the Lord, the signs by which He confirms the message we carry, showing that it really is His work. Let's not delay or wait till we think we may be ready: He is ready now and He will care for us. There's a battle to be engaged, and the Good News message is urgent, and urgently needed.