TUESDAY OF WEEK 6 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him. JN 14:23

GENESIS 6:5-8,7:1-5,10

My Soul's Beloved,

Where sin abounds grace abounds the more St. Paul assures us. This is why O Lord we must never despair, never lose hope. The greater the sin the more readily the sinner has access to Your Heart which abounds in mercy and compassion. A humble contrite heart O Lord, You will not spurn. The faith of family and friends has the power to move You and will obtain forgiveness of sins and healing of those for whom they pray and plead and bring before You confident that You will touch, heal, and restore the whole person.

Wickedness in every age abounds and this age is no different. It beggars the mind to witness the levels of decadence, debauchery, and evil humans have sunk to. Who would fault God if He were to just sweep us off the face of the earth as He was tempted to do in the day of Noah? Yet, O Lord, angry as You were, grieved as You were, You had compassion on their human frailty. This is why O Lord, You destroyed the whole earth in the flood but saved the man who had found favor with You and his family.

Noah and his family were saved because they obeyed Your command despite being ridiculed. So it is for those who live upright and holy lives even though the world hates, mocks, and persecutes them.

Thank You, Lord, for establishing the Ark of the Church, thank You for Peter and the Apostles who like Noah and his family are appointed to take into the Church all who are baptized by the waters of baptism. Thank You for Your assurance that the Ark will navigate all the perils of life in safety and all who are in her will not perish but receive eternal life. 

PSALM 28(29):1-4,9-10

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

O give the Lord, you sons of God,
give the Lord glory and power;
give the Lord the glory of his name.
Adore the Lord in his holy court.

The Lord’s voice resounding on the waters,
the Lord on the immensity of waters;
the voice of the Lord, full of power,
the voice of the Lord, full of splendour.

The God of glory thunders.
In his temple they all cry: ‘Glory!’
The Lord sat enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits as king for ever.

The Lord will bless his people with peace.

MARK 8:14-21

My Soul's Beloved,

God's frustration with us is palpable. The opening verses in the first reading tell us clearly how much God regrets creating man:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that the thoughts in his heart fashioned nothing but wickedness all day long. The Lord regretted having made man on the earth, and his heart grieved. ‘I will rid the earth’s face of man, my own creation,’ the Lord said ‘and of animals also, reptiles too, and the birds of heaven; for I regret having made them.’ 

The disciples, preoccupied with the fact that they had forgotten to carry bread,  actually thought their concern was Yours as well. Despite witnessing so many marvelous miraculous signs and wonders culminating in the final one of the multiplication of loaves and fish, they are still carnal in their thinking and fail to comprehend what You are talking about when You warn them against the duplicity and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herod. 

 ‘Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ 

Revealing Your frustration You asked them to recollect all that had happened during the recent miracle they witnessed: 

‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you not yet understand? Have you no perception? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear? Or do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ They answered, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ And they answered, ‘Seven.’ 

You scolded them gently: ‘Are you still without perception?’

I am no better, Lord, I too get preoccupied with carnal matters and sometimes these take precedence over my spiritual well-being. All my experience of You teaches me that I can trust You implicitly and yet I allow myself to become worried and anxious about irrelevant things despite knowing You are with me always, I can rest in You in peace for You care for me.

MONDAY OF WEEK 6 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to the Father except through me. JN 14:6

GENESIS 4:1-15,25

My Soul's Beloved,

It's not so much the gift as the disposition with which we offer it that gives it meaning and value. Cain's heart was earthbound unlike his brother Abel's who was generous in spirit this is why he found favor in God's sight. Too often we are disappointed, disgruntled, and frustrated when, despite praying and fasting, our prayers are unanswered. Today we are reminded that it is not the number of prayers we pray, the novenas we make, and the pilgrimages we undertake that move God's heart but a life rooted in the Gospel. When we allow Your Word and Your Spirit to direct our hearts, minds, and will, the floodgates of heaven will open and fill us.

The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering. But he did not look with favour on Cain and his offering, and Cain was very angry and downcast. The Lord asked Cain, ‘Why are you angry and downcast? If you are well disposed, ought you not to lift up your head? But if you are ill disposed, is not sin at the door like a crouching beast hungering for you, which you must master?’ 

Instead of heeding God's word and repenting humbly, he allowed his envy to fester in his soul. Filled with murderous rage against his brother who had done him no harm, he killed him in cold blood. He thought he acted in secret but You O Lord are all-knowing, all-seeing, nothing is hidden from Your sight. We stand naked before You and will be called to account not only for every unrepented sin - grave and small, but also for every useless word we've spoken.

It would do us well to keep a close guard over our hearts, minds, and our tongues lest it is too late and we find ourselves hauled before the righteous Judge and find ourselves in the place where the fire does not go out and the worms do not die. 

Yet O Lord, You are merciful. When Cain cried out to You that his grief was too much to bear as he was condemned to live the life of a fugitive and a wanderer and a target for anyone to kill him, You put a mark on him and assured him that if anyone dared to kill him his death would be avenged with a sevenfold vengeance. Although we are born in original sin, O Lord, the baptismal seal on our soul makes us children of the family of God and will preserve us from the hand of the Enemy. Thank You for Your mighty protection, for the Blood of the Lamb, and the seal of the Holy Spirit.

Then Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. See! Today you drive me from this ground. I must hide from you, and be a fugitive and a wanderer over the earth. Why, whoever comes across me will kill me!’ ‘Very well, then,’ the Lord replied ‘if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for him.’ So the Lord put a mark on Cain, to prevent whoever might come across him from striking him down.

PSALM 49(50):1,8,16-17,20-21

Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
‘I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.’

‘But how can you recite my commandments

and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
and throw my words to the winds?

‘You who sit and malign your brother

and slander your own mother’s son.
You do this, and should I keep silence?
Do you think that I am like you?’

Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

MARK 8:11-13

My Soul's Beloved,

Some of us are insatiably greedy. We demand proof of Your love. We grumble when life is hard, the cross grows heavy, our prayers remain unanswered, and we complain and harden our hearts to the innumerable ways in which the constancy of Your love is palpable for those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to respond. 

Signs abound - they come in a myriad ways. Through the day and every day of our lives, experience Your goodness, Your faithfulness, Your tender, merciful, and compassionate love. We, however, are cold, tepid, lukewarm, changeable, and stubborn, our love is anything but, and as long as we receive blessings and good gifts from You we are happy but even that is shortlived. We forget so quickly just like the Israelites in the desert who after having their needs met in the manna and the quails were still panting for the fleshpots of Egypt.

Lord Jesus, pity us, fill us with Your Holy Spirit, take away our hearts of stone, and give us hearts of flesh so we may always be grateful for Your infinite goodness in saving us, redeeming us, and reserving a place for us with You in the Kingdom of God.

The Pharisees came up and started a discussion with Jesus; they demanded of him a sign from heaven, to test him. And with a sigh that came straight from the heart he said, ‘Why does this generation demand a sign? I tell you solemnly, no sign shall be given to this generation.’ And leaving them again and re-embarking, he went away to the opposite shore.