Thursday, August 18, 2016

Ezekiel 36:23-28, Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19, Matthew 22:1-14

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
 
If today you hear his voice harden not  your hearts. Ps 95:8
 
 
Ezekiel 36:23-28, Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19, Matthew 22:1-14
 
 
Ezekiel 36:23-28
 
My soul's beloved, just as You have done for Your people in the past, so You have done for me. You have saved me from my own wickedness. You have washed me in the waters of baptism. You have cleansed and purified me with Your precious Blood. You have clothed me in wedding garments. You have case my sins behind Your back in the ocean of Your mercy. You have removed from me all desire for that which is base and unworthy for a daughter of God and have poured Your Own Holy Spirit into my heart. You have given me a love for all that is holy and a desire to observe Your commandment of love. You have made me co-heir to the Kingdom of heaven and You have claimed me for Yourself. I desire nothing more for You have given me all my Lord and my God.
 
Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19
 
My soul's beloved, thank You for washing me with the water that poured forth when Your side was opened by the lance of the soldier as You hung dead on the Cross. Thank You for the Sacrifice that atoned for my sins and have obtained for me forgiveness and pardon. You have taken away my heart of stone and given me a heart of flesh so that I tremble at the thought of deliberate sin that would separate me from You eternally.
 
You have poured the joy of salvation into my heart. You have revealed the way to the Kingdom of God, You have given me new life  in You and a hunger and thirst for the truth that sets me free that I may walk in the freedom that is granted to the children of God. Thank You for enabling me each day to join in the celebration of the Paschal Mystery where we offer to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit the only pleasing and acceptable Sacrifice that atones for my sins, it is a Sacrifice that You will not spurn for it is the Sacrifice of Your Son who tasted death in order that I may taste and receive life and in doing so that I might live.
 
Matthew 22:1-14
 
My  soul's beloved, God prepared a people for Himself, a people through which He would give to the world the Gift of Gifts His Son in order to bring back a fallen world. They were the chosen race from whom He desired to make a holy race, from them His Son would be born from the Virgin and all this came to pass just as He ordained. But they rejected the only Son of God just as they had rejected all the prophets and holy men that He had sent them in ages past. The feast was ready and they were invited to the banquet but they did not know who it was who had spread the feast before them and who had desired that they dine with Him. They rejected His invitation because they missed the hour of the manifestation of God among them for they were too caught up with the things of the world.
 
We are blessed because they refused the invitation. The Apostles were sent out into the world to invite every man, woman and child from every nation, every race, every culture, every language to come to the Eucharistic table and feast on the Food that gives us eternal life.  However, even though all are invited it is imperative that we are dressed in the wedding garments of purity, that we are sealed in the waters of baptism and by the Blood of the Lamb. When we accept the invitation that God extends to all His children He expects us to come prepared. Nothing unclean can enter the presence of God and only by plunging into the waters of baptism and rising up to new life in You can we partake of the Feast that is set before us. We cannot take the gifts of the Father for granted. Once we say yes then we are expected to live out that yes just as Mary did, just as Joseph did, just as all Your saints do in imitation of that great YES that You said to the Father to lay down Your life in order that we may live.

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