ST. LUKE EVANGELIST, ON FRIDAY OF WEEK 28 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I chose you from the world
to go out and bear fruit,
fruit that will last,
says the Lord. JN 15:16

2 TIMOTHY 4:10-17

My Soul's  Beloved,

St. Paul is writing frankly to Timothy whom he loves as a son, of all the troubles he is undergoing in his ministry of preaching and teaching the Gospel. Demas deserted him after following the Way for a while as the lure of the world proved too much for him. Others like Crescens and Titus left him as they had things to do elsewhere. However, the evangelist Luke remained and this would have been consoling to him. St. Paul is human as all of us are and we can see from this letter that he is hurt and disappointed. 

You too, suffered as the Son of Man, just as well all must who are in the flesh and You understand when we feel low and a little bitter. When we feel unappreciated. When we are lonely. When we have to suffer because of the harm done to us by people we know, as he was harmed by Alexander the copppersmith. He writes about being abandoned by everyone in his time of need. But through it all, he was aware that You did not abandon him Lord, but strengthened him and provided all the grace he needed to withstand the troubles, trials, and difficulties he had to face.  

Beloved, so long as we, in all sincerity and faith in You, carry out the work that You created us to do, we can be certain that just as You stood by Paul You will also stand by us and provide all we need to remain true and faithful always.

But the Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear.

PSALM 144(145):10-13a,17-18

Your friends, O Lord, make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, O God.

They make known to men your mighty deeds

and the glorious splendour of your reign.
Yours is an everlasting kingdom;
your rule lasts from age to age.

The Lord is just in all his ways

and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their hearts.

Your friends, O Lord, make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

LUKE 10:1-9

My Soul's Beloved,

You appointed the seventy-two and sent them ahead of You in pairs. You taught, trained, equipped, and sent them in pairs to preach, teach, proclaim the Gospel, and cure the sick.  Two are better than one. Two can help each other. When one is weak the other can provide the strength needed. Two can make the journey easier. Two can work together and pray together. Two together can supply what the other lacks. 

We live in a world where having, amassing, possessing, and striving constantly for more is the ruling mantra of the day. Our world is being ruined by rapacious greed, ruinous greed, greed that stops at nothing. No one is safe and the most vulnerable are the poor, babies, children, the sick, the old, the abandoned. These, the proud and the haughty are drunk with power and the belief that they are accountable to no one, not even to You for they believe they are invincible. The children of God are lambs among wolves. The way of God is the way of contradiction. It is a way that the world cannot understand and laughs to scorn. But God always has the last laugh at the Enemy. This is why the world rages with demonic rage against the Church. Those who voluntarily give up all for the sake of the Gospel are the most powerful in the world as St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and others like her have proved. We are strongest when we are weak, richest when we are poor, foolish in the eyes of the world but wise in the wisdom of God.

The anawim of the Lord have nothing to fear and while the world continues to rape, steal, pillage, murder, and destroy, Your little ones will preach boldly and fearlessly, that the Kingdom of God is near.

 “The kingdom of God is very near to you.”

ST. IGNATIUS ANTIOCH BISHOP & MARTYR, ON THURSDAY OF WEEK 28 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

EPHESIANS 1:1-10

My Soul's Beloved,

Today St. Paul reinforces this truth of which I am already aware but have not truly contemplated and allowed to sink into the very fabric of my being. I am Yours. I was created by God for a singular purpose and that purpose is to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be happy with Him in this life and forever in the next. All I need to be happy is to remember to whom I belong in time and in eternity. God has loved me with an everlasting love, God laid down His life for me so I may not die but live an abundant life of grace, joy, blessing, and hope. God has poured His Spirit into my heart so I can be alive in the love of God. I can do all things in  You, my Beloved, because You strengthen me and uphold me by Your Holy Spirit.

You chose me, Lord and You chose not just me but every member of my family as well as those that are far from You and those that are near and I believe in Your promise and Your assurance that You will bring them all back into Your fold. This is my peace, my joy, and my belief that in the end, we will all be together as members of Your Body, and together we will rejoice and be glad and sing Your praises and worship You face to face.  There will be no more death, parting, or sorrow, but we will be all in all in You, Christ Jesus.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,
to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ
for his own kind purposes,
to make us praise the glory of his grace,
his free gift to us in the Beloved,
in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

He has let us know the mystery of his purpose,
the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:
that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head,
everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

PSALM 97(98):1-6

The Lord has shown his salvation.

Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.

Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp
with the sound of music.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
acclaim the King, the Lord.

The Lord has shown his salvation.

LUKE 11:47-54

My Soul's Beloved,

The natural progression and perfectly logical conclusion of all the events recorded in salvation history ought to bring every honest thinker and lover of truth to the conclusion that the Catholic faith is the only faith that embodies the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. All the mystery, beauty, goodness, and truth about God is found in the Church which You founded on Peter. 

It is rightly said that when one wants to hold on to cling to one's overt and covert sins. One who clings stubbornly and deliberately to their own version of the truth because they are afraid that an honest search for it can only lead to where they do not wish to go. To be authentically Catholic is to joyfully embrace the cross. To root out, with God's grace alone, all the imperfections that keep us from being Your true disciples. To deny oneself daily, to crucify one's will daily, to seek the greater good always, to lay down one's life moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, for a lifetime is impossible with divine aid.

The road to eternal life is narrow and hard and few choose to walk in it. But little by little, the world will realize that there is only the Way of the Cross by which we can enter the Kingdom and there is only one door - You O Lord that gives us entrance to Your Church, Your Body, Your Spouse. No matter how we fool ourselves and how successful we are in fooling ourselves we do so at the cost of our salvation. 

Jesus said: ‘Alas for you who build the tombs of the prophets, the men your ancestors killed! In this way you both witness what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.
‘And that is why the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute, so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet’s blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary.” Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
‘Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves, and have prevented others going in who wanted to.’
When he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions, setting traps to catch him out in something he might say.