SATURDAY IN THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Now is the favourable time:
this is the day of salvation. 2COR 6:2

DEUTERONOMY 26:16-19

My Soul's Beloved, 

The only reason we faithfully keep all Your commandments is love, not fear, for fear has no place in love. To love You as we ought with our whole heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit is the reason for which God created us in love, and the only acceptable response to Your love is to do all You command because in this is life, joy, and peace. Disobey, as our first parents did, and we die. For all sin brings death and separation from You, our Lord and God, from whom flows life and love. Apart from You, we are nothing.

The world is in a sorry mess, and so is the Church You founded because her shepherds have failed miserably in caring for Your sheep entrusted to her care. They have not obeyed Your Commandments, and because of their disobedience, they preach a watered-down version of them. The Commandments of God are the gold standard by which not just Christians but all men must live by and model their lives on if the world is to know true joy and peace. But many in the Church do, Lord, and for those who strive after holiness and perfection, You will bless abundantly and grant every grace and help to grow in these virtues.

Stay with us, Lord, and help us, for without You we have no hope of living a life pleasing to God. Take us by the hand as You promised, and lead us at last safely home to the Kingdom of God.

Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
‘You have today made this declaration about the Lord: that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice. And the Lord has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.’

PSALM 118(119):1-2,4-5,7-8

They are happy who follow God’s law!

They are happy whose life is blameless,
who follow God’s law!
They are happy who do his will,
seeking him with all their hearts.

You have laid down your precepts
to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm
to obey your statutes.

I will thank you with an upright heart
as I learn your decrees.
I will obey your statutes;
do not forsake me.

They are happy who follow God’s law!

MATTHEW 5:43-48

My Soul's Beloved, 

You invite us to be like Your Father whom You have taught to call our Father as well. To be like our Abba, we must emulate Him as children do, and all God's characteristics are perfectly reflected in You, His only, well-beloved, Firstborn Son. In modeling my life on Yours, I will reflect God's holiness and perfection to some degree as I strive to become like You more and more each day. You and I both know, my Lord, that I cannot succeed because I am weak, I am filled with concupiscence, and I am easy prey for all the wily snares the devil sets for me. However, it is in the relentless striving for holiness and perfection that You are well-pleased. You know my limitations. You know all my frailties, and You who are always yoked to me will help me. I am not alone, You are always with me.

It is hard sometimes not to let my fallen nature overpower the good I know that I must do. I get impatient. I lack humility. I bristle in my spirit when I am called to serve with a glad heart. Help me, Lord. You came to serve, not to be served, and to give Your life as a ransom for many. Grant me the grace to be grateful for every opportunity presented to me, every moment of every day to be a servant like You.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

FRIDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT - FEAST OF ST. GREGORY OF NAREK, ABBOT & DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Shake off all your sins – it is the Lord who speaks –
and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. EZK 18:31

EZEKIEL 18:21-28

My Soul's Beloved, 

All sinners, no matter how gravely they have sinned, rejoice at the assurance that the Word of God gives them today. Although our sins are like scarlet, if we return to You with a contrite and humble heart, resolving to sin no more with Your help, You will welcome the sinner just as the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son welcomed his wayward, sinful son.

Beloved, You know that we are weak. Original sin is our inheritance from our first parents, and though it is washed away by the waters of baptism, its effects remain. We are rendered weak and susceptible to temptations. We must constantly battle the lure of the world, the sinful culture, as well as our flesh, and the traps set by the devil to ensnare us and snatch us at our weakest. Thanks be to God, Lord, that we have You and the Holy Spirit, we have the love of our Father God, and we have the wonderful Sacraments that You instituted to help us remain faithful and to begin anew over and over again. You never reject the repentant sinner, no matter how often he falls, but You seek and save the lost, and You joyfully restore us to Your flock. Thank You, Lord, for the gifts of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist that help us on this journey from this life to the life that is to come in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Thus says the Lord:
‘If the wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. All the sins he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practised. What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord who speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?
‘But if the upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practises every kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practised shall be forgotten from then on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and for this he shall die. But you object, “What the Lord does is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.’

PSALM 129(130)

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.

My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.)

Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?

MATTHEW 5:20-26