Sirach 35:1-12, Mark 10:28-31, Psalm 50:5-8, 14 & 23

Daily Mass Readings:  Sirach 35:1-12, Mark 10:28-31, Psalm 50:5-8, 14 & 23

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sirach 35:4-5, 8

4 Do not appear before the Lord with empty hands. The commandment requires that you bring an offering.

5 When the offering of the righteous is burned on the altar, the fat drips down and a fragrant aroma rises to the Most High.

8 Offer your gifts with a smiling face and when you pay your tithes do it gladly.

Beloved, each morning when I come before You along with Your people to offer ourselves in union with the perfect Sacrifice offered by You on Calvary, my hands are not empty.  I offer to the Father all that I have and am, all that He has graciously given me, I return back to Him through You.  Each morning, my prayer is that this sacrifice may be so pleasing to the Father that He pours down upon us His  richest graces and blessings from the  heavenly treasury, so that we are filled in full measure, pressed down and shaken over.  May we gladly share all that it has pleased Him to bless us with through You.

Mark 10:28-31

• 28 Peter spoke up and said, “We have given up everything to follow you.” 29 Jesus answered, “Truly, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands for my sake and for the Gospel, 30 who will not receive his reward. I say to you: even in the midst of per­secution he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time and in the world to come eternal life. 31 Do pay attention: Many who now are first will be last, and the last, first.”

There are many who have given up everything to follow You, even their lives and You  have promised that they will be blessed in double measure.  Their lives will be crowned with eternal life.  Beloved, the cost of following You is not always easy.  It is hard to die to self.  I need You always beside me to encourage me and to supply the grace I need.  Teach me to be small and to be available.  Teach me to give the little I have cheerfully.