Sunday, March 31, 2013

Acts 10:34, 37-43, 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8, Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23, John 20:1-9


ALLELUIA!!!!  ALLELUIA!!!!!  ALLELUIA!!!!
EASTER SUNDAY



Acts 10:34, 37-43, 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8, Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23, John 20:1-9



Acts 10:34, 37-43

My Beloved, it is consoling to know that unlike the people of the world God does not play favorites nor does He show partiality but loves all equally.  Through the anointing of the Holy Spirit which You received from the Father You rose from the dead.  You do all exactly as You have seen the Father do eternally.  Just as it pleases You and it is Your delight to always yield gladly to His will, so grant that I too will find pleasure and delight in acquiescing to Your will always.

I have been baptized into Your Body, grant me a full measure of Your Holy Spirit and power that I too may do the work You desire me to accomplish.  May I be an effective witness wherever I am, drawing souls constantly to seek You and love You.  You have raised me from the death of sin to newness of life, may I live and die for You alone.  Amen. 

1 Corinthians 5:6b-8

I am now a new creation in You my Beloved.  Grant that I may be dead to sin in all its ugly forms.  Let me be transformed in You and may I live the life of the Resurrection that You won for me at the cost of Your passion and death.

 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

Alleluia!! I sing our Easter song.  You have risen from the dead and earth is glad.  Thank You for Your loving kindness in taking upon Yourself our guilt shame and death and destroying it in Your Body.  You struck Satan a death blow and he is in the throes of agony spreading the lie that he has power to poison the well of God's mercy and tender compassion.  Many are taken in by the lie.  Grant to us who know and believe, to witness boldly that You have triumphed victoriously and   Satan's reign is at an end.

John 20:1-9

 My Beloved, You now reign in glory at the right hand of the Father and we are entrusted to carry out the mission to spread the Good News.  May we not sit on our hands but go out boldly as the Apostles and disciples did. Let us spread the message that God so loved the world that He sent You into the world in order to save us from the penalty of sin and death. You have been raised by God and given a Name above every name and when it is pronounced every knee shall bow in heaven on earth and the underworld and every tongue shall confess to the glory of God that You are Lord!!!. Even if we have to lay down our lives for the Good news grant us the courage to do so gladly.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Isaiah 52:13--53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9, Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-17, 25, John 18: 1-- 19:52



GOOD FRIDAY
39th Day in Lent
1 Corinthians 15:54-55

54 When our perishable being puts on imperishable life, when our mortal being puts on immortality, the word of Scripture will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up by victory. 55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

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Daily Holy Mass Readings:


Isaiah 52:13--53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9, Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-17, 25, 
John 18: 1-- 19:52 


Isaiah 52:13--53:12

The Sign of the Cross is the sign of the greatest victory and triumph heaven and earth have ever known.  Only God is able to take an instrument of shame and torture, something despised and hated and transform it into a throne of glory and a crown of majesty.  Thank You Abouna, thank You Jesus, thank You Holy Spirit.  Jesus, YOU ARE LORD!!!

Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9

You my Beloved who are Perfect and You who are God had to undergo humiliation and untold suffering both spiritual, mental and physical and having drunk to the dregs our human misery and wickedness, You attained perfection par excellence as the SON OF MAN. It is right that You are now the only source of eternal salvation for ALL MEN whether they know it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not.

Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-17, 25

My Beloved, it is hard to be strong and take courage when one looks at the world today. The world desires to wipe out and deface all things Christian and it is hard not to be alarmed and dismayed at the hypocrisy of the world that does obeisance and kowtows to evil out of abject fear and cowardice.  Yet we know Your Face shines on Your faithful and You will save us in Your love.

The triumph of the Cross, Your victory over death and Your glorious Resurrection are signs of sure hope.  Death and evil do not have the last word as You so wonderfully have demonstrated to  us. 
 
John 18: 1-- 19:52

My Beloved, Judas the traitor did not know You at all, unlike the other eleven who did.  He enjoyed the same privileges, the same love, he too witnessed all that the others had witnessed.  He lived in close proximity with You for three whole years and in all that time he did not know You at all.  He came into the fold full of himself and he left the fold full of himself. There was no kenosis, no self-emptying.  He had every opportunity to be a saint but chose instead to be known as long as time lasts as Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus. 

Today, we too live in a world full of people who refuse to know You.  They hate You and they hate Your followers with a vitriolic hatred. They do not know You, they think they do and having decided that You do not fit their agenda, or their preconceived ideas about You and Your Church, they hate with the hatred of deadly poison.  It is the kind of hatred that destroys the hater not the hated.

I AM HE - You stand in front of those You have saved protectively and face the deadly enemy with the words that have the power to vanquish Satan - I AM HE.

Not one whom the  Father has entrusted to You will be lost for You are a good and faithful Shepherd. Violence only begets more violence and You ordered Peter to put his sword back in its sheath. Every violent act will meet a violent act and in the end will annihilate itself.  Peace on the other hand will prevail, this is the promise of the Prince of Peace.  My peace I give you, not as the world give give I. Peace in the midst of adversity. Peace in the midst of sorrow and loss. Peace in the midst of the storm.  God's own peace that surpasses all understanding is given in the eye of the storm. Like the three young men Shadrach, Meshach and Abdenego in the Book of Daniel, were untouched, unscathed, not even singed because the great I AM is with us. 

You drank the cup of suffering on our behalf.

We are so much like Peter those of us who protest loudest and most vociferously that we love You and will stand by You, those of us who make the loudest blustering noises about courage are the first to turn tail and run at the least hint of real danger and persecution. We hide as far away as our cowardice will take us.  But You do not condemn for You understand that we are weak.  This is why You tell us to rely on Your strength and not on our puny selves.  In You and with You, our gaze fastened on You, we can face all the Pilates, Herods, Annas' and Caiaphas' of this world boldly, calmly and serenely as You did.  Even though they flay us, scourge us and tear our flesh away like ribbons as they did You, we will remain unbowed so long as we look at You and draw our strength and courage from the Cross. 

No crime has ever been found in You or in Christianity and Yet You are condemned, denied, betrayed and crucified and so it shall be until You come again to claim those who have stood firm.  Despite declaring Your innocence not once but three times, Pilate still gave You up to die a death that was too horrendous, horrific and degrading to be passed on a Roman citizen.

The cowards of this world, despite being fully convinced of the innocence of the condemned continue to wash their hands and refuse to take a stand on the side of justice and truth.  In our world today every form of depravity is being forced down our throats as the new norm and if we object, we are condemned as bigots and lacking compassion and tolerance.  Leaders of nations are setting the course of the world on a fast track to death and annihilation.  Some like Pilate make weak ineffectual efforts to stem the tide but in the end these moral cowards cave in.

You bore Your Cross with dignity and You invite us to do the same.  Each will walk the road to Golgotha in the way You have planned but we do not walk alone.  We follow Your footsteps and we die to self as we stand for Truth - the Truth that is unknown to the Pilates of this world and who ask in scorn, "Truth, what is that?"  You have your truth and I have mine and never the twain shall meet. They refuse to recognize that there is an Absolute, Unchanging and Eternal Truth even when they buffet, mock, scourge, crown with thorns, slap, whip, spit at, ridicule, nail to a Cross and pierce. Scoundrels and fools believe they have succeeded to destroy Truth when they hear a loud and ringing cry, "Father into You Hands I commend My Spirit," and hear Your long drawn out sigh.  They see Truth taken down from the Cross, a bleeding, battered, gruesome unrecognizable Body, they see it being wrapped in a shroud and laid in a tomb and they grin mockingly  and snigger in secret believing they have triumphed. 

They will find out on the third day that the Cross has triumphed and that You have won the victory over sin, death and Satan.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Ezekiel 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18, John 13:1-15

Maundy Thursday
38th Day in Lent

Lean against My heart and let My love fill you and strengthen your will.  Offer Me your contrite heart and let Me give you a willing and submissive spirit.  Walk in the shadow of My love and you will be preserved from evil and the lure of Satan and his cohorts.  Stay with Me, cling to Me.  I know My own, I know you - you are Mine

Numbers 12:8
To him I speak face to face,

openly, and not in riddles,

and he sees the presence of Yahweh. 
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 Ezekiel 12:1-8, 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18, 
John 13:1-15

 http://www.bibleclaret.org/bibles/english.htm


 Ezekiel 12:1-8, 11-14

Verse 5
You will select a perfect lamb without blemish, a male born during the present year, taken from the sheep or goats. 

The fire of suffering, the Bread of Life and the bitter herbs of rejection.  The Blood of the Lamb seals me in His Covenant of Love made with me when I was baptized.  Evil and death will pass over me for God now owns me.  I am His possession.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

This is My Body broken for you. This cup is the New Covenant sealed in the Blood of the Lamb without blemish, the Firstborn, Male - perfect in every way since You are God and the Son of God. 

It is by Your Passion, Death and Your glorious Resurrection we are saved, by Your Body and Blood we are strengthened and preserved from the death that destroys eternally.

Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18

The Blood of the Lamb is the cup of salvation - the Name of the Lord has the power to save.  No greater love than the love of my God for sinners.

You have vanquished death and those who believe are saved.  You offered Yourself as a pleasing sacrifice to the Father and by Your wounds we are healed. You fulfilled God's plan in its entirety and now You are seated at His right hand.  One day You will come in glory to claim all who belong to You. MARANATHA LORD JESUS!!!!

John 13:1-15
The hour has come Lord, it is finally upon us.  It may seem that evil has overcome the world and swallowed up every shred of sanity as it devours truth and light, hope and joy, peace and goodness.  The world seems cold, sterile, indifferent to the True, Good, Wise and Beautiful. Satan thought he had won but he did not know his Adversary nor could he perceive to what lengths God was prepared to go to save His wayward and fallen children. Today, tomorrow and the day after we will receive a panoramic view of God's awesome love made visible in the greatest act of love and perfect sacrifice that restored once more to God His creatures and His creation.  Death lost!
 
Help me to enter fully into the mystery of the TRIDUUM and experience and understand to the fullest extent possible to my finite mind the price that was paid for me.  Let me stand close to Mama Mary during the next three days and be immersed in the mystery of God's perfect and loving sacrifice that gives me eternal life.
 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 & 33-34, Matthew 26:14-25

                                   PASSION WEEK 

37th Day in Lent
 Remember I love you. Stay close to Me and I will teach you, I will lead you.  Do not chase after human love or respect, make no compromises on the demands that love makes. 
Strive for perfection, seek holiness and abide in Me.

Isaiah 4:5c-6
 For the Glory of the Lord will be a canopy and a pavilion for all, a shade from the scorching heat by day, a refuge from the storm and rain. 
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 Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 & 33-34, Matthew 26:14-25


Isaiah 50:4-9a
My Beloved, it is amazing how clearly Isaiah has foretold all that would take place - beginning with God's awesome plan in sending us a Messiah, to Your life, Your work, Your power, Your ultimate rejection by Your enemies, the way You would die.  He foretold how God would use every scintilla of suffering to save and redeem our fallen world and restore it to grace by Your Passion, Death and glorious Resurrection.  Words are  not enough to say thank You, a life lived in praise and loving obedience and submission to Your will is what will please You most.

Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 & 33-34
The psalms also foretell in detail what Your enemies will do to You.  Those who would lift their heel against You, strike You, give You vinegar and gall for drink.  There would be none to comfort You except Your Mother.  None who would remain steadfast except she, the beloved disciple John and Mary Magdalene.  Utterly rejected by Your own, You tasted the bitter cup of suffering and drank it to the dregs. Thank You for revealing to us that God did not hold back but paid to the full the price of our redemption.
That God should think us, His faithless people worth such a price boggles the mind and that You should submit to it all for love of Him teaches us how we ought to love in return.

Matthew 26:14-25
The world continues to put a paltry price on You - they sell You out as Esau sold his inheritance for a meal.  How bizarre! But are we any different?  We are prepared to satisfy a short term need and greed in exchange for the loss of our soul.
Every one of the disciples wondered aloud if it was he who would betray You. Did they perhaps wonder if in a moment of weakness they would be capable of such a heinous crime despite their love for You?  

My Beloved You know us and You know how weak we are.  You also know the length our wickedness will take us. It took Judas to the abyss and that is why You say, it would have been better if he had not been born.  Despite every gesture of love and every opportunity for repentance was given to him in perfect friendship, he rejected all for a pittance of 30 pieces of silver.  When reason finally dawned and he saw how utterly heinous was his sin and how grievously he had betrayed You - each of those 30 pieces of silver became a millstone around his neck.  He despaired, mistakenly believing that his sin was too grave and beyond Your desire or ability to forgive.