DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
Now the ruler of the world will be driven out, says the Lord;
and when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself. Jn 12:31B-32
Genesis 3:9-15, Psalm 130:1-8,
2 Corinthians 4:13----5:1, Mark 3:20-25
Genesis 3:9-15
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
When we take our focus off You and Your Word, we like our first parents will succumb to temptation. Thank You for not forsaking us but seeking us out just as God pursued Adam and Eve achingly crying out, "Where are you?"
Thankfully Beloved, there is no place we can hide from Your loving gaze. In our shame, our disgrace, we come before You and reveal our nakedness for we know no other way of restoring lost innocence except to throw ourselves upon Your mercy. You will always restore all we have lost if we have true sorrow for our sins and resolve with Your help to sin no more.
Forbidden fruit is always delightful to the senses but our senses can deceive us as Eve and Adam found out to their eternal dismay. If we choose to live in denial, lacking the courage to acknowledge our sins, we will be separated from You and apart from You, we will die.
Thank You, Father, for Your promises to Adam and Eve despite their wanton lack of faith. Yes, You banished them from the Garden of Eden but You also gave them hope without which their spirit would have withered and died.
"I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."
Thank You, Father, for willingly permitting Evil to strike at Your Son's heel in order that He could strike and crush its head for our sake.
Psalm 130:1-8
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
From the first moment when sin entered into the world we discovered that You are a God who is full of mercy and in You is fullness of redemption.
How often Beloved I have consciously, willingly, and deliberately chosen to sin. I have shut out the voice of my conscience. And after I have sullied my soul, discovered too late my shame and the terrible toll of sin I cry out to You in remorse and You never fail to come to me, wash me tenderly of my guilt, and heal me completely.
Help me never forget Beloved what my sins have cost You and may I resist the wiles of my flesh, the devil, and the world. I trust in You. I trust in the constancy of Your love, Your mercy, and Your faithfulness. I am weak, I will be tempted My Lord as long as I live, there will be several occasions when I will stumble and fall, but I beseech You, my Beloved, keep me from deliberate sin. Amen.
2 Corinthians 4:13----5:1
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
Because of the sins of our first parents, death entered the world and is certain for all the children of Adam. But thanks to You, our new Adam, we have hope.
You are the fulfillment of every promise God has made since the fall. Because of the love of Father who created us, Your love for the Father that redeemed us by the offering Yourself as the Lamb of Sacrifice, in expiation for the sins of the whole world, and the Holy Spirit who abides in us we are certain of the hope we have in You.
We believe that God who raised You from the dead has given us His assurance that we will have a share in Your glorious Resurrection. After this life comes to an end Beloved, when our life will be cut off from the loom we will come into Your Presence, we will stand before You and we will receive in full measure, according to Your great goodness, mercy, and love, a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Thank You Beloved for the short span of life here on earth that is a preparation for what is to come. It is necessary for us to shed this life in order to receive the inheritance that awaits us.
Mark 3:20-25
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
There is so much to reflect upon in today's Gospel reading that volumes have been written about it both by members of Your Church and by Christians and non-Christians alike.
It is a blessing that we can always be assured that if we are guided by the Magisterium we can never put a foot astray. For over 2000 years Your Bride has contemplated, meditated, preached, taught, written about in books, songs, hymns and poems about Sacred Scripture and most especially about the Gospels.
All the errors that can ever be conceived of and could be made have been made and Your Church has learned from them, overcome them, refuted them, is aware of them and guards against their repetition. Sadly, this is not true about those who in every age are guided by their own spirit and get excited because they believe they have found something new. Ignorant of all the old heresies they fall into the same old traps and are tossed about by every wind.
The very first verse tells us that You came home with Your disciples. Now one would imagine that this homecoming would have been joyous. These people knew You they watched You grow before their very eyes. This was the problem. They were trying to fit You into their pre-conceived mold.
You had begun Your public ministry of which they had only heard but had not witnessed. They couldn't understand the phenomenon of crowds constantly pressing to get close to You, to touch You, to hear You, to see You, to be healed by You in every way that we need healing. What the world does not understand it generally condemns, denigrates, and rejects. This is what happened when You came home.
Speaking to them and wanting the Scribes who condemned You to understand, You said,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
You were warning the people not to dare speak against the Third Person of the Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son. To call God who is all holy unclean is truly the unpardonable sin.
These next verses are the ones that our Christian brethren use to belittle Your relationship with Your Mother. However, we know that there are none so blind as those with sight who cannot see, and those with hearing who cannot hear. Taking out of context completely Your response to the crowd who said that Your Mother, brothers, and sisters were asking for You,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
"Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
Let them answer this question Beloved, "Who more than any human creature ever do the will of God to such great perfection as Your Mother did?
Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to Your will. Lk 1:38
Mary always said yes to all that God asked of her. Her whole life was a Yes and an Amen to God's will.
Now the ruler of the world will be driven out, says the Lord;
and when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself. Jn 12:31B-32
Genesis 3:9-15, Psalm 130:1-8,
2 Corinthians 4:13----5:1, Mark 3:20-25
Genesis 3:9-15
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
When we take our focus off You and Your Word, we like our first parents will succumb to temptation. Thank You for not forsaking us but seeking us out just as God pursued Adam and Eve achingly crying out, "Where are you?"
Thankfully Beloved, there is no place we can hide from Your loving gaze. In our shame, our disgrace, we come before You and reveal our nakedness for we know no other way of restoring lost innocence except to throw ourselves upon Your mercy. You will always restore all we have lost if we have true sorrow for our sins and resolve with Your help to sin no more.
Forbidden fruit is always delightful to the senses but our senses can deceive us as Eve and Adam found out to their eternal dismay. If we choose to live in denial, lacking the courage to acknowledge our sins, we will be separated from You and apart from You, we will die.
Thank You, Father, for Your promises to Adam and Eve despite their wanton lack of faith. Yes, You banished them from the Garden of Eden but You also gave them hope without which their spirit would have withered and died.
"I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."
Thank You, Father, for willingly permitting Evil to strike at Your Son's heel in order that He could strike and crush its head for our sake.
Psalm 130:1-8
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
From the first moment when sin entered into the world we discovered that You are a God who is full of mercy and in You is fullness of redemption.
How often Beloved I have consciously, willingly, and deliberately chosen to sin. I have shut out the voice of my conscience. And after I have sullied my soul, discovered too late my shame and the terrible toll of sin I cry out to You in remorse and You never fail to come to me, wash me tenderly of my guilt, and heal me completely.
Help me never forget Beloved what my sins have cost You and may I resist the wiles of my flesh, the devil, and the world. I trust in You. I trust in the constancy of Your love, Your mercy, and Your faithfulness. I am weak, I will be tempted My Lord as long as I live, there will be several occasions when I will stumble and fall, but I beseech You, my Beloved, keep me from deliberate sin. Amen.
2 Corinthians 4:13----5:1
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
Because of the sins of our first parents, death entered the world and is certain for all the children of Adam. But thanks to You, our new Adam, we have hope.
You are the fulfillment of every promise God has made since the fall. Because of the love of Father who created us, Your love for the Father that redeemed us by the offering Yourself as the Lamb of Sacrifice, in expiation for the sins of the whole world, and the Holy Spirit who abides in us we are certain of the hope we have in You.
We believe that God who raised You from the dead has given us His assurance that we will have a share in Your glorious Resurrection. After this life comes to an end Beloved, when our life will be cut off from the loom we will come into Your Presence, we will stand before You and we will receive in full measure, according to Your great goodness, mercy, and love, a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Thank You Beloved for the short span of life here on earth that is a preparation for what is to come. It is necessary for us to shed this life in order to receive the inheritance that awaits us.
Mark 3:20-25
Dear Love, Beloved of my soul,
There is so much to reflect upon in today's Gospel reading that volumes have been written about it both by members of Your Church and by Christians and non-Christians alike.
It is a blessing that we can always be assured that if we are guided by the Magisterium we can never put a foot astray. For over 2000 years Your Bride has contemplated, meditated, preached, taught, written about in books, songs, hymns and poems about Sacred Scripture and most especially about the Gospels.
All the errors that can ever be conceived of and could be made have been made and Your Church has learned from them, overcome them, refuted them, is aware of them and guards against their repetition. Sadly, this is not true about those who in every age are guided by their own spirit and get excited because they believe they have found something new. Ignorant of all the old heresies they fall into the same old traps and are tossed about by every wind.
The very first verse tells us that You came home with Your disciples. Now one would imagine that this homecoming would have been joyous. These people knew You they watched You grow before their very eyes. This was the problem. They were trying to fit You into their pre-conceived mold.
You had begun Your public ministry of which they had only heard but had not witnessed. They couldn't understand the phenomenon of crowds constantly pressing to get close to You, to touch You, to hear You, to see You, to be healed by You in every way that we need healing. What the world does not understand it generally condemns, denigrates, and rejects. This is what happened when You came home.
Speaking to them and wanting the Scribes who condemned You to understand, You said,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.
Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
You were warning the people not to dare speak against the Third Person of the Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son. To call God who is all holy unclean is truly the unpardonable sin.
These next verses are the ones that our Christian brethren use to belittle Your relationship with Your Mother. However, we know that there are none so blind as those with sight who cannot see, and those with hearing who cannot hear. Taking out of context completely Your response to the crowd who said that Your Mother, brothers, and sisters were asking for You,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
"Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
Let them answer this question Beloved, "Who more than any human creature ever do the will of God to such great perfection as Your Mother did?
Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to Your will. Lk 1:38
Mary always said yes to all that God asked of her. Her whole life was a Yes and an Amen to God's will.
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