Monday, December 2, 2019

Monday of the First Week of Advent

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS



Psalm 80:4
Come and save us, LORD our God;
let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.


ISAIAH 4:2-6,
PSALM 122:1-9
MATTHEW 8:5-11

ISAIAH 4:2-6,

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

You promise all those who remain faithful a share in the glory to come. Yes, there are temptations on every side, yes, the world, the flesh, and the devil beguile with false and empty promises and it is easy to fall into the silken snare that leads to emptiness and darkness.

However, the remnant who are steadfast will be holy, sinless, clean, for we will be washed in the Blood of the Lamb. When You arrive once again in splendor and glory Beloved, You will be our shelter and our shade. You will be our refuge and our home will be in You.


PSALM 122:1-9

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

The world has never been as divided in every way as it is in our day and age. As the distance between nations shrinks we recognize how easy it is for us all to embrace each other's depravity for in doing so we desire to crush moral and spiritual truths which ought to bind us, to enable us to celebrate our common disordered desires instead.

Thankfully there are some places where numerous people walk up the Mountain of the Lord to celebrate His love, however, there are very many more in the world where people have lost their hope because they have not received the gift of faith.

We pray with the psalmist today that peace will come upon us and dwell among us as we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace this Christmas as we look forward to His coming once again in glory.

MATTHEW 8:5-11

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

As we read the Gospel passage selected for today we are reminded that each one of us is called to have the same heart as the centurion who had compassion for the suffering of his paralyzed servant and approached You to heal him. Although not a Jew he had remarkable faith in You. He heard of the many miracles You had performed and believed that You possessed divine power. Recognizing You as one superior to himself even though he had an important position in the Roman army, he did not feel himself worthy enough to have You go out of Your way to his home to touch and heal his servant. He believed that You had only to command healing for his servant and it would be done. 

The whole of Israel had heard of You as well as the neighboring countries yet it had not kindled in anyone the kind of faith that the centurion professed in You that day. In tribute to his faith, we speak his words in all humility at every celebration of the Holy Mass as we too affirm, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

No comments:

Post a Comment