THURSDAY OF WEEK ELEVEN IN ORDINARY TIME - 2020

                  DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The spirit you received is the spirit of sons,
and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ RM 8:15

ECCLESIATICUS 48:1-15

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Great as the prophet Elijah was in his time he is but a foreshadow of You. All the marvels he did, all the miracles he performed in order to bring a stubborn people back to God is but a foretaste of what the Son of God and the Son of Man would accomplish.

Elijah died and was taken up in a chariot of fire after appointing Elisha his successor. You died and rose again - You had the power to lay down Your life and take it up again at the resurrection. You appointed a successor in Peter and he will continue to direct the Church You founded with the help of the Holy Spirit. She will remain fervent in faith, steadfast in hope, and fervent in love. She is the beacon of light on the hill drawing all to her and safeguarding them in Your Word and sustaining them with Your Life through the Sacraments You instituted, until You return in glory to claim Your Bride, the Church. 

PSALM 97:1-7

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Two thousand years have passed since God, clothed in human flesh, came to earth to reveal and establish the Kingdom of God in the hearts of all. While the mustard seed of faith You planted has indeed grown so great that birds of every kind shelter in it, we still are an evil generation. How much longer, Beloved, before we give up our worthless idols, how long before we stop being idolaters? 

We have seen, we have touched, we have tasted, we have experienced the Living God in You and yet, even we who believe and strive to be faithful, are so far away from You. We are being chastised right now, we are experiencing tribulation, Your churches are closed and Your life-giving Sacraments are withheld from us. It is agonizing to see how the privileged few who can receive You once more are whining and complaining about the new restrictions that are put in place, instead of just falling on their knees in gratitude, worship and adoration. 

Perhaps we will have to experience all the plagues of Egypt before we wake up from our apathy and return to the way of wisdom. Have mercy on us all and hear the prayers of Your faithful remnant and bring us back to way of love, truth, and life.

MATTHEW 6:7-15

My Beloved, Soul of my soul,

Your disciples asked You to teach them to pray and You taught them this beautiful and complete prayer, the Our Father. These words are from Your own lips and come from Your intimacy with the Father. You are always one with the Father and You know how we ought to address Him, talk to Him, make our needs known to Him, and petition Him for all we need as we sojourn from this life to the life to come.

The very first words of the prayer You taught is how we are to address God, the creator and architect of everything seen and unseen. You taught us to call Him by the same childlike name we use to address our own earthly father, 'Abba, papa, daddy, dada, pa.' In the very first words You bridge the aching chasm between God and us and You make the all-holy, almighty, all powerful God tangible and accessible to us, His creatures. 

True joy and peace are only possible when we align our will to that of our Father in heaven. Our purpose and mission in this life to establish the Kingdom of God within us and in doing so we will establish it on earth. 

You teach us to ask Him daily to give us the Bread that sustains supernatural life, the Holy Eucharist, for without it we would perish. But if we are to consume the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Man worthily, we are first to forgive and beg for forgiveness for our transgressions both great and small against Him and each other. For it is only in the measure that we give will we receive.

We Catholics are often accused by those who refuse to go deeper, of babbling prayers when we pray the Holy Rosary. We leave them to Your mercy. We could never love Your Mother as much as God does. She is the first daughter in faith to God our Father, she is Your beloved Mama, and You gave her to us as our Mama as well, and she is the most cherished, most glorious spouse of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who does not give her the reverence and honor due to her have lost a great champion for she is a fierce-some warrior against the Enemy whom she helped vanquish by her fiat to God.