DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but, as it truly is, the word of God. 1TH 2:13
EZEKIEL 16:1-15, 60, 63
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the prophet Ezekiel writes powerfully and tenderly of God's love for the people He chose as His own from all the nations. It is a relationship that God, our Father, You, Beloved, and the Holy Spirit have with Your Bride, the Church. It describes graphically our Christian life before we were grafted to You in Baptism, and a life enriched and made beautiful through the treasury of graces receive once we receive the Sacrament of Baptism followed by the other Sacraments. We grow and mature in the life granted to us in the Holy Spirit.
Born with original sin we are captives of concupiscence. We are prisoners of the flesh. We are as helpless as newborns unable to cut the umbilical cord or wash, cleanse, and dress ourselves. In Your gracious kindness, after we are washed in the waters of Baptism, we become a new creation. Grafted into Your Body we are filled with a life of grace through the Holy Spirit. We are robed in garments of purity and righteousness, we are given the gift of faith and we are bound to the Triune God in an eternal Covenant of love.
As we grow and mature, You anoint us with sacred oils, and we are strengthened in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Confirmation. We receive supernatural food to live good, holy, pure lives. The Sacrament of Confirmation renews us in a life of grace and strengthens us in our mission to be bold witnesses to the Gospel. In each of the Sacraments we are bound ever closer to You through the rich graces we receive from the Holy Spirit.
When we make the mistake of relying on ourselves and not on You, we soil our baptismal robes and we sully our soul. We strip ourselves of grace when we lack the discipline necessary to keep our gaze fixed on You. The tawdry pleasures that the world, the flesh, and the devil offer tempt us over and over again and we lose sight of the Kingdom of God. We mistakenly believe that as long as we have the Gifts we do not need the Giver of these precious Gifts. We put our trust in ourselves and find we have lost all.
We are so grateful Beloved, for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and more importantly, for the eternal Covenant to which You bind Yourself irrevocably to us whether or not we are faithful. Thank You for always forgiving us and pardoning all our offenses and restoring us as members of the family of God each time we approach You with repentant, humble, and contrite hearts.
ISAIAH 12:2-6
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
I am truly grateful that Your anger does not last and that You are always, always ready to show mercy and forgive no matter how gravely and how often we sin.
Thank You, Abba, for the unmerited gift of salvation and the free gift of faith in Your Son.
Thank You, Beloved, for the Sacraments You instituted without which we would perish by the wayside.
Thank You, Holy Spirit, for the streams of life-giving grace received through the Sacraments initiated by Jesus.
Grant O Lord, that we praise You, bless You, adore You, worship You with every breath we breathe for as long as we have breath in our body, for You are worthy to receive all glory and honor always.
MATTHEW 19:3-12
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
From the beginning when God created us He intended that the union between man and wife be indissoluble. And ever since sin entered the world this union between married men and women that images God's own covenantal union with us has grown steadily weaker and weaker. Marriage today in so many instances is not worth the paper that the certificate is written on.
From the time of Moses, the people sought loopholes in the marriage contract as we see in today's gospel passage. You tell the Pharisees wanting to test You, that Moses permitted divorce because they were unteachable. To this day most marriages are dissolved for the most frivolous reasons or for no reason at all.
Christians cherry-pick what they choose to consider binding and what they prefer to turn a blind I to but the Church remains faithful God's will on marriage.
‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' Beloved, Your Word is unequivocally clear, the will of God is unequivocally clear.
Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
No one who has been married, no one who has made vows to each other with God as their witness can divorce and marry again except when there were impediments then the marriage being invalid is annulled. If they do they are guilty of breaking the commandment. 'You shall not commit adultery.'
The disciples were shaken at this response and said, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ To those who find the Sacrament of Holy Orders unnatural or those who choose a celibate life for the sake of the Kingdom of God, You say, 'It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
You were chaste. Chastity is a virtue, a gift, and a grace and all who choose it as priests so they can share in Your Priesthood will be richly rewarded not only in this life but superabundantly in the next.
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men,
but, as it truly is, the word of God. 1TH 2:13
EZEKIEL 16:1-15, 60, 63
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the prophet Ezekiel writes powerfully and tenderly of God's love for the people He chose as His own from all the nations. It is a relationship that God, our Father, You, Beloved, and the Holy Spirit have with Your Bride, the Church. It describes graphically our Christian life before we were grafted to You in Baptism, and a life enriched and made beautiful through the treasury of graces receive once we receive the Sacrament of Baptism followed by the other Sacraments. We grow and mature in the life granted to us in the Holy Spirit.
Born with original sin we are captives of concupiscence. We are prisoners of the flesh. We are as helpless as newborns unable to cut the umbilical cord or wash, cleanse, and dress ourselves. In Your gracious kindness, after we are washed in the waters of Baptism, we become a new creation. Grafted into Your Body we are filled with a life of grace through the Holy Spirit. We are robed in garments of purity and righteousness, we are given the gift of faith and we are bound to the Triune God in an eternal Covenant of love.
As we grow and mature, You anoint us with sacred oils, and we are strengthened in the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Confirmation. We receive supernatural food to live good, holy, pure lives. The Sacrament of Confirmation renews us in a life of grace and strengthens us in our mission to be bold witnesses to the Gospel. In each of the Sacraments we are bound ever closer to You through the rich graces we receive from the Holy Spirit.
When we make the mistake of relying on ourselves and not on You, we soil our baptismal robes and we sully our soul. We strip ourselves of grace when we lack the discipline necessary to keep our gaze fixed on You. The tawdry pleasures that the world, the flesh, and the devil offer tempt us over and over again and we lose sight of the Kingdom of God. We mistakenly believe that as long as we have the Gifts we do not need the Giver of these precious Gifts. We put our trust in ourselves and find we have lost all.
We are so grateful Beloved, for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and more importantly, for the eternal Covenant to which You bind Yourself irrevocably to us whether or not we are faithful. Thank You for always forgiving us and pardoning all our offenses and restoring us as members of the family of God each time we approach You with repentant, humble, and contrite hearts.
ISAIAH 12:2-6
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
I am truly grateful that Your anger does not last and that You are always, always ready to show mercy and forgive no matter how gravely and how often we sin.
Thank You, Abba, for the unmerited gift of salvation and the free gift of faith in Your Son.
Thank You, Beloved, for the Sacraments You instituted without which we would perish by the wayside.
Thank You, Holy Spirit, for the streams of life-giving grace received through the Sacraments initiated by Jesus.
Grant O Lord, that we praise You, bless You, adore You, worship You with every breath we breathe for as long as we have breath in our body, for You are worthy to receive all glory and honor always.
MATTHEW 19:3-12
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
From the beginning when God created us He intended that the union between man and wife be indissoluble. And ever since sin entered the world this union between married men and women that images God's own covenantal union with us has grown steadily weaker and weaker. Marriage today in so many instances is not worth the paper that the certificate is written on.
From the time of Moses, the people sought loopholes in the marriage contract as we see in today's gospel passage. You tell the Pharisees wanting to test You, that Moses permitted divorce because they were unteachable. To this day most marriages are dissolved for the most frivolous reasons or for no reason at all.
Christians cherry-pick what they choose to consider binding and what they prefer to turn a blind I to but the Church remains faithful God's will on marriage.
‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' Beloved, Your Word is unequivocally clear, the will of God is unequivocally clear.
Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
No one who has been married, no one who has made vows to each other with God as their witness can divorce and marry again except when there were impediments then the marriage being invalid is annulled. If they do they are guilty of breaking the commandment. 'You shall not commit adultery.'
The disciples were shaken at this response and said, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ To those who find the Sacrament of Holy Orders unnatural or those who choose a celibate life for the sake of the Kingdom of God, You say, 'It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
You were chaste. Chastity is a virtue, a gift, and a grace and all who choose it as priests so they can share in Your Priesthood will be richly rewarded not only in this life but superabundantly in the next.
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