DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me. JN 10:27
PHILIPPIANS 1:1-11
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
God created us in His image and likeness which became disfigured and distorted by Adam's sin. The Father sent You into the world to restore it once more. Your obedience, humility, and perfect submission to His will, enables us to image Him when we image You.
We were created for joy and the more we conform our lives to You and align our will to Yours the greater will be our joy. Every Christian is given the mandate to spread the Good News by the testimony of our lives. We are called to be the salt and light of the world - the leaven that permeates the whole world. Truth alone has power to set us free from our chains of slavery to sin.
All the great heroes of our faith both men and women thought it a great joy and a privilege to lay down their lives in the service of the Gospel and so may it be for us as well. Let us count it a joy to give our lives for the sake of the Gospel for it is truly Good News that will liberate the world and bring about God's Kingdom of love and peace among us.
How far we are from this divine ideal, Beloved, even among us Christians there is division, selfishness, envy, and gossip. We are small-minded, hardhearted, and petty, how then can we be effective witnesses in the world when we make such a poor, feeble testament of it? Love alone can kindle a blaze and the breath of the Holy Spirit alone can blow on the dying embers of our faith and help us set the world on fire with divine love. Perfect Your image in us, Lord, and together with You, we will glorify the Father. Until then, grant that we each rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit and conquer ourselves and the world with the same love that You have shown us.
PSALM 111:1-6
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
We were created to be God's crowning glory. Even after we lost paradise He did not give up on us but found a way to restore us to Himself. He sent You, His only Son into the world, to draw us back through You to Him.
Thank You, Beloved, for all that You have made possible for us in this life. There would be no journeying back to the Father's house if You had not come to take us by the hand and lead us back to Him.
Thank You for instituting the Sacraments that are tangible, life-giving signs of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Every time we gather as a community to offer praise and worship to God, in the only Sacrifice that is pleasing and acceptable to Him, heaven descends on our altars and already we are given a taste of the heavenly banquet at the eternal wedding feast of the Bridegroom.
Help us, Beloved, to stay faithful all the days of our lives, give us the good sense to make frequent use of the Sacraments that strengthen and give us life. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we become more like You and learn to love as You do with no thought of self.
Open our eyes, Lord that we may see, open our ears that we may hear, open our hearts that we may receive what You give, and to share what we have received generously with others. Hasten the coming of Your Kingdom, Lord.
LUKE 15:1-6
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
How good and gracious You were to accept the invitation of the Pharisee to eat a meal on the sabbath day at his home even though You knew the malicious intent behind it. Despite their hardness of heart You continued to give them every opportunity to know the truth which alone sets us free.
They deliberately brought the sick man and placed him before You knowing full well that You would heal him. They had no compassion for the poor man at all, he was just the bait. They knew You would heal him and this would give them a perfect opportunity to condemn You once again for breaking the sabbath law. Before healing him You addressed the hypocrites seated around the table, 'Is it against the law to cure a man on the sabbath or not?' They were silent. You healed the sick man and sent him away. You turned to the learned teachers of the law, and the Pharisees and showed them up for the cowardly, merciless, men they were when You asked them whether or not any one of them seated there would not have instantly reached out to save his son or ox had either one fallen into a well on the sabbath? They maintained their stubborn silence knowing full well that they would have done so. They would have instantly saved what was theirs even on the sabbath but they refused to extend that same mercy and compassion to a stranger.
You teach us Beloved, that it is always the right time to do good and to show mercy. No law, however good, can precede love.
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