Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children. MT 11:25
ECCLESIASTICUS 35:2-15 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
The first step to living a virtuous life is to truly desire it and then ask the Holy Spirit to aid us. He will not withhold anything that will aid us in our journey from this life to the next if we are sincere.
The foremost offering whose worth is above and beyond all other offerings is the union of our lives with the Sacrifice offered on Calvary. In the celebration of Holy Mass and at every worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist, we are given a taste of eternal life in the Kingdom of God and a glimpse of heaven.
All the gifts we are given both spiritual and temporal are to be put to the service of our brothers and sisters and we will be asked for a strict account of our stewardship. For nothing we receive is solely for our benefit but is to be shared as generously as we have received.
When we allow ourselves to be influenced by the commerce and economics of a rapacious world our hands are shortened and our minds are dulled and we become selfish, fearful, greedy, and acquisitive. But we are reminded today to give cheerfully and generously back to God what we have received for all we have is not ours but Yours and on the day of judgment, we shall not be ashamed to stand before You.
O Lord, our God, keep our motives for giving always pure.
PSALM 50:5-8,14,23 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
The psalmist says, "I will show my salvation to the upright." There are many wonderful, upright, Christians in the world who deny the one, most powerful truth, and that is the efficacy of the Holy Eucharist in uniting as one Body in You. There is no other. Nothing can so unite us as the eating of Your Flesh and the drinking of Your Blood. Deny this truth as much as they may, without the Eucharist, no Christian can have the full measure of the life that You came to give.
‘Summon before me my people
who made covenant with me by sacrifice.’
who made covenant with me by sacrifice.’
‘Listen, my people, I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you,
for I am God, your God.
I accuse you, lay the charge before you.
I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
for I am God, your God.
I accuse you, lay the charge before you.
I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
and render him your votive offerings.
MARK 10:28-31 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
But where will these holy men and women come from if they are not nurtured in the homes of holy and righteous parents? Husbands and wives who love each other with a love that is self-sacrificial. The world teaches us to not lose but to hold on to ourselves, to make choices that involve not the good of the other but the good of self and so for the sake of ephemeral emotions we are prepared to wound the most vulnerable and innocent victims that are responsible for their well-being on having to parents to raise them and put their needs above their own.
Only when we are prepared to make the supreme sacrifice of laying down our lives for the sake of the other will we find in the world, young men and women who are prepared to give up houses, brothers, sisters, fathers, children, and land for Your sake and the ake of the Gospel. And they will joyfully discover that they are repaid a hundred times over for their sacrifice even if it comes with persecutions from the world. Eternal life is guaranteed to those who are unafraid of the cost of true discipleship.
Let us not be envious of those who seem to have everything in this life for you assure us today that ‘Many who are first will be last, and the last first.’
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