MONDAY OF THE TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Rejoice and be glad:
your reward will be great in heaven. MT 5:12a

2 CORINTHIANS 1:1-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Paul reminds us that as members of Your Body we have the same Father as You do for Your Father is ours as well. This is why we must love each other only then will the joys of one be the joys of all and the sorrows of one will be shared by all as well enabling those who are sorrowful to endure with patience knowing they are not alone. Our experience of God's extraordinary love for us especially in our deepest moments of pain reminds us that He is always near and even nearer in our sufferings.

Beloved, we know the Father because You make Him visible to us. This is why He sent You into the world. In You, we are made children of God and heirs to the Kingdom. Only when we willingly share in Your passion and accept every cross with joy are we granted the joy and the glory that flow from it and we can share this consolation with others who suffer. "Indeed, as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, does our consolation overflow." 

Too often, when the weight of the cross chafes us we become impatient and grumble sullenly, in these moments may we look at the Cross on which You were impaled for love for us and learn to unite our small sufferings with Your own and pray for the grace to endure them patiently. Grant us this grace as well O Lord, not to be indifferent to the pain, the wounds, and the sufferings of others. May we help each other gladly as we journey together to the Kingdom of God so we can all rejoice and glorify You in the company of the angels and saints for all eternity.   

PSALM 34:2-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Thank You for creating me. Thank You for the life that the Father planned for me. Thank You for all the love and joy I have known from the moment I was conceived in my mother's womb. Thank You for encompassing me always with Your loving, and tender presence. Thank You for giving me the awareness of being under the wings of Your protection. Thank You for safeguarding me and preventing me from going astray. In my youth, I have foolishly and unwittingly exposed myself to danger but You were there and Your mighty hand over me kept me safe.

I will bless You and praise You as long as I have breath. My soul will give You thanks all the days that are granted to me. I will never fail to give You all the glory and honor due to You for You have never failed me, never disappointed me, never abandoned me even though I am guilty of failing, disappointing, and abandoning You at various times in my life.

As my days on earth come to a close and I draw nearer to the day when You come to take me home and I hear You call me by my name, grant that my soul grow ever more eager and impatient to be united with You eternally. May I begin even now to prepare for my coming home to You. Stay with me Lord and continue to command Your angels to encamp around me to keep me safe from the terrors of the night and the arrows that fly by day. 

MATTHEW 5:1-12 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes are a mirror reflecting You. They are God's blueprint of the characteristics of His Son. We have read it innumerable times. We have heard great preachers preaching it, we have read books expounding in great and dizzying detail what they mean. They have delved deep into each beatitude and held each up as a precious gem and pointed out each brilliant facet for our contemplation and edification. Great saints strove diligently to live the beatitudes and their lives have shown us that with the help of the Holy Spirit it is possible to do so. 

You have shown us how we are to live the Beatitudes and if we have the will, the inclination, and the determination to do so, we can too. You do not ask us to do the impossible and You provide all the help we need to live holy lives that are always pleasing to God. The real question we have to ask ourselves is do we truly desire it? Or are we so caught up in the dizzying pastimes and the flimsy but round-the-clock trivial entertainment that the world offers we are unconscious of our spirit's true hunger and thirst for eternal life?

In the world, it is becoming very apparent that those who are marked for the Kingdom of Heaven are being increasingly isolated, persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, and even put to death for Your sake and for the sake of the Gospel. Am I willing to be counted in that number? If yes, then I must be willing to live the Beatitudes knowing well both the cost and the reward: 

‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven: this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.’