MEMORIAL OF ST. PETER CLAVER, PRIEST - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

As long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us. 1JN 4:12

COLOSSIANS 3:12-17 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

I was chosen by the Father to belong to You. I am yours because the Father willed it. Baptized into Your Body, I am now a member of the Church You founded. I belong to God's chosen raise, I am numbered among the saints because God loves me. This totally unmerited and undeserved love of the Father for me demands that I love Him in return. 

The Father raised me up in You. He has given me a place as co-heir with You in the Kingdom of God. As a member of God's family, I am called to reflect Your love always and everywhere. How am I to do this? St. Paul enumerates all the ways in which I must be another Christ in the world. This means that I must be like You I must be unfailingly compassionate and kind. All my actions must be prompted by a sincere interest to love as You love. I must forgive as I have been forgiven. This is possible only if I remain in You and You remain in me. A grateful heart never ceases to give thanks. Grant that I never forget the innumerable ways in which You have blessed and helped me so streams of thanksgiving and praise will flow constantly from my heart. 

PSALM 150:1-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The psalmist reminds us that all the living must praise You as long as they have the breath of life. I am alive. The breath of the Holy Spirit gives me life. I am created for eternal bliss. You have a glorious plan for my life and I experience Your love for me every moment that I live. With very breath You grant me may I offer You unending praise You for all that You have done for me. Thank You for leading me from darkness into Your marvelous light. Thank You for permitting me to know You who dwells in unapproachable light and for inviting me, a sinner, to an intimate relationship with You. 

I marvel at Your love for me. I know how unworthy I am and how deserving I am of Your punishment for I am a sinner and I sin constantly. Thank You for giving me the grace to beg pardon, to repent, and to know that You will never turn me away when I approach You in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Even in this life, Beloved, the beauty of creation gives us a hint of the wonders that await us when we enter into Your glory. Until that day may I praise You awake or asleep may my soul praise You unceasingly, my Lord, my God, and my greatest good.

LUKE 6:27-38 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Without faith in You, we are bankrupt for we are saved by grace through our faith in You. Without grace, we cannot put all You teach us in today's Gospel into practice because, without it, it is hard if not impossible to do so. To those of the world, the wisdom of God is foolish because it is contrary to the ways of the world. 

Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who treat us badly, to forgive all the wrongs done to us, and to forgive unconditionally. Even with grace, we are constantly battling our evil inclinations, and more often than not we struggle, fail, and fall.

The Holy Spirit delights in giving us all the help we need when we pray and ask for the virtues that are so necessary to help us choose to walk in Your footsteps. The Way of Calvary is hard, it demands death to self and to our will. Your Way is the Way of Calvary but it is the way of uncompromising Truth that eventually leads us to eternal bliss in Your Presence.  

In the closing verses of this difficult passage, You remind us that as children of God we can approach Him and address Him lovingly as Abba and as His children it is possible not only to desire to be as compassionate and generous in forgiving as He is, but the Holy Spirit indwelling in us makes it possible for us to strive constantly to be like Him. It is not only in our successes that God is pleased but He is more pleased when we never give up despite our struggles.  And this is Your assurance to us if we never tire of doing good despite our failures, 'Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’