TUESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Emmanuel,

our king and lawgiver,

come and save us,

Lord our God.

SONG OF SONGS 2:8-14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

This is how You come to those who hungering and thirsting for You approach the Eucharist to receive You. You are far more eager to come to us than we could fully experience in our mortal bodies the ecstasy of receiving You - God Himself, Body, Soul, and Spirit. We receive You completely and in receiving You for a brief moment in time we have what we will possess eternally. 

I hear my Beloved.
See how he comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.

You, my Beloved, watch us constantly when we respond to the grace that the Holy Spirit eagerly desires to pour into our souls at every worthy reception of the Sacraments, You rejoice. 

See where he stands
behind our wall.
He looks in at the window,
he peers through the lattice.

When we cooperate with grace, when we permit nothing to separate us from Your love, we hear You speak to us tenderly, wooing us gently, into a deeper, more intimate union with You. 

My Beloved lifts up his voice,
he says to me,
‘Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
For see, winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth.
The season of glad songs has come,
the cooing of the turtledove
is heard in our land.

Beloved, when we commit our poor miserable lives to You and acknowledge that without You we are nothing the Holy Spirit helps us to bear good fruit and the sweet fragrance of a life consecrated to You will abound to eternal life with You.

The fig tree is forming its first figs
and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.

Thank You, Beloved, for loving me unworthy as I am, prone to sin, disobedient and willful, selfish and hard of heart, You never cease to love me even when I am at my worst. You will pursue me, gently inviting me all the time to return to You, my first, last, and only love.

Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.’