TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT - 2022

LENT 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4

ISAIAH 55:10-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When God utters the Word, the power of His Eternal Word goes forth over the whole world accomplishing all that God desires it to. This Word of God is given to all the faithful, all the baptized, and the fullness of the Word of God makes His home in the Church He founded and established on Peter. It is a visible Church, it is an eternal Church, visible, and an incorruptible Church, even though, paradoxically, all its members are sinners. 

From here the Word goes forth to all the world in beauty, purity, and truth and those who hear, those who believe, and those who receive the Word in Scripture and in Tradition, in the Sacraments and most substantially in the Eucharist where You give Yourself to us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity will receive divine life that will strengthen us until we reach the end of our pilgrim journey and enter the Kingdom of God. 

MATTHEW 6:7-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Prayer is our lifeline to God but we cannot pray if we do not have a relationship with the Father, with You, and with the Holy Spirit. 

Your disciples ask You to teach them to pray and You respond by giving them and us a model for all prayer. You teach us that we begin by focusing on God and who He is. There is no rush in making our needs known to Him because He already knows them. 

We need to begin by focusing our heart, mind, and spirit on God and on who He is. We allow ourselves to become immersed in His goodness, His holiness as we allow our whole beings to expand with gratitude that God desires that we address Him as Abba, Dad, Papa. We trust Him and desire to embrace His will for our lives just as in heaven where His reigns for it is the delight of the angels and the saints. 

‘Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.’

Once we become aware of our relationship with God as our Father, we trustfully make our needs known to Him humbly, even though He already knows them. More than earthly bread we need the Eucharist, the heavenly Bread, and we need to plead for the grace to hunger for You more and to attend Holy Mass more frequently so we can receive You frequently, even daily.

‘Give us today our daily bread.’

Next, we pray for the strength not to be tested by the evil one beyond our ability to withstand the wiles and lures of the tempter. 

‘And do not put us to the test,
but save us from the evil one.’

And finally, we recognize we are sinners who fall many, many times in the day and we plead for God's forgiveness however You remind us that the forgiveness of our sins is conditional to our forgiving our sisters and brothers.

‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.’

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’