TUESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT - 2022

LENT 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

A pure heart create for me, O God,
and give me again the joy of your help. PS 50:12, 14

EZEKIEL 47:1-9,12 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We must keep our gaze fixed to the east from where the Son of our Salvation will rise just as Your temple faces the east O Lord and living waters flow from her. It is from the Sacraments that You instituted that we are bathed in the water of renewal and regeneration. This water that flows from You to us cleanses us from all our sins and heals us completely in heart, mind, soul, and spirit.

This is Your Church, Your Body, You are the Rock on which she is firmly established. This is the Rock that was struck and from this Rock gushes forth blood and water, divine mercy for the healing of a broken, sick, and dying world. 

The deeper we wade into the living water of Your mercy, Beloved, the more we will drown in the ocean of Your love, and the more we will become like You. You withhold no good thing from those who declare they are Your possession. We desire to be Yours O Lord, do with us just as You will.

Every Catholic Christian receives immeasurable graces through the Sacraments that make us fruitful with an abundance of good fruit. Through the Sacraments we receive rich graces for which we will one day be called to account for. Grant O Lord, that with the help of Your Holy Spirit we will be good stewards of what You have so generously poured into our laps in full measure, shaken together, and running over. 

‘Wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows. Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.’

JOHN 5:1-3,5-16 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Through the Season of Lent, the Church chooses appropriate readings from the Old Testament, the New, and the Gospels to help us recognize the seismic shift that is gradually taking place as You come to the end of Your salvific mission on earth. 

In today's Gospel, we are told of a miracle that was granted to one man from among a crowd of sick people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed and all longed to be healed. But it was this man who had an illness that had lasted thirty-eight years whom You approached and asked, ‘Do you want to be well again?’ His response should have been, 'Yes, I do want to be well.' Instead, full of self-pity he says, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets there before me.’ Nevertheless, You say to him, ‘Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk.’ The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and walked away.

It was the sabbath and the man was seen carrying his sleeping mat and walking which was a violation of the sabbath rule. When questioned he said, ‘But the man who cured me told me, “Pick up your mat and walk.’ They asked, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Pick up your mat and walk”?’ The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that filled the place. 

When You saw the man whom You had healed again, You tell him to sin no more or something worse may happen to him. This is a clear indication that our sins have consequences and can impact both our physical as well as our spiritual well-being. Once the man knew Your identity he revealed it to those who had questioned him. The evangelist concludes, 'It was because he did things like this on the sabbath that the Jews began to persecute Jesus.' When we take our faith seriously then we too can expect persecution for the servant is not greater than the Master.