MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK - 2022

PASSION WEEK 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hail to you, our King!
You alone have had compassion on our sins.

ISAIAH 42:1-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When we study Scripture with the lens of faith the whole of salvation history comes alive and we see how from the very first God has taken us by the hand and has led us gently as a shepherd leads his flock.

The prophecies of Isaiah are crystal clear to those who are blessed with eyes to see. Faith in You is a gift that is bestowed by God to whomever He wills. This is why those of us who are cradle Catholics will be judged more severely than the rest. 

In Holy Mother Church resides the fullness of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness and all her naysayers can shout from the rooftops that she is corrupt and the whore of Babylon who is leading all her faithful to hell until they are blue in the face but that does not change who she is - the Church You founded on the Rock of Peter is a hospital for sinners. Many great sinners can be found among those in her hierarchy but it is not her members who make perfect but her Head. Love, mercy, grace, compassion, tenderness, forgiveness of all sins, and restoration to spiritual beauty of soul is granted to her alone. 

Why?

Because You, O Lord, are her Cornerstone, her Bridegroom, her Spouse, her Good Shepherd - all her members are grafted to Your Body and You feed us all with Your Flesh and quench our thirst with Your Blood which wells up to eternal life in us.

You purchased each of us at a great price and Your Blood pleads for us at the right hand of the Father night and day and by Your sacred wounds, Beloved, we are healed and saved. You have restored our inheritance. We are sealed in You who are God's eternal Covenant of Love with the children of the New Jerusalem.

‘I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right;
I have taken you by the hand and formed you;
I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations,

‘to open the eyes of the blind,
to free captives from prison,
and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.’

JOHN 12:1-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Today we appreciate the gift of true friendship. Your heart is sore, You know what lies before You and for a brief moment, You seek out and rest in the company of a family who has always been close to You. Have provided hospitality and love. They know who You are and they also know how great is Your need as a Man to enjoy a brief respite from the oppression of those who choose to misunderstand, hound You, and vilify You at every turn.

Lazarus is a dear friend and so are his sisters Martha and Mary. Their hospitality is well known and the house is full not only with Your disciples but also those who have heard the miracle of how You raised Lazarus to life who had been dead and buried for three days. They believed that You were from God for no one but God can raise the dead to life. While the Chief Priests and the Jews plotted and planned to destroy You in this house of friendship You were esteemed and honored for who You truly were - the Son of God.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was full of the scent of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot – one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him – said, ‘Why wasn’t this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contributions. So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.’

May the love, the faithfulness of the members of the Church You established be like the fragrance that fills the world O Lord. The enemies of the Church plot night and day to destroy her but just as the Sanhedrin could not destroy You so too will Your Church stand unmolested until You return. We have Your assurance that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Your Bride.