FRIDAY OF WEEK TWELVE IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us. MT 8:17

GENESIS 17:1,9-10,15-22 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You chose Abraham. You called him out from where he was and You lead him to the place that You had chosen for him and there God intended to make of his descendants a great nation, a people set apart. He desired to be their God and they were to be His people. 

This was the plan of God to give him descendants as many as the stars and the grains of sand on the shore through his son. But many years passed Abraham turned 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 and God's promise remained unfulfilled. Abraham believed it to be impossible for his wife to bear a child and thought it better if God chose his son Ishmael, born of a slave, to be the heir of God's promise. 

We are no different from Abraham - we become restless and impatient when You take Your time in fulfilling Your promises to us. We want to hurry You along. We want You to change Your mind and embrace our plans instead. However, wisdom teaches us that it is better to wait in faith patiently for God to act in His time knowing that for God nothing is impossible.

The first Covenant between God and His people was the circumcision of all males. This was to be the sign that they were marked for God. Sarah did conceive, she did bear a son whom they Isaac and all God's promises were fulfilled. However, all the Covenants made in the past were but a foreshadowing of the New and Final Covenant that God was to make with His New People. The old rejected Him and so He called out of darkness into His own marvelous Light His own Beloved Son, You, His First Born and He made You the Covenant of Love between Himself and the new people of God. Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

PSALM 127(128):1-5 ©

Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

in the heart of your house;
your children like shoots of the olive,
around your table.

Your promises are true. I believe. Thank You, Lord.

MATTHEW 8:1-4 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Often O Lord, when sorrow crushes my soul, my anxieties overwhelm me, when I am sad and all within me is darkness I cry out to You every waking moment just like the leper in today's Gospel did. I weep copious tears, fall prostrate before You begging You hoping that You will look at me with pity and compassion, take note of my affliction, and be moved to help me.

‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ And Your response to the leper as well as to me is the same. You stretch out Your hand, You touch me as You touched him and You say to me as You said to him, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And his leprosy was cured at once. So too You heal me. You come to my assistance, even when I foolishly pray that You follow my agenda, my time frame, and answer me in the manner that I desire. You tenderly and compassionately teach me that it is better for me to wait trustingly on You. And while I wait You work marvels in my life answering my prayers in ways that I never thought possible and teaching me once again that You are God and You love me and that You desire only all that is good for me. Thank You, Lord, for always being so exceedingly patient with me.

SAINTS PETER & PAUL - APOSTLES 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. MT 16:18

ACTS 12:1-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

What great consolation we find in today's First Reading - truly my Lord if You are with us who can be against us. Who can stand against You, Beloved? No one. You are God and You are almighty, all-powerful, and You uphold all things with Your Word and sustain all that lives with Your Breath.

Those who plotted successfully to put You to death found that they were powerless against the power of Your Name so now the enemies of Truth sought to persecute the rest of the Apostles. Herod, that spawn of Satan seeing that the beheading of James pleased the enemies of the nascent Church proceeded to arrest Peter as well. But the Church of God prayed for him without ceasing. Here we see why the prayer of the Church is so powerful and why we are duty-bound to pray for our Holy Father and for bishops and priests.

There is no situation so hopeless God cannot intervene. Nothing is impossible with You as we see from the rescue and liberation of St. Peter. Neither guards, nor restraints, nor locked gates can prevent God from entering and setting free all His people. No situation is so dire that God cannot rectify it. 

Thank You, Beloved for assuring us that You really are Emmanuel, You are God who is always with us. You are the Christ, the Anointed One, and You are Jesus - the One who saves. Thank You for this blessed assurance. 

PSALM 33(34):2-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Praise is fitting in all circumstances. Praise confounds the Enemy. Praise declares that faith in You has the power to foil all the plans of the wicked. Faith kindles hope and increases our love for You, our Lord, and our God.

If I boast let it boast of You. Despite all the difficult situations that I must face as I sojourn in this valley of tears I know that You our with me. Your righthand holds me fast. I may stumble often but You will not permit me to fall.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

from all my terrors he set me free.

You always send angels to rescue me, to comfort me, to strengthen me. Thank You, Lord. I give You thanks for always sending me angels in the guise of people to minister to me when I face trials. You know I am poor, needy, helpless, frail, weak, and I need Your strong arms to lean on. Thank You for always providing me with just what I need when I cry out to You.

The angel of the Lord rescues those who revere him.

2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8,17-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The life of St. Paul is proof that no soul is beyond redemption. We look at all those who persecute Your Church and Your people today believing in Your power to bring these same people to their knees glorifying You and spreading the Good News just like St. Paul to the Gentiles.

Our steadfast faith, our prayers, our readiness to forgive and to turn the other cheek in times of trials, to remain silent as You did: 

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.

 

Grant us a living faith, a steadfast faith, a faith that is unwavering despite every trial persecution, and suffering so like St. Paul we may rejoice as we live in You and rejoice as we lay down our lives for You and for the Good News confident that we will receive the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.

May I never doubt even for an instant that You O Lord will stand by me as You stood by St. Paul: The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear; and so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from all evil attempts on me, and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

MATTHEW 16:13-19 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

It is most comforting for us to know that despite our weaknesses, our propensity to sin, our concupiscence, You do not look on our weakness but on our willingness to lean on You, to trust You, to keep our gaze on You with absolute faith and conviction that You who are the Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father are with us and will remain with us always. Peter was God's choice despite all his frailties. God takes us as we are and He makes us a new creation. God's infinite mercy uses Peter's triple denial to bring him face-to-face with his own unworthiness and the necessity to lean on You always. A repentant, contrite heart You never spurn. You saw beyond who Peter currently was to the man that he could be with Your grace and the grace of the Holy Spirit. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Don't look at my sins O Lord, erase them all. Put in me a new heart and a new spirit and stay with me Lord lest I fall never to rise up again. Be merciful to me O Lord. Be merciful. 

ST. IREANAEUS, BISHOP, DOCTOR & MARTYR - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Make your home in me, as I make mine in you,
says the Lord;
whoever remains in me bears fruit in plenty. JN 15:4, 5

GENESIS 15:1-12,17-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

All that God said to Abram, He says to us, the new people of God and with whom He has made a New Covenant. You are God's Covenant with us and this is why all that God said to Abram finds its fulfillment in the Church, Your Body, Your Bride.  You O Lord are My shield and You are our great and everlasting reward for You are the Love of God that unites us irrevocably to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

What our eyes see and what our reason tells us means nothing for the hand of God remains upon us and the power of the Most High constantly overshadows us. Beloved, You are with us always this alone is enough to strengthen us and give us courage for no matter how terrifying the storms around us we can rest quietly in You knowing that with You and in You evil cannot lay hold of us. We are marked and sealed by God, for God.

PSALM 104(105):1-4,6-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We praise and thank our God, for You, O Lord, are the Everlasting Covenant that He has made with us forever. 

Be proud of his holy name,
let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice.
Consider the Lord and his strength;
constantly seek his face.

He remembers his covenant for ever,
his promise for a thousand generations,
the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.

MATTHEW 7:15-20 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Thank You for revealing to us how to recognize false prophets and to beware of them. They can be found everywhere for Evil has made its way even into the highest echelons of the Church. There are respected people holding high office who are instruments of evil. Anyone who preaches a Gospel other than the one preached by You is a liar and a thief. St. Paul also warns us, But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

The Church holds in her Treasury the Sacred Deposit of our Faith and on it she stands firm and invincible against the buffetting of the evil culture that is raging around us. You will preserve her from preaching a watered-down Gospel. You will guard her against those even within the Church who want to accommodate this degenerate and evil generation. Those with power, money, and possessing the influence to hoodwink the work with beguiling half-truths are crowing with delight under the misguided belief that they are winning. The Victory is already won. The Cross has triumphed. The King is Coming. Let us not be found napping but wide awake and ready, rooted firmly in Truth.

‘Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.’

MONDAY OF WEEK TWELVE IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts. HEB 4:12

GENESIS 12:1-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Our lives are constantly evolving, there is always change, it is one thing that we can be certain of. How we handle that change says a great deal about the kind of people we are. Many of us grumble, are dissatisfied, and refuse to accept the new things that You are doing and accept all that comes from Your hand graciously. 

Abraham was 75 years of age when You called him out of his comfort zone and instructed him to go to a place that was unknown to him among strangers and he obeyed. He took his family and all his belongings and set out according to the will of God. The blessings that he was promised, the great land and descendants as numerous as the stars were not fulfilled in his lifetime but many, many years after he was long dead and gone. Yet he is revered to this day for his great faith and as the father of faith and the father of many nations.

Truly Beloved, Your ways are not our ways, nor our Your thoughts our thoughts. It is wise and always good for us to yield willingly, obediently, joyfully, and promptly to all that You ask of us. You keep in perfect peace all who surrender their lives to You wholeheartedly. 

PSALM 32(33):12-13,18-20,22 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We are Yours. We are called by Your Name. You have called us out of darkness into Your own marvelous light. We are children of God and co-heirs with You to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the reason why the children of God are happy - we are happy because God is with us, the Holy Spirit abides in us, and makes us His dwelling place, His sanctuary, and we are made holy because He is in us.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.

We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people a people who are privileged to know You, worship You, and have the wondrous hope of spending eternity with You. And while we wait, Beloved, for an end to our pilgrimage from this life to the life that is to come You care for us, You feed us on the finest wheat and the sweetest honey in the Eucharist which is Your Body and Blood which give us a foretaste of the eternal joys of heaven. Thank You, Lord, for the life-giving Sacraments that provide all the graces we need to keep us alive.

MATTHEW 7:1-5 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Almost every one of us spends the better part of our lives judging and criticizing others, we have a holier-than-thou attitude, and by belittling others we food ourselves that we are better than them. 

Today You speak to us sternly warning us that no one has the right to judge our fellow sisters and brothers. It is absolutely true, Beloved, that is we dare to point a finger at the weaknesses of others sooner or later we or those we love will fall into the very same pit and our fall will be greater than those we have criticized.

You remind us today that it would be more profitable to us if we spent our lives working out our own salvation with fear and trembling instead of nit-picking others and daring to observe the little faults in others while deceiving ourselves that we are without fault. You call us hypocrites and remind us that we would be better served if we first took out the plan from our own eye for only then we would see clearly enough to remove the splinter from the eye of our brother.

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The Spirit of truth will be my witness;
and you too will be my witnesses. JN 15:26, 27

JEREMIAH 20:10-13 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Jeremiah was hounded by his enemies, those in power who hated him because he pointed out their sins. They preferred not to have their conscience troubled and saw him as a constant reminder that their wicked lives were an affront to God and to His Laws.

This was even more true of You - the people of Israel and especially those in authority hated You and from the beginning of Your public ministry plotted to destroy You. Jeremiah's life was a foreshadowing of what Yours too would be. You had to flee even as an infant in the arms of Your Mother Mary and St. Joseph when Herod sought to kill You. The evil in him was so great that he thought nothing of slaughtering innocent babies in the hope that You too would be in that number and would be destroyed posing no threat to his illegitimate rule as king.

How did God avenge our sins beginning with the sin of our first parents? He sent His only Son into the world, You became like us in all things save sin, and You took upon Yourself our wickedness, our evil, the horror of all our sins, and the dreadful consequences of those sins upon Yourself and You paid the price that we could never pay. This was Your vengeance against the Enemy - this is how God, our Father, dealt with our infamy, our wickedness, and our rejection of His love, and before such love, my Soul's Beloved, we stand in awe, in shame, and whole-hearted gratitude for having disarmed us with His loving kindness.

But you, O Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice,
who scrutinise the loins and heart,
let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.
Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord,
for he has delivered the soul of the needy
from the hands of evil men.

PSALM 68(69):8-10,14,17,33-35 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

This is the prayer of Your Bride, the Church, that someday soon, the whole world will stand in awe and gratitude for the work of salvation that You wrought for us on the Hill of Calvary. The Cross is the answer to our unquenchable thirst for love. Drinking deep from the Cup of Salvation, Beloved, we are saved, we are redeemed, we are made whole, we are made one with God.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

We are living in an age where the Church is being persecuted and we ask for the grace and strength to rejoice and be glad for the day of Your second coming in glory is drawing near. 

The poor when they see it will be glad

and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.

You alone O Lord can help us to overcome the violence and the virulent hatred of those who have set their face against us and seek to annihilate us from the face of the earth. May the blood of Your faithful servants O Lord be the seed of new Christians to foil the work of the Enemy. 

ROMANS 5:12-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We were not guilty of original sin but our parents were and we inherited their tainted nature and hence were doomed to die an eternal death. One man through his disobedience shut the gates of paradise forever for the rest of us and no child of Adam could hope to open it again. 

God had to intervene. God who so loved the world that He would not permit His poor creatures to perish so He sent You, His only Son into the world to become the means by which we are saved. You who reposed in the bosom of the Father, His only Word, His Eternal Word, left the loving embrace of God to come into the world as one like us, clothed in human flesh, taking upon Yourself our weakness, becoming little, becoming for a little while less than the angels in order that You, the Sinless One, could become sin. Taking upon Yourself our iniquity, our shame, our guilt, our loss, paying the price that was death, plunging into it and redeeming the whole human race by raising us to new life in You through Your glorious, triumphant, victorious resurrection. THANK YOU, LORD! THANK YOU1

Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.

MATTHEW 10:26-33 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Never in the course of history has there been such a total rejection of Christianity and its doctrinal teachings which we received from You. While this almost total rejection was once confined to the chosen people of God, for as yet the Gospel had not reached the ends of the earth, today the whole world has heard the Good News of our salvation preached and taught, the faith accepted and lived by many.  Yet many nations that once were fervently and staunchly Catholic and Christian have either not passed on their faith or have passed down a weak and watered-down version of it. 

Never has the warning You gave Your Apostles to be alert and watchful been more pertinent than it is in our time. ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.’ You also console us saying to us now and always: ‘Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.’

Grant us this grace Lord always to be unafraid to stand for You and against the wiles of the Enemy, the evil culture we live in, and above all our own concupiscence.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’

THE NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

As for you, little child, you shall be called
a prophet of God, the Most High.
You shall go ahead of the Lord
to prepare his ways before him. LK 1:76

ISAIAH 49:1-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Each one of us, born in our time, is called to be a messenger of the Good News and to spread the Gospel of Love and Life to the nations. Today, the Church honours and celebrates the life of St. John the Baptist, the pre-cursor, the forerunner, the new Elijah, who prepared the way for Your coming.

From the first moment when he encountered You while both You and he were in Your respective mother's womb, he leaped for joy in Your Presence and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was consecrated and given his mission from that moment on. He was on fire with zeal and he was not cowed down by the political or religious authorities of his time. He called out and named the sins of those who had the power to destroy him but that did not deter him. 

He mortified and tamed his body so his whole being could focus on fulfilling the will and plan of God. He prepared the way for Your coming. He invited all those who flocked to listen to him preach to repent of their sins for the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world would soon be among them. 

And when the hour had arrived for him to decrease so You could increase, he did so joyfully as the friend of the Bridegroom rejoices with him. Grant us the same generosity of spirit O Lord and a consuming zeal to spread the Gospel by the witness of our lives.

PSALM 138(139):1-3,13-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

I rejoice in Your intimate knowledge of me. With You I can be myself with all my faults, failings, and foibles for You love me regardless of the fact that I am a sinner and quite unworthy of Your love.

I desire O Lord, to rest quietly in You, fearing nothing, anxious about nothing, desiring nothing but rejoicing in Your closeness and Your unfathomable by unquestionable love for me. 

How do I know that You love me to distraction? Because You lay down Your life for me, You bore my sins, You endured the punishment that was mine, You died my death in order for me to receive Your life. This life I now live is all Yours my Beloved,

do with me just as you will.

ACTS 13:22-26 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Crowds flocked each day to hear John the Baptist and to be baptized by him. He preached a baptism of repentance for sins. Yet he did not permit the adulation of the crowds to swell his head and make him prideful, boastful, and covetous of the fact that he was only the messenger of the Good News. He was the friend of the Bridegroom, not the Bridegroom and he was fully and humbly aware that he was unworthy to even loosen the straps of Your sandals. 

So many of us get puffed up and filled with vain glory at the gifts and charisms that are given to us by the Holy Spirit to build by one another, to build up the Church. We have not merited any of it - all is pure. Too often we allow the gifts to crowd out the presence of the Giver of the gifts.

Keep us ever aware O Lord that we are but servants who must labor faithfully in the Master's vineyard to bring in the harvest. Neither the vineyard nor the harvest is ours all belongs to You and as servants, we will all be held accountable for our stewardship. Keep us faithful, humble, and obedient O Lord, all the days of our lives.

LUKE 1:57-66,80 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When our whole being is caught up in doing Your will, serving You, and being attentive and obedient to Your commandments we will be filled with supernatural joy and peace and experience the freedom that belongs to the children of God.

As soon as Zechariah wrote on the tablet, 'His name is John' the name revealed by the messenger of God, his tongue was loosened and when the power of speech returned to him, he sang a hymn of exultant praise to God. A hymn full of prophecy and promise, of hope and of joy for God had visited His people.

So many astounding things took place since the Angel's visit to Zechariah - God had pierced the veil of time and space and God walked among His people. The tragedy was that these people whom God chose, God led, God perfected through many trials, ultimately rejected You. But this was all part of God's glorious plan - because of their rejection, the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles and we are saved. 

Someday Your people too will believe. We long for that day, we pray for that day, hasten its coming Lord, for it will hasten Your coming as well. Maranatha Lord Jesus, Maranatha.

FRIDAY OF WEEK ELEVEN IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. MT 5:3

2 CORINTHIANS 11:18,21-30 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

If every Catholic was like St. Paul the whole world would become Catholic. Sadly, even in the hierarchy, there are many wolves in sheep's clothing and they make us hang our head in shame.

Which of us, living in relative comfort does not face some degree of persecution from our hedonistic culture? Yet there are many places where our Christian sisters and brothers face mistreatment as a matter of course. Many countries boldly, unabashedly, and unashamedly, persecute their fellow citizens simply for being Christian. Sometimes the oppression may be more covert, more subtle but it is just as deadly and dehumanizing. 

St. Paul reminds us that all suffering for Your Sake and the sake of the Gospel is meritorious. He suffered all kinds of hardships, privations, persecutions, torture, imprisonment, and even attempts on his life, yet remained unwavering in his faith. It is good for us to emulate his example and be joyful when we are faced with discrimination or denied basic rights, or face ostracism simply because of our faith in You, for You assure us that You will reward us. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.’

PSALM 33(34):2-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The psalmist reminds us why our hearts should always overflow with joyful praise and why there should always be songs of praise on our lips. We have a God who so loved us that He gave up His only, well-beloved Son so that all who believe in Him may not perish but have eternal life.

You are a God who is close to us in all the circumstances of our lives. You are close to us in our joys and closer to us in our distress. Your Name has the power to save and set us free from all the terrors and fears that plague us.

Thank You for the Sacraments, Beloved, and above all thank You for the Sacrament of Sacraments where You give us Yourself as our food and drink. Your Presence in us illumines our whole being and with You in us and us in You what have we to fear?  Nothing but separation from You by our sins. Thank You, Lord, for the remedy to sin which is available to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Grant that we avail of this Sacrament frequently so we will never remain parted from You too long.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

and rescued him from all his distress.

MATTHEW 6:19-23 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Too often we spend our lives gathering, heaping, storing, and saving feverishly. We tell ourselves that these things will be useful to us someday, and before we know it we come to the evening of our lives only to discover that none of it sweeten the bitter regret of precious time lost on obtaining these useless trifles. 

Looking back which of us does not regret bitterly how wantonly and with no lasting merit we have squandered this most precious commodity. Too late we realize how quickly we run the course of our lives and all we have left are regret and sorrow for not spending this great gift more meritoriously. 

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’

Thank You, Lord, that with You who are Lord of our past, our present, and our future nothing is lost when we come back to You with all our hearts. You have the power to make us whole again, and to make us a new creation in You. You are the Light of the world and when we are reconciled to You, Your light illumines our life. Thank You, Lord, that every repentant sinner will find forgiveness and mercy in You. 

THURSDAY OF WEEK ELEVEN IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The spirit you received is the spirit of sons,
and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ ROM 8:15

2 CORINTHIANS 11:1-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We who are members of Your Body are grateful for the shepherds You gave us. Beginning with Peter and the Apostles and the great Apostle of the Gentiles St. Paul, and their subsequent successors You have watched over Your Church as tenderly as a mother watches over her baby.

Keep us ever grateful and loyal to our Pope, Bishops, and priests for their generous, loving, and wholehearted service to the children of God. Keep us ever mindful of our duty to pray for them, to support them, and to encourage them. Yes, they are flawed, they are weak, they are sinners just like the rest of us and oftentimes they can be overwhelmed by the demands made on them. Let us not be too quick to judge, criticize, and condemn rather may we do all we can to help and support them and above all to pray for them daily.

PSALM 110(111):1-4,7-8 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When the trials and difficulties that I undergo loom large and forbidding may I take a moment to consider that I am not alone and that all suffering is meant to strengthen virtue in me. Grant me the grace to focus on You rather than the problem and to know that because I belong to You I can trust You to provide all I need to overcome every challenge.

Keep me close to You and close to the family of God in the Church. As members of Your Body and as members of the household of God may we give You unceasing praise and thanksgiving as we consider all that God has done for us. You have loved us with an everlasting love, may we respond gratefully to Your love and acknowledge always and everywhere that You are truly good and deserving of all our love, praise, adoration, and worship.

Majestic and glorious his work,
his justice stands firm forever.
He makes us remember his wonders.
The Lord is compassion and love.

Your works, Lord, are justice and truth.

MATTHEW 6:7-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You taught us how to pray, how we are to address God, how we are to approach Him in prayer, and the order in which we ought to place our petitions before Him. 

To begin with, we must be open, childlike, simple, and humble. We cannot manipulate God - He is all-wise, all-knowing and we are only His poor little creatures. Despite this, You teach us to address the omnipotent God as Abba, Daddy, Papa, and in doing so You draw us into Your own loving relationship with Your Dad. If we are to call God our Father then You O Lord, are our Brother. 

God desires that we acknowledge Him as Dad but we must recognize the fact that He is all-holy and hence must always be held in great reverence and awe. We are created to love God with our whole heart, whole soul, whole mind, and with all our strength and our love for Him must spill out to one another whom we are commanded to love we love ourselves. This is God's will and in doing this we find perfect joy. To discern God's will and to do it promptly, purposefully, and in joyful submission is the only way in which we can be truly happy and find fulfillment in our lives.

Only then do we bring our needs both spiritual and temporal to Him. Although He already knows all that is in our hearts He still delights in us approaching Him with childlike confidence and asking Him for all that we need. We need above all the Bread of Angels, the Holy Eucharist, the Heavenly Manna, without which we will have no life and strength to walk the narrow way that leads to the Kingdom of God. We then make our temporal needs known to Him.

A righteous man falls seven times a day, we frail sinners fall all the time. We must humbly recognize our need for grace to be able to withstand the wiles of the world the flesh and the devil and each time we fall we must come with childlike simplicity before God with a repentant and contrite heart and beg for forgiveness. But our being forgiven is dependent on our willingness to forgive the transgressions of others against us. We have been forgiven much so let us readily forgive the minor or major slights of our neighbors against us.  

Thank You, Beloved, for the gift of Your Holy Spirit without whose help we would lack the grace to acknowledge that You are Lord.

All glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious on Wednesday of week 11 in Ordinary Time - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him. JN 14:23

2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Today we are reminded to share generously what we have received so generously from You. The shorter our hand the more sparse will be the blessings and graces we receive to live the abundant life You desire to heap on us. In the measure that we give we will receive.

The poor are always with us and there are always opportunities to share not only our material resources but our spiritual resources as well. We are called to share not only from our abundance but from our need for unless our giving costs us something it is not true giving.

We are assured that God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift will ensure that we will never be in want. He will enlarge our hearts and spur us on to be even more generous for He who is our provider will multiply seven-fold all that we give so we will never run short of all that is needed.

PSALM 111 (112):1-4,9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Keep my gaze constantly on You and not on my weaknesses, my lack, or my propensity to sin. The more I lean on You the more will I learn the necessity to rely on You for everything for of myself I have nothing and I am nothing.

Give me a holy fear so I will never grieve You. Fill me with Your graces and Your Holy Spirit so I may not stumble and should I fall, my Lord, hasten to pick me up and help me to begin anew with true repentance and contrition. I desire to be holy, I desire to be perfect but sadly I often lack the will to put my good intentions to action. Help me Lord for without Your help I will perish.

MATTHEW 6:1-6,16-18 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

My flesh is weak and has been indulged for too long making it difficult for me now to exercise self-discipline and gain mastery over myself. Too long have I desired the approbation of others. Too long have I desired to be noticed for any good that I have done which in truth were nothing but filthy rags before You.

True giving comes so naturally, so quietly, so unostentatiously that no one notices. In fact, You say it so well, "When you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.’

All that we do according to our state in life must be done purely out of love for You and because without prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we will never love You as we ought. A love that goes far above and beyond the call of satisfying the prescriptions of the law is possible only when the Commandment to love God first and our neighbor as ourselves is engraved on our hearts.

TUESDAY OF WEEK ELEVEN IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I give you a new commandment:
love one another just as I have loved you,
says the Lord. JN 13:34

2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Apostles, St. Paul, and all the saints whose lives shine brightly in the living memory of the Church are held up to us, her children to emulate. St. Paul describes how the churches in Macedonia even though they were poor were rich in generosity. They shared everything they had with those less fortunate brothers and sisters in churches elsewhere. This, St. Paul says is a work of grace given to them by God. This is a reminder to us that if we are truly children of God and regard our fellow Christians as our sisters and brothers our hands and our hearts will be open to give, to share, to minister to them for we are one Body in You. In fact, we would consider it a privilege, a grace, and a blessing to give not just of our surplus but even if our own resources are meager. Those who give generously with a cheerful heart will never know want. The key to giving St. Paul points out is this: They offered their own selves first to God and, under God, to us.

Anyone who gives, because they feel they are compelled to do so, or for the sake of appearances, or with any other unworthy motive makes a mockery of true giving and self-abnegation. When we are invited to give or feel the Holy Spirit nudging us to do so let us respond with an open heart and hand always bearing this in mind:

Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty.

PSALM 145(146):2,5-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The psalmist reminds us that it is good to sing Your praises while we are yet here on earth. To praise You in all circumstances fuels our faith, hope, and trust in You and fills us with joy even if we are facing trials and difficulties.

I will praise the Lord all my days,
make music to my God while I live.

Beloved, You created us for Heaven and for eternal joy in Your Presence. We can make a start by beginning here on earth to live as if we were already in eternity. Thank You for taking care of all our needs both spiritual and temporal. Thank You for the bread that sustains our body and for the Bread of Life that sustains our souls. Thank You for the freedom that belongs to the children of God who are no longer enslaved to sin. Thank You, Lord, for taking away our spiritual blindness. Thank You for seeking us who were lost and are now found. Thank You, Lord, that You do not think it absurd to leave the ninety-nine sheep safe and to come and look for the one who is lost. It isn't absurd when that lost sheep is me. Thank You, Jesus.

MATTHEW 5:43-48 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Today's Gospel passage is a stark reminder that disinterested love is not easy, in fact, it is impossible without grace. Thankfully, this grace is readily available and the Holy Spirit will pour this grace into our hearts if we honestly desire to love one another as You have loved us.

Before our conversion, before we became aware of what true discipleship meant as well as its cost and rewards, it would have been impossible to love our enemies, our persecutors, those who deliberately sought to do us harm, to bring us down, to belittle us, to hurt and wound us. But now, O Lord, that You have sought and found us, now that You, have dressed our wounds and healed us, now that we know how great is Your love for us unworthy creatures, and it is You our Lord and our God who exhorts us to strive after holiness and perfection, we ought to strive earnestly to be like our Father in Heaven who is all holy and all perfect. However, Lord, on our own this is impossible this is why You have given us Your Holy Spirit for with Him nothing is impossible.

MONDAY OF WEEK ELEVEN IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Your word is a lamp for my steps
and a light for my path. PS 118:105

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We look at the lives of the Apostles, at St. Paul, at the lives of all the great Saints who considered the world well lost so long as they were possessed by You and they possessed You. But are we willing to empty ourselves so completely that we care nothing for our creature comforts, we are prepared to suffer all kinds of persecution, hardships, calumny, rejection, loss of reputation, imprisonment, the loss of all worldly possessions, all friendships and relationships that hinder our friendship and relationship with You? The truthful answer is no. We are constantly making compromises with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are not prepared to offer You the kind of self-emptying love that makes it possible to receive the riches of God in You that is poured into the hearts of all who consider this life well lost in order to possess and be possessed by You. 

Today we are faced with the stark reminder that this present moment is the favourable time and we are not to neglect the grace of God given so liberally and lavishly to us. You have visited Your people - this is day of salvation, this is the time of Your visitation may we not delay our conversion for it will pass, and it may be too late.

We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.

PSALM 97(98):1-4 ©

My Soul's Beloved, 

Let this day O Lord be the day when we sing exultantly for we are saved. And while we rejoice and are glad let us not forget our brothers and sisters who have not yet come to know You, to love You, and to acknowledge that You are the only Way by which all may enter the Kingdom of God.

Love incarnate made it possible for us to regain what our first parents so wantonly squandered. May every breath we breathe give You praise and may our lives be a testament to the wonders that You have done for us and how Love saved us.

MATTHEW 5:38-42 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

When Your disciples heard You teach the Way of the Lord they were wonderstruck, no one not even their most gifted teachers of the Law spoke as You did. You invited everyone who desired to follow You to radical discipleship. In a world where the culture exhorts us to look out for ourselves and to stomp on and elbow out of the way anyone who hinders us from grabbing and holding on to whatever we can whether we need it or not, You show us another way, the way of total renunciation of the flesh. It is only through disciplining our flesh, our thoughts, and our desires that we can gain mastery over ourselves. 

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.’

True strength comes from a place of confidence that if You are for us nothing and no one can stand against it. Love has the power to disarm and conquer. You did not say it was easy but it was necessary if the Kingdom of God is to come among us. 

ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The kingdom of God is close at hand:
repent, and believe the Good News. MK 1:15

EXODUS 19:2-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Accompany me into the wilderness and there let me pitch camp with You. There with only You as my Companion, my Friend, my Brother, my Spouse I can sit still at Your feet, choosing the better part I will drink deep from the Cup of Your Love.

God chose a people from among all the nations. He accompanied them even when they did not know it. He chose Moses to lead them from slavery in Egypt and brought them out into the wilderness so they could encounter Him and be purified and strengthened by Him. He gave them the Law and commanded them to obey it if they were to His people and a sign of His Presence in a godless world. And this is the Covenant He made with them, “You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.”

But we are the new people of God and You O Lord, the only Son of the Living God are Yourself the Covenant that God has made with us. We who are baptized and grafted into Your Body are called by Your Name. To us, God, our Father, says, "So greatly do I love you that I have given you my only Son, believe in Him and you will not perish but have eternal life". 

Thank You, Father, for giving us Your Beloved Son Jesus, grant to us also through the power of Your Holy Spirit that we may love Him daily more and more.

ROMANS 5:6-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Thank You for speaking to us through the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans. Having died for us while we were still sinners, taking our own sins upon Yourself, paying the price with Your life for our redemption, we are saved. Too great a price was paid for our salvation so God would not destroy us in His righteous anger. You took upon Yourself the full weight of our rejection of God and redeemed us. Your death makes us righteous before God. We are reconciled by Your Blood. We are saved by Your passion and death and we are raised to new life by Your glorious resurrection. 

While we cannot presume anything we can count on Your mercy and Your love.

Having died to make us righteous, is it likely that he would now fail to save us from God’s anger? When we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, we were still enemies; now that we have been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son? Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Blessed is the Virgin Mary,
who treasured the word of God
and pondered it in her heart. LK 2:19

ISAIAH 61:9-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Mary exulted in God's goodness from the moment she understood that she was the one chosen by Him and she recognized the great favour He had bestowed on her. 

Every prophecy concerning the redemption and the salvation of the human race and the manner in which God would accomplish it commences from the very moment of Mary's fiat to the will of God. Heaven and earth waited in hushed silence, waited patiently for the few moments it took to assimilate what the Angel Gabriel was asking of her and she said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ 

Today, we celebrate the Immaculate Heart of the Woman espoused to the Holy Spirit, the Woman who is the fairest of all the daughters of the Father, and the Woman who is the Mother of the Son of God. The militant Church on earth exults with her, and with the triumphant Church in heaven at the marvels that the Lord has accomplished because she said, 'Yes'.

‘I exult for joy in the Lord,
my soul rejoices in my God,
for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation,
he has wrapped me in the cloak of integrity,
like a bridegroom wearing his wreath,
like a bride adorned in her jewels.
‘For as the earth makes fresh things grow,
as a garden makes seeds spring up,
so will the Lord make both integrity and praise
spring up in the sight of the nations.’

Today, let us set aside all our burdens and sorrows, let us dry our tears and rejoice wholeheartedly with heaven and the Church for this great gift of Mary without whose cooperation God could not have saved and redeemed us in the glorious way that He did. Alleluia! Amen! Praise the Lord!

LUKE 2:41-51 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

All parents are often wounded by their children most especially when they begin to grow, mature and discover their identities. While this is the way it must be parents experience the pain when their little ones begin to pull away from them and become their own person. It is comforting to know that this was also the experience of Mary and Joseph. Little did they know at the beginning of their journey and as they set out to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover that the cup of suffering would be raised to Mary's lips and both she and St. Joseph were permitted to take a sip of it as a foretaste of what was in store for her.   

Until the time when You remained back in the Temple after the feast, You had never given them a single anxious moment. So certain were both Mary and Joseph that You were with the caravan that they did not seek You it was only after a whole day had passed that they began to look for You. It is every parent's nightmare - the loss of a child. One can well imagine their sorrow and anxiety as they made their way back to Jerusalem, perhaps on foot, and every moment seemed like an eternity as a myriad worrying thoughts crossed their minds. It took three days before they found You - both Mary and Joseph too were given a foretaste of the three days that would come years later when You were put to death, crucified, and buried until that glorious day when You rose from the dead. 

They found You in the Temple sitting among the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions that had never occurred to them before to which perhaps they were struggling to find an answer. They watched the scene before them with a mixture of relief and awe. Relief won the day when Mary whose face was etched with lines of grief as she said to You gently, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’

How startled both Joseph and Mother Mary would have been at Your reply, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ As Your Mother narrated this incident to Luke, the evangelist, she honestly confesses that neither Joseph nor she understand what You meant. However, these last lines cast a veil on the following years as we read: He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. While Your Mother stored up all these things in her heart.

For every parent, the time arrives when after we have done our best in raising our children we have to let them go. We have to cut the strings and permit our adult children to make mistakes perhaps grave ones while we pray for them unceasingly that just as You have allowed us to find our way back to You so too You will surely and gently help them to find their way back to You.