SATURDAY OF WEEK TWENTY-ONE 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

1 THESSALONIANS 4:9-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

For as long as we have breath in our bodies, those who are called by Your Name, O Lord, those who are grafted into Your Body, are reminded that we are to abide by Your Word always. Your Word O Lord must be our food and drink. Only when we conform our lives to Yours, O Lord, just as St. Paul, the Apostles, and all Your disciples did, only then will we become salt and light in the world.

Let us not be timid, let us not be afraid but grant us this grace O Lord to live quietly, and busy ourselves about the things of heaven and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. 

MATTHEW 25:14-30 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Let not anyone who is a Christian dare to say, think, or believe that they have nothing to contribute to building the Kingdom of God on earth and ensuring the reign of the Prince of Peace in their hearts and in the world. God gives graciously according to our ability. 

You, O Lord, will not demand from us more than we are capable of doing or giving, however, when we use the gifts given to us You will increase our capacity to receive. Commensurate to our service in love will we be given more and more of the gifts and graces we need to labor fruitfully in Your vineyard.

Every baptized Christian is given one or more gifts and anyone who claims that they have received nothing from God is a liar. We are filled with admiration when we look at those who spend their whole lives using the gifts they've received and continually and readily seek more in order to work more effectively for Your glory. But it is not enough for us just to admire and praise these holy men and women - their lives, as well as the lives of the Saints must prompt us to do likewise. 

You do not ask for more than we are capable of. You are a God of Justice and only in the measure that we have received are we asked to give. When we put the gift or gifts we have received to use joyfully and generously the more You will entrust us with. Great will be our joy, or our sorrow O Lord, when at the end of our lives we either hear You say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.” or the terrible condemnation: “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest.”

You assure us that: Everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.