The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me. JN 10:27
EZEKIEL 18:25-28 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
How comforting it is to know that neither our sins nor the sins of our parents or grandparents are visited on our children. We are all responsible for our own sins and we can all receive God's mercy, forgiveness, and pardon when we repent of them and resolve with the help of grace to sin no more.
Grant this grace to all sinners my Lord, that even though we should fall a thousand times a day we will reach out to You and beg for forgiveness You will never withhold it. Hear my prayer today, Lord, and open the way for those I love to return to You with humble and contrite hearts for Your Word O Lord assures us that a humble and contrite heart You will not spurn.
PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
We pray for all our bishops and priests to have the heart of St. Paul who desired nothing more than that all who belonged to Your fold would remain united in love with You and with each other. True joy is possible in this life only by abiding in You, listening to Your Word, and keeping it always.
May the prayer of St. Paul be our prayer too. May we all work towards genuine Christian charity which in all circumstances, in season and out of season, seeks the good of the other. The culture of the world is narrow, mean-spirited, selfish, turned inward towards self, and hence joyless. You came to show us a better way. It is only in dying that we are born to eternal life.
St. Paul's hymn extolling Your humility reminds us that if You who are divine gladly submitted to the Father's will in order to redeem a fallen world, how much more must we who owe You everything submit gladly to Your Word and Your will. Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables us to live a life of grace
His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings in the heavens,
on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings in the heavens,
on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
MATTHEW 21:28-32 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
We are sanctimonious, self-righteous wretches who are ever ready to point out the faults and failings of all and sundry, and all the while there is a beam in our own eye. You deliberately sought out the outcast and the sinner, those whom society condemned as being outside the pale and You healed their spiritual wounds restoring them to perfect health.
So many of us are like the second son in the parable - we make a big show of doing the will of God but in fact, it is all a sham. We say yes with our lips but our hearts are far from You. Beloved, keep us faithful and do not permit us to cut ourselves from the Vine. Without You and the Church, we would wither and die.
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