WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 32ND IN ORDINARY TIME - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

For all things give thanks,
because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus. 1 TH 5:18

WISDOM 6:1-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Awareness that You are God and we receive everything according to Your will is wisdom. We are only stewards of what is entrusted to us. To some, You have given great power to govern and rule nations and these people to whom You have entrusted great power, wealth, and influence will be judged stringently. Those who abused their power causing Your little ones to suffer will face Your great wrath and retribution for all their offences depending on the gravity of their transgressions.

On the other hand, You assure the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, those pushed to the peripheries, and those unseen by the world because they are considered an inconvenience that You will judge them tenderly and with great compassion. You O Lord, our God, see all and know all, nothing is hidden from Your sight and You we will be judged accordingly. You have a preferential love for the poor and we too must share that love if we are to be judged mercifully by You.

Let us take to heart and think often what You say to us today and heed Your warning:

Yes, despots, my words are for you,
that you may learn what wisdom is and not transgress;
for they who observe holy things holily will be adjudged holy,
and, accepting instruction from them, will find their defence in them.
Look forward, therefore, to my words;
yearn for them, and they will instruct you.

PSALM 81(82):3-4,6-7 ©

Do justice for the weak and the orphan,
defend the afflicted and the needy.
Rescue the weak and the poor;
set them free from the hand of the wicked.

I have said to you: “You are gods

and all of you, sons of the Most High.”
And yet, you shall die like men,
you shall fall like any of the princes.’

Arise, O God, to judge the earth.

LUKE 17:11-19 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We need to cultivate grateful hearts. Praise of God overflowing from our hearts should spill from our lips in never-ending songs of wonder and delight at the marvels that God has done for us. 

The ten lepers whom You healed, Lord, represent all of us sinners. We are leprous in the grave sins we have committed and our souls are leprous with the stench of decay and death. But You, O Lord our God have the power to restore them to their baptismal innocence and purity in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You have instituted this wondrous means by which all our wounds are healed completely and we are restored to perfect spiritual health. Let us never fail to give You praise and thanks each time we approach You in this Sacrament and You touch our wounds and heal us.

One leper returned to give You thanks praising You at the top of his voice and throwing himself at Your feet thanking You. Let our own response in having been healed of the leprosy of sin that has marred and disfigured our souls be as vociferous as His so everyone will know what marvels You have done for us. May You never have to say of us as You said of the nine who did not return to give thanks: 

‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’