ST. AMBROSE, BISHOP & DOCTOR, ON THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,
call to him while he is still near. IS 55:6

ISAIAH 26:1-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The strong city is the Church You founded and to which You, O Lord, are the gate through which all are invited to enter. Your commandments and the Sacraments You instituted are the wall and the rampart around her keeping safe all within her. They are protected, nourished, and guarded from the baying wolves who seek to destroy those within her who abide in You.

The songs she sings are songs of praise as she offers to God, our Father, the only perfect and acceptable Sacrifice of worship and thanksgiving from the rising of the sun to its setting. It is this Sacrifice that sustains the world and keeps the darkness at bay.

You O Lord, keep in perfect peace those who trust in You and in Your love. For we who belong to You, who have received the seal of the Holy Spirit in our soul, know that those who put their faith, hope, and trust in You will never be put to shame. You O Lord are the everlasting Rock, You O Lord are the Cornerstone, You O Lord are the foundation on which Holy Mother Church stands. She is the safe harbor into which You invite all who believe in You to enter. The mighty, the powerful, the proud, and the boastful, those who trampled and crushed the poor, the outcast, the widow, the orphan, and the marginalized will fall, crash, burn, and it is those little ones' whose lives that they have destroyed who will trample on them and destroy them and no one will remember them or recall their names. They will be scattered to the four winds like dust and forgotten forever. 

PSALM 117(118):1,8-9,19-21,25-27 ©

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in men;
it is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.

Open to me the gates of holiness:
I will enter and give thanks.
This is the Lord’s own gate
where the just may enter.
I will thank you for you have answered
and you are my saviour.

O Lord, grant us salvation;
O Lord, grant success.
Blessed in the name of the Lord
is he who comes.
We bless you from the house of the Lord;
the Lord God is our light.

Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.

MATTHEW 7:21,24-27 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Our good deeds make visible the faith that we profess. Faith is Your gift to us given freely at our Baptism we will be asked to give an account of this free gift of faith. Faith without good works is dead as St. James tells us. Holy Mother Church gives us the spiritual and corporal works of Mercy. We have the two great Commandments that we are to live out in our daily lives for as long as we have breath in our bodies. You despise hypocrites who say, "Lord, Lord," but whose hearts, minds, and lives are closed to the cry of those in distress. 

Obedience and humility are what we need as we carry our cross daily and follow You. We are called to serve for Your clear instructions to Your disciples is that the Son of Man came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Your word O Lord says many not all - for although all are called not all respond to Your invitation. Not all have well-oiled and trimmed lamps as they await the coming of the Bridegroom. Not all hearts receive the seed of God's Word as on good soil allowing it to bear fruit some thirty, some sixty, and come a hundred-fold. 

Unless we build our house on the Church You founded with Peter as the Rock and You its Cornerstone, unless we humbly submit to the Chair of Peter in all matters concerning faith and morals, unless we are nourished frequently on the Sacraments we can have no part in You. Life is short, Beloved, and evil, like a tsunami threatens to destroy and wash away all that is good, holy, pure, beautiful, true, and sacred, and divine but we are unafraid for we stand on Your promise with confidence that You O Lord will not permit the gates of hell to prevail over Your Bride and all who are members of Your mystical body, the Church. But those who refuse to enter, who do not accept Your invitation to be a part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, who refuse to accept Your words and act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had! 

Beloved, Your Church prays daily that all may come to the knowledge of truth and embrace it so all may be saved. Heavenly Father, we offer You the most precious blood of Your divine Son in atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world. Have mercy on us and on the world O God our Father, for the sake of Jesus' sorrowful passion. Heal the world, save the world, we offer You Jesus as our praise.