FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

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

JOB 7:1-4,6-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

There are seasons in our lives that are perfectly expressed in Job's lamentation to You. Sometimes O Lord the suffering is unbearable and it appears to us that it will never end in such times we long to die so the anguish will cease as well.  And yet O Lord You have taught us by Your own life, passion, and death that there can be no crown without the cross no resurrection without first dying. The Father sent You, His well-beloved Son into the world to teach us how to live and how to die.

Unless we keep our gaze fixed on You during those times when our cross is heaviest there is no way that we can pass through the valley of tears with the sure knowledge that You are with us. You are beside us every step of the way bearing our cross with us. We are only given a little taste of Your Cross and yet, Beloved, it often is too heavy and too hard to bear especially when we have to see those we love so well suffer a spouse or a child - the feeling of helplessness can be overwhelming as our hearts are crushed by their pain.

Thank You, Lord, for the privilege of suffering, for the taste of the passion and the cross, for the cup which You drank to its dregs that is also passed to our lips. Thank You, Lord, for purifying us and strengthening us through suffering for it is the shortest and surest way to the Father's house.

PSALM 146(147):1-6 ©

Praise the Lord for he is good;
sing to our God for he is loving:
to him our praise is due.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem
and brings back Israel’s exiles,
he heals the broken-hearted,
he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars;
he calls each one by its name.

Our Lord is great and almighty;
his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly;
he humbles the wicked to the dust.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

1 CORINTHIANS 9:16-19,22-23 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Paul teaches us in these verses taken from his letter to the people of Corinth that he cannot boast nor take credit for preaching the Gospel as it was a duty given by You to him personally for which he could take no credit. He offers the Good News freely preaching to all and expecting nothing in return unlike so many who claim to be people of God but amass vast fortunes out of the misery of the poor, the broken-hearted, the sinner, those whom You love tenderly and compassionately because they are wounded and sick.

Have mercy on those who use the Gospel for personal gain. Open their eyes Lord, and while we do understand that those who preach and teach the Good News also have families and needs and even employees that need to be paid let them not allow greed to overpower them. Give them faith O Lord that they who have given up all for You and for the sake of the Gospel will not be forgotten by You.

MARK 1:29-39 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

I know that I can always count on You to take me by the hand and help me up when I am sick, I am weak when I have no strength of my own just as You took Peter's mother-in-law by the hand, and helped her up and the fever left her. May I be like her - she wasted no time in unnecessary talk but immediately began to serve You and those who were with You. Once word went around that You were in town the people brought all their sick to You and You spent the entire day running late into the night healing the sick that they brought to You and casting out devils.

Early in the morning, before dawn, You spent time with Your Father praying to Him. Your disciples came in search of You and finding You they The townsfolk came in search of You they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ Urged on by the pressing need of those in the surrounding areas, You said,  ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too because that is why I came.’ You fulfilled Your mission for which You came as You went about preaching and teaching and casting out devils.    

Beloved, You are the Divine Physician - I love You, I trust You. My life is Yours do with me just as You will.