FRIDAY OF WEEK FIVE IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son. ACTS 16:14

1 KINGS 11:29-32,12:19 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We are constantly unfaithful yet You remain faithless. You keep all Your promises to us but we break ours as soon as we are tempted. You never forsake us we forsake You constantly. You are patient with us and You do not punish us as we deserve instead You pursue us relentlessly until You find us and You lead us back tenderly to the fold.

Solomon deserved to be punished for forgetting all that You had done for him and how blessed he was in every way yet in his old age he was faithless. He sinned gravely. He bowed down before idols and yet You were gracious to him for the sake of his father David. 

God our Father is also gracious to us for Your sake. Thank You, Beloved, for all You have done for us. Thank You for laying down Your life for us and for paying the price for our redemption. You paid a debt You did not owe so we could live. Thank You. 

PSALM 80(81):10-15 ©

Let there be no foreign god among you,

no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you from the land of Egypt.

But my people did not heed my voice

and Israel would not obey,
so I left them in their stubbornness of heart
to follow their own designs.

O that my people would heed me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!
At once I would subdue their foes,
turn my hand against their enemies.

I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.

MARK 7:31-37 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The effects of sin weaken us not only in our soul but in our body, mind, and spirit as well. We become wounded and sick and fall more easily when we are tempted. The man who was deaf also had a speech impediment because of his deafness. When the people brought him to You so You could lay Your hand on him and heal him, You did not do as the crowd desired instead, You led the man away in private. You put Your finders into the man's ears and touched his tongue with Your spittle. You then looked up to Your Father in heaven, sighed, and spoke the world that would break the fetters and set his tongue loose and open his ears to hear. 'Ephphatha, be opened'. 

So too are we healed completely in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we make a good confession. You take us away in private, we unburden our sins to You and You touch us, pour Your precious Blood on us, forgive and heal us, and fill us once more with the life of Your Holy Spirit.

Along with the crowd we too praise and thank You, Lord, we glorify Your Name as we say, 'You do all things well. You make us whole with just a word. O Eternal Word of the Father speak that Word always and may we be receptive to it and be healed.