THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT (2024)

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN 3:16

EXODUS 20:1-17 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You are the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets - Your law is the law of love and when we keep this law we keep all the laws for love is the divine touchstone by which we measure the quality of our lives.

The Ten Commandments given to Moses were taken to a deeper and higher level on the Sermon on the Mount when You gave us the Beatitudes. They were the blueprint of Your life and we must strive to make it ours as well from the rising of the sun to its setting. Yes, Beloved, we are sinners, we are broken, we lack the strength to live holy and perfect lives but what pleases You most is when we strive wholeheartedly to keep the Law. It does not matter how many times we fall even when You are right beside us, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and You take us by the hand - we still fail, falter, stumble, and fall but all we need to do is rise up and You will help us to begin anew. 

You O Lord are our God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may I live in Your Presence every moment in awe of Your majesty, goodness, and humility as I contemplate Your unfathomable love.  May I never put anything or anyone above my love for You my Lord, my God, and my King, my Creator, my Redeemer, and my Sanctifier and Helper.

You created me for love. You created me for Yourself. You created me for eternity. Help me Lord with every breath I breathe to remain faithful. Keep me close to Holy Mother Church may I use all the rich graces she makes available to me through the Sacraments that You O Lord instituted. Thank You for making provision for all my needs in the Church You founded. All worship, praise, glory, and honor to You O Lord my God now and forever. Amen.

PSALM 18(19):8-11 ©

The law of the Lord is perfect,
it revives the soul.
The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,
it gives wisdom to the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

they gladden the heart.
The command of the Lord is clear,
it gives light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is holy,

abiding for ever.
The decrees of the Lord are truth
and all of them just.

They are more to be desired than gold,

than the purest of gold
and sweeter are they than honey,
than honey from the comb.

You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Paul was another Christ. Wholly surrendered to God and filled with the Holy Spirit he was given, through the supernatural gift of understanding, insights into the heart and mind of God, and the ability to express these divine revelations to the world through his teaching, preaching, and writing. 

Who but the Holy Spirit could help him express the inexpressible with such profound beauty:

While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for showing the world through the conversion of St. Paul and other great sinners like Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine, and others that our past is of no consequence. No matter how wicked we have been and worthy of eternal damnation You can transform the greatest sinners into the greatest saints. 

Come into my life Lord, break into the hardness of my heart and my stubborn self-will, and make me a new creation in Your image and likeness. Amen. 

JOHN 2:13-25 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We are entering the third week of Lent yet so many of us have not yet made a good beginning, our resolve if we have any is weak. Our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving have not yet begun or begun weakly or are at best indifferent. We are like the people in the Temple who are misusing God's sanctuary. Buying and selling, money changers, bartering, haggling, and overlooking the sole reason why people have come to the Temple. We come to worship God as one body and we allow ourselves to get sidetracked by the non-essentials. Our focus is on everything else but prayer, praise, worship, adoration, and fellowship.

You burned with zeal and righteous anger because God's house was turned into a marketplace place and You did something about it. You cleared the Temple, overturned the tables, and commanded the buyers and sellers to take their paraphernalia outside. The Jews were indignant and demanded that You give them a sign to justify what You had done. 

You replied, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ They misunderstood what You said just as Christians to this day misunderstand what You said and did. They quote Your Word out of context and twist it leading themselves and others into error. 

But as St. John the evangelist says, Your disciples remembered these words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. And they understood what You meant after You rose from the dead three days after Your burial. 

‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.

Lord God, by the power of Your Holy Spirit You have assured us that the Church will never teach error on matters of faith and morals. We can trust her to guard the deposit of faith entrusted to her until time shall cease.