TUESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

It was ordained that the Christ should suffer
and rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory. LK 24:46,26

ACTS 14:19-28 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You are greater than the Enemy and the friends of the Enemy who seek to destroy those who are Yours, those called by Your Name. Often times our enemies are people we know people from our own community, our country, and our faith. It was fellow Jews who turned the people against Paul and the Apostles. They were so gripped by hatred of the Truth and the power of the Gospel that they would stop at nothing to obliterate it by murdering the messengers of the Truth.  They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the town and left him there thinking he was dead. But he stood up when the disciples gathered round him and he went back into the town. Love is stronger than hate and love always prevails.

Beloved, You keep us alive, and for as long as God has ordained for us to live on earth we must be faithful to Your commission to us to spread the Good News wherever we are. Paul was faithful despite all that he suffered. No journey was too difficult, no persecution so great, neither imprisonment, hunger, thirst, floggings, abandonment by his friends, nothing could prevent him from teaching and preaching the Good News that saves. It was a burden that weighed on him constantly for he desired to bring as many to the knowledge of the Truth and so to be saved.

We have been given the same mission, Beloved, but so many of us are indifferent, lackadaisical, tepid, and casual. O Lord, as cradle Catholics, we are numbered among those to whom much is given and You warn us, From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.

PSALM 144(145):10-13a,21 ©

All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
and declare your might, O God,
to make known to men your mighty deeds
and the glorious splendour of your reign.

Yours is an everlasting kingdom;
your rule lasts from age to age.

Let me speak the praise of the Lord,
let all mankind bless his holy name
for ever, for ages unending.

Your friends, O Lord, shall make known the glorious splendour of your reign.

JOHN 14:27-31 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

If we truly made Your Word our home then we would be unafraid no matter what the world, the flesh, and the devil threw in our path to hinder us from keeping to the narrow way that leads to salvation.

Your word O Lord is true, and we are consecrated to You and to the Word that is Truth but the way most of us live our lives no one would suspect that we are the people of God chosen from all the world to be members of Your Body, the Church You established with You as its cornerstone and Peter as the Rock on which it is built.

I ask for this grace, today, Beloved, that from now on I make Your Word my home. To abide in Your Word, and so to be nourished by it. 

Today You say to me:

‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,
a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return.
If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.’

Holy Spirit of God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother of God, and my Mother I desire this day and all the days left to me to take Jesus, the beloved of my soul at His Word, to make it the rule of my life, to abide by it and thus see it come alive in me and bear fruit in abundance. This is the grace I seek in Jesus' name. Amen.