STS. PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLES - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, says the Lord.
Philip, to have seen me is to have seen the Father. JN 14:6, 9

1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-8 ©

Had the Apostles not preached the Gospel just as they received it from You and had they not handed it down adding nothing to it nor taking anything away, the Church You founded with Peter and the Apostles would have long since crumbled and vanished. It would have become a parody of what You intended Your Bride to be like all the splinter groups that broke away from Holy Mother Church many of which have since disappeared like mist in the morning sun.

The members of Your Body are firmly established in the gospel and will be saved because she preaches and teaches exactly what she herself received from the Apostles who received it from You. St. Paul says believing anything else will not lead to anything.

This is the Good News we received: Namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.

We are born of water and the Holy Spirit and with fire and we are to hand down what we have received to our children and they to their children just as the Church has given it to us and with Your help, O Lord, my God, we will all come to that place that has been prepared for us since You laid the foundations of the earth where we will praise, worship and adore You in perfect joy eternally.

PSALM 18(19):2-5 ©

The heavens proclaim the glory of God,
and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
and night unto night makes known the message.

No speech, no word, no voice is heard
yet their span extends through all the earth,
their words to the utmost bounds of the world.

Their word goes forth through all the earth.

JOHN 14:6-14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You show Yourself to us always, You abide in us. We know that You and Your Father are one in the Holy Spirit and because we are members of Your Body, we too are one with You in the Father and the Holy Spirit. 

We are children of God and heirs to the Kingdom. We know the Way to the Father because You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through You. You are disappointed when some like Philip say, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ We know You because we live, move, and have our being in You. You taught us to call Your Dad, our Dad. 

Lord God, Lamb of God the prayer of the Church and my prayer is that the whole world comes to believe in the Good News that saves just as the Apostles taught it and as the Church continues to teach us just as she received it, for in her treasury are all the riches of wisdom deposited in her and kept alive by the Holy Spirit. 

‘I tell you most solemnly,
whoever believes in me
will perform the same works as I do myself,
he will perform even greater works,
because I am going to the Father.
Whatever you ask for in my name I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask for anything in my name,
I will do it.’