DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
The Lord has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives. LK 4:17
ISAIAH 61:1-3
My Soul’s Beloved,
The lives of great saints teach us sinners what is possible when we surrender our lives to You and live our lives according to the commandments. The whole of the Law You said is summed up in the two great commandments of love – the first is to love God above, before, and beyond all else, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Beloved, You read this passage in the synagogue in Nazareth before the people who knew and watched You grow from child to boy, to man. They thought they knew You. Their preconceived perception of You prevented them from recognizing who You truly were.
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Antony of Padua a great saint revered by many and I too, my Lord, revere him. I thank You for his life. If we truly admire him then we must model our lives on his. We must imitate his humility, his love of poverty, his great love for the Word of God, his love for all creation, and above all his childlike love and surrender to You, to God.
We too O Lord, have received Your Spirit. It is poured into our soul at our Baptism and it sustains us all through our lives. Lord God, may we allow the Holy Spirit to use us in the way that the Lord has planned and ordained for us so our lives will be a pleasing fragrance before You always.
PSALM 88(89):2-5,21-22,25,27
I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts forever,
that your truth is firmly established as the heavens.
‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty forever
and set up your throne through all ages.
‘I have found David my servant
and with my holy oil anointed him.
My hand shall always be with him
and my arm shall make him strong.
‘My truth and my love shall be with him;
by my name his might shall be exalted.
He will say to me: “You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.”’
I will sing forever of your love, O Lord.
LUKE 10:1-9
My Soul’s Beloved,
By virtue of our baptism and the fact that we are children of God, we are given a mission. It is the same mission that You gave to all Your disciples. Today Lord, we pay particular attention to the instructions You gave the seventy-two disciples whom You appointed and sent out ahead of You in pairs to all the towns and places You Yourself would visit. They were to prepare the way for You just as St. John the Baptist did.
Since that time O Lord, and over the course of these 2000 years and more many men and women, popes, bishops, priests, and ordinary men and women have embraced the great commission that You have given to all who are baptized into Your Body, to preach and teach the Good News to the ends of the earth. Many, like St. Antony, dedicated their entire lives and zealously carried out this mandate given to the entire Church. Many were imprisoned, tortured, put to death, suffered greatly, putting to death the desires of the flesh, and burned with a holy fire to bring many to the knowledge of Truth and salvation.
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