TUESDAY OF WEEK 15 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8

ISAIAH 7:1-9

My Soul's Beloved,

The Word of God spoken through the mounts of the prophets of old was not just for God's chosen people of that time but for God's people chosen from all time, in all places, from every nation, language, and culture. You speak to nations and to each person individually. It is for all and for one. It is alive, active, full of power, and grace, and fulfills all God desires.

The Enemy, his army, and all the forces of darkness can come with great noise and to plunder, destroy, and murder but he is powerless before the One who cast him out of His Presence and threw him and his fallen angels into the outer darkness where the worms do not die and the fire does not go out. For God and His angels fight for His children and no one can wrest from Your Hand, Beloved, those whom the Father has destined for eternal joy and eternal life.

Today My Lord, You speak to my fears, to my quaking heart, to my sinking spirit and You say to me as You have spoken so often in the past to God's chosen:

‘Pay attention, keep calm, have no fear,
do not let your heart sink
because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands,
or because Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah
have plotted to ruin you.

It shall not come true; it shall not be.’

I believe my Lord and my God, that in the end, we will triumph. At the end of this valley of tears is the Kingdom of God and a place for us all prepared for us since the foundations of the world. You ensured that in the end Your Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph and we will share in it.

PSALM 47(48):2-8

The Lord is great and worthy to be praised

  in the city of our God.

His holy mountain rises in beauty,

  the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion, true pole of the earth,

  the Great King’s city!

God, in the midst of its citadels,

  has shown himself its stronghold.

For the kings assembled together,

  together they advanced.

They saw; at once they were astounded;

  dismayed, they fled in fear.

A trembling seized them there,

  like the pangs of birth.

By the east wind you have destroyed

  the ships of Tarshish.

God upholds his city for ever.

MATTHEW 11:20-24

My Soul's Beloved,

While it is perfectly true that we were created without our consent we will not be saved without it. We have to assent to being saved and we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is the way - this is how God has ordained it and we must submit to His will and obey gladly keeping all His commandments with the help of the graces He makes available to us each day. 

Beloved, You instituted the Sacraments to help us but instead of taking full advantage of these wonderful aids to our salvation and to assist us on our pilgrim journey, we act like we have been abandoned by God to struggle helplessly on our own. Each day we are given sufficient grace to see us through all the pitfalls and snares that the Enemy lays for us. A Guardian Angel is given to each of us to pray for us, assist us, and help us overcome any hurdles in life.

When we insist on living like the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida despite all the miracles and signs that are done in our lives, then You warn us that on judgment day it will go harder for us than for the people of Sodom. Why? Because we are living in the age of the Holy Spirit, we have the Church, we have the Saints who have lived heroic lives of grace and courage and have shown us that unless we die to ourselves we cannot overcome the concupiscence in us which is a legacy of our first parents. But we can if we rely on God's grace. The Father sent You into the world to reveal to us His love. A love that redeemed us by dying for us. 

Beloved, if we choose to deny You then we deserve to die eternally. But, Lord, for as long as we have life You will take us by the hand, You will pursue us even when we run in the opposite directly, and in the end, we have the good sense to allow Your love to prevail over us and we will gladly and willingly, with contrite and repentant hearts, succumb to Your love. Have Your way with me and in me Lord now and always.