19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,
says the Lord.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever. JN 6:51

1 KINGS 19:4-8

My Soul's Beloved,

Elijah was the greatest of the prophets, God worked mighty deeds through him. His word was infused by the power of the Word and all that he said came to pass and yet we see him in today's reading dejected, downcast, sorrowful, and wishing that he were dead. He was ready to give up for the world had become too much for him. He had enough of it and desired nothing more than the sweet oblivion that comes from just lying down and dying.

Elijah went into the wilderness, a day’s journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he were dead.‘O Lord,’ he said ‘I have had enough. Take my life....’ 

Then the miraculous happened. His story had not ended. God would restore him, strengthen him, provide the rest he needed, and would supply him with the courage to take up the challenge and continue the journey. While he slept God, who is always at work, made provision for him to receive all he needed and restore his faith, hope, and confidence to continue the mission entrusted to him.

Then he lay down and went to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. But the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Beloved, we can trust You to provide us with what we need when we need it. You give us the Bread of Life to provide us with all the nourishment we require to live each day on the narrow path that leads to the Kingdom of God. 

In this life, my Lord and my God, there is only one Way to eternal life and that is the Way of Suffering and the Way of the Cross. There are no shortcuts. But when our human strength gives way, You do not abandon us but You yoke Yourself to us and help us. You give us Yourself as our food and drink and fill us with hope and joy, faith and strength, courage and resolve to begin anew. Thank You!

PSALM 33(34):2-9

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

Glorify the Lord with me.

  Together let us praise his name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

  from all my terrors he set me free.

Look towards him and be radiant;

  let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

  and rescued him from all his distress.

The angel of the Lord is encamped

  around those who revere him, to rescue them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

  He is happy who seeks refuge in him.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

EPHESIANS 4:30-5:2

My Soul's Beloved,

Why is the human race so stubborn, so bull-headed, so stupid, so willfully disobedient and recalcitrant? Why are we such fools, Lord? Nothing is hidden from us - God has made Himself known to us in You, His Son. We know how to live a life filled with joy and peace - it is no secret. All is revealed to us but we choose the way of the flesh instead of the Way of the Spirit and in doing so we choose death. 

In the Church alone which You founded and as members of Your Body we can live a sacramental life, be filled with Your Holy Spirit, and walk the narrow Way, in Truth if we reject the Truth as embodied in You O Lord, we will slowly but most assuredly walk in the way of destruction, decay, and death. We cannot embrace only those parts of the Truth that we wish to and reject what is hard or does not align with our fleshly desires. It is all or nothing. We are either for You wholly or not at all.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal for you to be set free when the day comes. 

Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.  

JOHN 6:41-51

My Soul's Beloved,

To this day the complaint of the Jews is taken up by those outside the Catholic Church continues.

The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other.

Without the grace that we receive in the Sacraments, Lord, it is impossible to live a life that is pleasing to You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Without this grace, we will constantly grieve the Holy Spirit. The Devil is a deceiver and the Father of Lies from the beginning and he continues to perpetuate lies causing division, leading to all kinds of horrific sins that are visible in the world. The soul of humanity is on the path to the deepest, darkest, pity of hell and the world dances merrily to its annihilation.

‘I tell you most solemnly,
everybody who believes has eternal life.
‘I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the desert
and they are dead;
but this is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that a man may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’

Only when all Christians understand that without the Church You founded they will perish and they come home to her and receive from her the total gift of Yourself which You make to those who are her children, only then will we receive and experience the peace that You came to give the world.

Shorten the number of days O Lord that we now experience and which only promises to get more hellish lest we all perish. Have mercy on us O Lord, and on the whole world.