God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN 3:16
1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-26,33
My Soul's Beloved,
The heart and soul of the celebration of Holy Mass since You instituted it at the Last Supper and consummated the Holy Sacrifice on the Cross on Golgotha, and which You commanded should be done in memory of You until You come again remains unchanged. We celebrate the Lord's Supper in exactly the same manner that You did and the Apostles handed down through their successors just as St. Paul himself received it:
For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death. So to sum up, my dear brothers, when you meet for the Meal, wait for one another.
The way that Holy Mass is celebrated in the Latin rite has undergone changes to meet the needs of the faithful but the structure remains unchanged since apostolic times. We can see even from the time of St. Paul how the community was causing scandal:
On the subject of instructions, I cannot say that you have done well in holding meetings that do you more harm than good.
The point is, when you hold these meetings, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you are eating, since when the time comes to eat, everyone is in such a hurry to start his own supper that one person goes hungry while another is getting drunk. Surely you have homes for eating and drinking in? Surely you have enough respect for the community of God not to make poor people embarrassed? What am I to say to you? Congratulate you? I cannot congratulate you on this.
It is heartbreaking to watch divisions between those who prefer one particular form over another and cause real division by their prideful and painful rejection of what the Church in her wisdom holds fast and lets loose.
Grant us humility O Lord to consider the needs of those who benefit greatly from a simpler way of celebrating the Holy Eucharist while receiving all its merits, graces, blessings, and benefits for their spiritual well-being.
PSALM 39(40):7-10,17
LUKE 7:1-10
My Soul's Beloved,
Proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.
You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.
In the scroll of the book it stands written
that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law
in the depth of my heart.
Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.
O let there be rejoicing and gladness
for all who seek you.
Let them ever say: ‘The Lord is great’,
who love your saving help.
Proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.
My Soul's Beloved,
There are many members within Your Body, the Church, who rigidly hold on to their views. They are unwilling to even consider that there can be anything good, holy, and beautiful in those they oppose as they are unable to see beyond their own narrow and blinkered vision.
This was not the case with the Jewish elders in Capernaum who came to plead the cause of the centurion whose favorite servant was sick and was near death. They told You about how generous he was to them and how he had even built a synagogue. You willingly agreed to do as they asked and proceeded to go with them to his house which was quite near.
When the centurion heard that You were on the way to him he sent word with his friends saying:
Sir,’ he said ‘do not put yourself to trouble; because I am not worthy to have you under my roof; and for this same reason I did not presume to come to you myself; but give the word and let my servant be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’
We can learn much from those we sometimes despise or look down upon as unworthy because of their beliefs, their faith, and their way of worshipping God which is contradictory to our own. While we hold on unwavering to the truth, we must also know that there is much good in what people of other faiths believe and we must find areas that unite us rather than focus on and scrutinize what separates. This is what You teach us today by praising the faith of the centurion whose faith in You as pointed out was so great and so remarkable because none among those in the Jewish community who believed in You could match the faith of this foreigner.
When Jesus heard these words he was astonished at him and, turning round, said to the crowd following him, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found faith like this.’ And when the messengers got back to the house they found the servant in perfect health.
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