TUESDAY OF WEEK 25 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Happy are those
who hear the word of God
and keep it. LK 11:28

PROVERBS 21:1-6,10-13

My Soul's Beloved,

You O Lord my God are my King, my Savior, my Redeemer, my hope, my song, my desire, my greatest good. You O Lord are good, kind gracious, merciful, compassionate, and tender. You are slow to anger but bountiful in mercy and I can trust You always. You know me. You know that I am weak, frail, I fall constantly and had You not taken my hand and held it firmly in Yours I would have fallen into the pit of destruction and been lost forever. 

But You O Lord keep me ever in Your sight. Your unwavering gaze is always on me and not just me but on all those I love. These souls You have entrusted to me and I have failed You often. But I need not be anxious for You are the Author of our lives and the finisher of our faith - where I have failed You will bring success. Where I have fallen short You will provide and complete. I acknowledge O Lord that I need You and I declare that my faith in You and in Your goodness fill my soul with peace, hope, and joy. My Lord and my God, I trust You to do for me and my loved ones what I am unable to do. Thank You. I praise You. I glorify You. My life is Yours do with it and with me just as You will. 

Like flowing water is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord,
who turns it where he pleases.

PSALM 118(119):1,27,30,34-35,44

Guide me, Lord, in the path of your commands.

They are happy whose life is blameless,

  who follow God’s law!

Make me grasp the way of your precepts

  and I will muse on your wonders.

I have chosen the way of truth

  with your decrees before me.

Train me to observe your law,

  to keep it with my heart.

Guide me in the path of your commands;

  for there is my delight.

I shall always keep your law

  forever and ever.

Guide me, Lord, in the path of your commands.

LUKE 8:19-21

My Soul's Beloved,

Lord, You remind us today that there is no merit in simply knowing Your Word, hearing it preached and taught, studying it assiduously, and memorizing whole sections of it with number and verse if we do not make it the rule of our lives. We have to be both hearers and doers of the Word.

The world is full of people within the Church and outside it who make a great and lucrative success of writing books, preaching to large audiences in conferences, have lively podcasts that many listen to, but if they lack humility, if they do not practice what they preach if they are more concerned with selling the Word rather than living it, they have already received their reward and what a puny, worthless reward it is.

The one most worthy of praise is Your Virgin Mother, Mary, who having heard the Word of God kept it in her heart, pondered on it, reflected on it, fed on it, was nourished by it, was strengthened by it, and which became the foundation on which she built her life. No one on God's green earth has ever heard the Word of God as she did and lived it as fully as her. Not only did she give consent to conceive the Word made Flesh who dwelt among us, but she spent her whole life in living her entire life in joyful, obedient, and humble service to the Eternal Word. Her whole life from the moment of her conception to her glorious assumption into heaven was a quiet 'Yes' to the will of God. 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to Your will.'

The mother and the brothers of Jesus came looking for him, but they could not get to him because of the crowd. He was told, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.’ But he said in answer, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.’