33RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Stay awake, praying at all times
for the strength to stand with confidence
before the Son of Man. LK 21:36

DANIEL 12:1-3

My Soul's Beloved,

There is a personal and particular judgment when we die and a general judgment at the end of time.  Whether we know it or not, whether we believe or not, whether or not we take it seriously and live according to Your commandments judgment is certain just as death is certain. We do not know how or when we will die but it is wise to take stock of our life daily and correct our faults, ask forgiveness when we sin, and make a firm resolution with Your help to overcome temptation. You will provide all the help and graces we need if we ask for You O Lord have paid too great a price for our salvation for even a single soul to be lost.

Heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus' sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and the whole world.

‘At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who mounts guard over your people. There is going to be a time of great distress, unparalleled since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, your own people will be spared, all those whose names are found written in the Book. Of those who lie sleeping in the dust of the earth many will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace. The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven, and those who have instructed many in virtue, as bright as stars for all eternity.’

PSALM 15(16):5,8-11

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;
it is you yourself who are my prize.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight:
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad;

even my body shall rest in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead,
nor let your beloved know decay.

You will show me the path of life,

the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

HEBREWS 10:11-14,18

My Soul's Beloved,

Next Sunday the Church will celebrate You under Your title, Christ, the King. These past weeks, she has been preparing the faithful to understand Your magnificence, might, total authority, and power as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, over all people everywhere so we can more fully enter into the mystery of this great truth.

You are the great High Priest who offered a once-for-all sacrifice for the reparation of the sins of the whole world and are now seated in glory at the Father's right hand. It is this Sacrifice of the Holy Mass that is the one and only means by which we are redeemed and saved. It is Your desire, from the day You instituted this Sacrament at the Last Supper with Your disciples, that this Holy Sacrifice which You consummated on the altar of the Cross at Golgotha, be offered daily as a memorial to the Father until You return. This is why You also instituted the Sacrament of the Priesthood. You personally call young men and invite them to share in Your eternal priesthood so that this Sacrifice may be offered from the rising of the sun to its setting, until the end of time. Without the celebration of this memorial of Your Sacrifice, to the Father, the world would perish. The sun would no longer rise, the moon and stars would fall from their face and we would be destroyed.

Continue O Lord, to call young men to serve You in the priesthood and supply them with the grace to respond gladly and generously to the great privilege of being called by You to serve Your people, Your sheep, lest we perish.

All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. When all sins have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.

MARK 13:24-32

My Soul's Beloved,

The Liturgical Year is drawing to a close, on the last Sunday before Advent, the Church celebrates Your feast under the title Christ the King. You are the Christ, the Anointed One, sent by the Father into the world to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. You did so not by might nor by power, but by offering Yourself as the perfect Victim without blemish or stain, to atone for the sins of the whole world. 

In today's Gospel, the Church reflects on the events that will occur in the world before Your second coming. It will be terrifying to those who were faithless like the people who refused to repent at the time of Noah and were annihilated by the waters of the flood that covered the earth. Only Noah and his family were saved.

Lord Jesus, You desire that all be saved but sadly we love our concupiscence too much. The world has lost all sense of sin and the downward spiral into the very depths of hell is inevitable unless we return to our senses. There is no joy, peace, or hope when we give our lives over to the decadent culture we live in. But all is not lost O Lord. But all is not lost for Your faithful remnant, hidden like leaven in the flour, continue to pray, fast, and offer to our Father the only acceptable and pleasing once-for-all Sacrifice that You offered to Him on our behalf on the Cross, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Watch over Your faithful remnant O Lord, keep them safe from the wiles of the Enemy, and hide them in Your Sacred Heart and in Your sacred wounds until You return.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.

‘So with you when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates. I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
‘But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.’