MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

God of hosts, bring us back:
let your face shine on us and we shall be saved. PS 79:4

ISAIAH 2:1-5

My Soul's Beloved,

We all dream but our dreams are not often realized because they are unrealistic, Your dreams however O Lord, God's dream for us, His people, the sheep of Your flock, will surely be fulfilled. The prophets of old saw it and spoke of it and some like the prophet Isaiah, did so most gloriously and eloquently we can almost see it. 

This dream, this promise, this foretelling of what we can look forward to will be fulfilled in time whether soon or in the far distant future we do not know but it will come to pass just as the prophets have foretold. The Church longs for the day Beloved, when all God's people, the sheep of Your flock, will include every man, woman, and child from every race, nation, culture, speaking every language united as one in our love and worship of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. All nations will climb the mountain of the Lord, and here in the Temple of the Living God where He dwells in fullness, God will establish His Kingdom in perfect and eternal peace. 

In this Temple O Lord, where the Church You founded with Peter at its head, the Twelve as its pillar and bulwark of Truth, and You O Lord, the Good Shepherd as its cornerstone, we will all offer the Father the only pleasing Sacrifice acceptable to Him, the Sacrifice of the Lamb, His only and beloved Son, pure and without blemish, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world and makes perfect atonement for every sin from the first sin of disobedience and every sin that followed from that original sin and breached the relationship between God and the world. 

We yearn, long, pray, and look forward with hope for the hour when Your High Priestly prayer to the Father will be answered and we will be one with You, the Father, and the Spirit just You, Beloved, are one. 

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Temple of the God of Jacob
that he may teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths;
since the Law will go out from Zion,
and the oracle of the Lord from Jerusalem.’
He will wield authority over the nations
and adjudicate between many peoples;
these will hammer their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into sickles.
Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war.
O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.

PSALM 121(122):1-2,4-5,6-9

I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

It is there that the tribes go up,

the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is,
there to praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
of the house of David.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
‘Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!’

For love of my brethren and friends

I say: ‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good.

I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’

MATTHEW 8:5-11

My Soul's Beloved,

Many miracles are recorded of those outside the Church, pagans, unbelievers, and non-Christians, whose faith has put to shame those of us in the Church whose faith should surpass theirs but sadly, regrettably, and scandalously does not. Most of us have such a tepid, paltry, measly little faith that is so unworthy of the name that it cannot bear comparison with the actual virtue. This is why You remarked on the remarkable faith of the Centurion, a Roman and a Gentile, who having heard of all the great miracles You had worked, believed without question that You were of God and hence possessed the power of God. He understood his own power and authority over those under his command when he ordered any of them to do something they did it without question or delay and in faith, he believed You to have even greater power and authority over all things both natural and supernatural.

The Church, following Your example, continues to esteem the faith of the centurion at every celebration of  the sacred mysteries of our faith around the world when preparing for Holy Communion at Holy MASS when we pray, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and I will be healed.” 

Grant us O Lord an ever-increasing faith and by the power of our faith may we transform the lives of those around us.  

When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will 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.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.’

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy
and give us your saving help. PS 94:8

JEREMIAH 33:14-16

My Soul's Beloved,

When God created us He created us in His image and He created us for His pleasure and delight. God, in the immensity of His goodness and greatness and in the immeasurable expanse of His love for us desired to share His joy with us. He wanted us to belong to Him and to delight in Him as well. Sadly, we used the great gift of our free will to be beguiled by the lies of the Enemy and this created an unbridgeable chasm between us. But God would not let Evil have the last word, no, His Son, the Eternal Word of the Father, the Living Word of God who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Yes and Amen of God would come into the world and pay the ransom and redeem us once again for His Father. Such is our God.

Beloved, from the moment of the fall God's plan of salvation swung into action. Slowly but surely, quietly but inexorably, God put His plan into effect. He chose a man, Abraham, took him out of his land, away from his people, and began to prepare the new people of God and from these people He would send His only Son, as one like us in all things save sin, to save us and to give us back to His Father. 

Thank You, Beloved, for saying 'yes' to Your Father's plan.

‘In those days and at that time,
I will make a virtuous Branch grow for David,
who shall practise honesty and integrity in the land.
In those days Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell in confidence.
And this is the name the city will be called:
The-Lord-our-integrity.’

PSALM 24(25):4-5,8-9,10,14

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.

The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.

His ways are faithfulness and love

for those who keep his covenant and law.
The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

1 THESSALONIANS 3:12-4:2

My Soul's Beloved,

We are Yours, we belong to God, we are purchased by Your Blood, we are sealed in the Holy Spirit of God and no one can snatch from God what belongs to God. This is why, fearful as I often am for the salvation of my loved ones, I know that God our Father, You, and the Holy Spirit desire this far more intensely than I ever could. They will be saved because they are Yours. 

Beloved, You not only came to show us the way to the Father, You are the Way to Him. Beginning with the Apostles, St. Paul, and the disciples, the Church has always been blessed exceedingly by the lives of ordinary men and women, from every walk of life and not just bishops, priests, and religious men and women, who lived the Gospel. They are living witnesses that it is possible to strive with the graces that the Holy Spirit makes available to us through the Sacraments, and through the embracing of God's will, to live and walk blamelessly before God. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, a great Saint said that all we need to become saints is to will it. The tragedy is that we don't, we would rather live easy, selfish, self-indulgent lives than live lives of heroic virtue. Do for us, Beloved, that which we cannot do for ourselves, and infuse a burning desire within us to desire to be saints. 

May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you. And may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.
Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live: the life that God wants, as you learnt from us, and as you are already living it. You have not forgotten the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.

LUKE 21:25-28,34-36

My Soul's Beloved,

All the terrible things You foretold would happen to Jerusalem and the Temple did take place. History reveals that every prophecy regarding the chosen people of God who did not recognize the Messiah they had longed for and prayed for, for generations, when You arrived. They held on stubbornly to their preconceived ideas about You and thus missed the hour of their salvation and redemption. They still await the One who has already come and gone back to the Father. They will now only see You, to their consternation and great regret when You return again in glory and majesty not as Messiah and Redeemer but as the righteous judge.  

Before the day of judgment arrives the world will undergo a great purgation for the immensity of its sins of immorality, its rejection of God, its rejection of all that is good, holy, beautiful, noble, pure, and true. Many holy men and women through the ages have prophesied about the great tribulation that will be visited on the world before Your Second Coming unless we repent sincerely and return to You before that dread time arrives.

Why O Lord are we so easily beguiled by evil, so readily trapped by the snares set for us by the Enemy, so spiritually lazy that we allow ourselves to forego every loving invitation to follow You who is our true peace and joy? Regret is the most useless emotion yet regret will eat at us relentlessly when we are parted from You forever. The world is coarsened by every kind of debauchery. Innocence is violated, purity is scorned and self-restraint is mocked. Evil men and women with seemingly endless power have taken control of legitimate institutions and are using them to steal, plunder, and destroy every vestige of common decency. Wisdom has long since fled from public discourse. 

Lord Jesus, thank You for the faithful remnant all over the world. There are holy men, women, young people, and even children who hide under Your wings. Increase their tribe and may their constant pleading for mercy to the one and only intercessor between God and us- You, O Lord, be heard and answered. Beloved, You plead for us ceaselessly before Your Father in heaven, grant through Your powerful intercession that the world returns to God before it is too late.  

‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’