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.’