FEAST OF ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN & MARTYR, ON WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 4 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me. JN 10:27

HEBREWS 12:4-7,11-15

My Soul's Beloved,

We are called to be vigilant and never let our guard down for our flesh, the world, and the devil wage constant battle for our souls. We must fight the good fight to the end lest we falter and are lost before we reach the finish line. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, thank You for making every grace and blessing available to us through the merits of the Cross, through the outpouring of Your life in us, for emptying Yourself and taking the burden of our sins and our punishment and setting us free. The devil constantly sets snares to trap us and steal the prize of eternal life in the Kingdom that is promised to all Your faithful servants. Having lost the prize by his own willful pride he has sworn to deprive us of a share in Your glory which the Father has promised to all who belong to the New Covenant of Love sealed in Your Blood and the Holy Spirit. 

Lord God, chastise us when we sin but also grant us the grace to return humbly and joyfully to the fold. Give us the courage to bear our daily cross without complaining and whining but cheerfully for all suffering is necessary to purify us. No sorrow, no cross is laid on us that You, Yourself have not weighed first and placed gently on us. Without the wisdom and strength granted to us through our personal sorrows and sufferings we cannot receive the prize of final victory, the Kingdom of God.

Keep me from gossip, from being the cause of strife between the members of God's family, rather may I be a peacemaker, a good neighbor, friend, and a sister to everyone I encounter every day. May the Spirit of God in me be visible to all and may everyone be touched by Your Spirit who lives, moves, and has His being in me and in all God's people. 

For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness. So hold up your limp arms and steady your trembling knees and smooth out the path you tread; then the injured limb will not be wrenched, it will grow strong again.
Always be wanting peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community.

PSALM 102(103):1-2,13-14,17-18

The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.

As a father has compassion on his sons,

the Lord has pity on those who fear him;
for he knows of what we are made,
he remembers that we are dust.

But the love of the Lord is everlasting

upon those who hold him in fear;
his justice reaches out to children’s children
when they keep his covenant in truth.

The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear.

MARK 6:1-6

My Soul's Beloved,

We learn so much from these few verses about Your life in the hidden years with Your Mother Mary and Your father, Joseph. You left Nazareth to begin Your public ministry and now You return to Your hometown with Your disciples and being the Sabbath You go to the local synagogue. News of the miracles You were performing had reached Your old neighborhood and when You stood up to teach, all who heard You were astonished and highly impressed for You spoke with power, authority, and wisdom. Dumbfounded they could not reconcile the Person before them with the young lad, the young man, the young carpenter who grew up in their community.

St. Mark tells us that they were astonished and said to one another, 'Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’  They simply could not reconcile the Jesus they knew with the Jesus who stood before them that day and they dismissed You because their minds were closed. They rejected You because You grew up quietly and unostentatiously in their midst and neither You, Mary, nor Joseph ever so much by word or deed reveal the miracle of grace that chose Nazareth to be the place where God made His home. 

You grew up in poverty. You labored with Your hands as a carpenter, they knew You, Your Mother, Joseph, and Your cousins too, and based on this superficial knowledge they rejected You. They did not believe that any good could out of Nazareth like the rest of their compatriots. We too are often guilty of looking down on those we think are unlikely to be singled out to do great things and in doing so we deny ourselves the grace and the gift of being a part of God's divine plan.

And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.