THURSDAY OF WEEK 5 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Accept and submit to the word
which has been planted in you
and can save your souls. JM 1:21

GENESIS 2:18-25

My Soul's Beloved,

God created us, man and woman, equal but not the same. Each fulfills a different role in the divine scheme. and this divine plan is fruitful when each faithfully carries out their assigned work. When we order our will to the divine plan we can see the fruits of the Holy Spirit abound in our lives but chaos ensues when we choose to follow the dictates of the culture, concupiscence, and the devil. This is evident in our world today. 

In God's ordering of the workings of both the heavens and the earth, there is a hierarchy that is necessary for its proper functioning reverse that hierarchy or ignore it and all hell breaks loose. A third of the angels were thrown out of heaven because Lucifer thought he was equal to God and refused to serve His Creator and he and his cohorts found themselves thrown in hell eternally. We too make Earth a hell when we refuse to follow the divine order. The prevalent culture found itself almost on the edge of a vortex that seemed to hurtle itself into the abyss of demons and madness but we thank You, Lord, that You have heard the prayers of Your people who cry out to You tirelessly for mercy. Commonsense seems to be returning and gives us a glimmer of hope that we will return to God's design for our lives.

So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
‘This at last is bone from my bones,
and flesh from my flesh!
This is to be called woman,
for this was taken from man.’
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.
Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other.

PSALM 127(128):1-5

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

O blessed are those who fear the Lord
and walk in his ways!
By the labour of your hands you shall eat.
You will be happy and prosper.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
in the heart of your house;
your children like shoots of the olive,
around your table.

Indeed thus shall be blessed
the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion
all the days of your life!

O blessed are those who fear the Lord.

MARK 7:24-30

My Soul's Beloved,

The Syrophoenician woman who fell at Your feet begging that You heal her daughter who had an unclean spirit represents us parents who do our best to raise our children right. We nurtured them, taught them the faith, took them with us to Church, ensured they were prepared before they received the Sacraments, we taught by example, and yet O Lord, it seems that it was not enough. When they went out into the world the spirit of the world entered into them and they allowed themselves to be led away from the path of righteousness. 

Now O Lord, here we are at Your feet begging that our children may receive the grace, the courage, the strength of will, and discipline necessary to return to You with a broken and humble heart and contrite spirit for these, You assure us, You will not spurn. We ask O Lord for as little as crumbs that fall from Your table for even a little grace has the power to break stubborn hearts and self-willed spirits and Your light will shine through and save and heal. Please hear and answer our prayers, listen to our cries that rise from broken hearts, take pity, and answer us as You answered the mother who pleaded for healing for her child.

May my mustard seed of faith move Your Sacred Heart to compassion and effect the miracle of grace that I plead for and bring salvation and healing to those I love and pray for without ceasing. 

A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.