I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die. JN 11:25-26
ISAIAH 49:8-15
My Soul's Beloved,
You never forget us, You never forsake us, You are always with us, You are our God and we are Your people, Your flock, and You are our Good Shepherd. We know Your voice, and we obey it. When You call, we come to You, for we are confident that You will keep us safe from the wiles of the Enemy. You are our light and our life, and with You, O Lord, we will never be afraid, for we walk in the light of Your life and truth.
You feed us, You quench our thirst. You are the Rock on which we stand firm, and our food and drink are assured in You. The flesh we eat and the blood we drink well up to eternal life in us.
You invite every man, woman, and child to come to You, to live in You, to be redeemed by You, to be nourished by You, and to be saved by You. You desire us all for whom You lay down Your life to find home with You and remain in Your Presence, delighting in You forever. You are a God who wipes away our tears and turns our mourning into laughter and our sorrow into joy.
My Beloved, sometimes when sorrow weighs us down and we are crushed by grief and are tempted to believe that You, our God, have abandoned us, then, O Lord we will remember Your tender and timeless words of comfort and consolation:
For Zion was saying, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord has forgotten me.’
the Lord has forgotten me.’
Does a woman forget her baby at the breast,
or fail to cherish the son of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.
PSALM 144(145):8-9,13b-14,17-18
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.
slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed down.
and loving in all his deeds.
The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed down.
The Lord is just in all his ways
and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their hearts.
He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their hearts.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
JOHN 5:17-30
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
How can the world thank You for Your God's goodness, mercy, compassion, salvation, and faithfulness revealed and made visible in You, O Lord the Son of the Living God? You, O Lord, came into the world so we may know the God who created all things and desired us to be the crown of His creation.
Beginning with Adam and Eve, Lord, we have all sinned, been unfaithful, and turned away from Your loving kindness instead of accepting Your invitation and returning to You with humble and obedient hearts and a contrite spirit. We are hard of heart, stubborn, and lacking in humility and wisdom. We set ourselves up as arbitrators of our lives, desiring to live apart from the True Vine, and end up withered and dead and good for nothing except to be cast in the eternal flames of God's wrath.
The world is filled with the enemies of Truth just as the Sanhedrin was filled with hypocrites whose hearts were hard, evil, prideful, envious, and conceited. They had strayed so far from the Law of Moses, which was meant to set them apart from all the nations, and had corrupted it so greatly that they became weak and were repeatedly enslaved. The same is true of our times, O Lord. The world continues to embrace Truth because it prefers a life of ease, pleasure, and self-indulgence.
Grant us this grace, O Lord, through the power of Your sorrowful passion, to be unafraid to embrace the Truth that sets us free.
‘I tell you most solemnly,
whoever listens to my words,
and believes in the one who sent me,
has eternal life;
without being brought to judgement
he has passed from death to life.
I tell you most solemnly,
the hour will come – in fact it is here already –
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and all who hear it will live.
For the Father, who is the source of life,
has made the Son the source of life;
and, because he is the Son of Man,
has appointed him supreme judge.’
and believes in the one who sent me,
has eternal life;
without being brought to judgement
he has passed from death to life.
I tell you most solemnly,
the hour will come – in fact it is here already –
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and all who hear it will live.
For the Father, who is the source of life,
has made the Son the source of life;
and, because he is the Son of Man,
has appointed him supreme judge.’
No comments:
Post a Comment