DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father JN 15:15
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father JN 15:15
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My Soul's Beloved,
Thank You for handing over Your authority to Peter. His primacy in the Church hierarchy is indisputable, and every baptized Catholic is bound to obey all that he, with the Bishops, teach on matters regarding faith and morals. This burden does not lie on each individual but rests with the Church, and we, her members, must be like children relying on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who guides Peter and speaks through him.
All too often, when we give free rein to our stubbornly held personal opinions, doing so harshly and with condemnation, we divide Your Church, causing her members real harm by insisting we know better than the one appointed by You to lead her. Peter is given the authority to bind and to loose, and anyone who spreads lies and disinformation wounds the Body of Christ because they sow error and confusion in the minds of those who are not so well catechised, causing unnecessary scandal where none exists.
Beloved, let us, in all humility, no matter what our personal pet opinions may be, surrender our desires and our ideas on how things ought to be and instead rely on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, embracing wholeheartedly all that the Head of the Church in Rome teaches us and instructs us. This is Your will, and prideful disobedience will separate us from Your Body to our eternal damnation.
The apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:
‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’
PSALM 56(57):8-12
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your praise.
Awake, my soul,
awake, lyre and harp,
I will awake the dawn.
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,
among the nations I will praise you
for your love reaches to the heavens
and your truth to the skies.
O God, arise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth!
‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’
PSALM 56(57):8-12
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your praise.
Awake, my soul,
awake, lyre and harp,
I will awake the dawn.
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,
among the nations I will praise you
for your love reaches to the heavens
and your truth to the skies.
O God, arise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth!
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
JOHN 15:12-17
JOHN 15:12-17
My Soul's Beloved,
We all want to be Your disciples, but we are not ready to pay the cost of authentic discipleship. Too many of us run from the Cross, but the cross is an invitation to take a sip from Your Cup, which You drank deeply and completely during Your Passion. It gives us a taste of what our salvation cost God. It is a privilege as well as a necessity, for without the cross there is no crown. We cannot share Your Crown of glory if we are not first prepared to suffer and carry the cross fashioned for us personally by God.
To carry our cross daily, Lord, is to come out of ourselves and to look for You present in every one we encounter every day. We must stop navel gazing and instead train our vision on those nearest and dearest to us who need us, rely on us, and require to to lean on our strength. Unless I am ready to empty myself daily, hourly, moment by moment for the sake of the one nearest to me, who needs me. I will not be formed in Your image and likeness.
Help me, Lord! Pour Your Holy Spirit on me. Without Him, I can do nothing.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know
his master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one another.’
‘This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know
his master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one another.’
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