Monday, June 16, 2025

MONDAY OF WEEK 11 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Your word is a lamp for my steps
and a light for my path. PS 118:105


2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Paul elaborates clearly what it means to labor in Your vineyard. We are called to be a sign of contradiction in the world; it identifies us as members of Your Body working tirelessly in every season to make You known and beloved by all. Nothing ought to give us greater joy than to proclaim with our lives that we are Yours not in part but wholly. No matter the trial, the cross, the suffering, the persecution, joy must emanate from us because we love having been first loved by You. Love and joy go together; nothing and no one has the power to steal these from us as long as we are united with You and with one another.

Grace is channeled into our hearts through the Sacraments. We are grafted into Your Body through Baptism. We are cleansed from sin each time we approach You in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are strengthened in every way each time we receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion worthily. We are confirmed and made strong in the Sacrament of Confirmation. For those who are married, the Sacrament of Matrimony makes two one, and in this Sacrament we strengthen and support each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and health, we pour our lives out as an oblation in sacrificial love for each other. Procreators with God, we receive children with joy and spend our lives raising them and fitting them for the Kingdom. And finally, when the time comes and life on earth is ending, we are prepared for this final journey by the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Thank You, Lord, for giving us such remedies that assist us in every way all our lives. 

We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.

PSALM 97(98):1-4

The Lord has made known his salvation.


Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.

The Lord has made known his salvation.

MATTHEW 5:38-42

My Soul's Beloved,

As Your beloved disciples, we are called to disarm the enemy with love. Love is the power by which we can sail through life and attract even the greatest sinner to repent and believe in the Gospel. It is hard, Lord, to exercise self-control when provoked. The natural reaction is to lash out and to give as good as we get. We confuse the enemy when we offer love for hate, when we give without thought of receiving, when anything is taken from us by force to give more than is demanded. To offer no resistance even if we are falsely accused as witnesses to Love and to the Good News.

Every one of the Apostles, and the martyrs all through salvation history, has shed their blood and embraced suffering in imitation of You. We live in a world that promotes violence and vengeance, but You show is a different way. When we turn the other cheek, the momentum slows down, and makes peace a possibility. Violence only begets violence. You said to Peter, 'Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.' This is true of the world in which we find ourselves today. You have shown us the way, Lord, grant us the wisdom to walk in it. 

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone orders you to go one mile, go two miles with him. Give to anyone who asks, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.’

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