The kingdom of God is close at hand:
repent and believe the Good News. MK 1:15
GENESIS 41:55-57,42:5-7,17-24
My Soul's Beloved,
Unconfessed and unrepentant sin will always haunt us and color our lives. We cannot escape the consequences of the grave sins we commit, no matter how hard we try to explain them away, make excuses, ignore them, or bury them. They will surface eventually, and we will have to face them and acknowledge the evil we have done, just as Joseph's brothers did. When they faced starvation, their father sent them to Egypt to buy grain. Little did they know that the brother they sold into slavery was now the second most powerful man after the Pharaoh. Joseph recognized them and, after making them suffer a little, he revealed who he was and gladly and generously shared all that God had blessed him with in this land of exile to which he was banished.
My Lord, when we are truly contrite when we humble ourselves and acknowledge our sins and beg for forgiveness, You will not only readily forgive us but will remember them no more. You will pour fresh graces into our souls. If, recognizing that without You we will die in our sins, we lean on You and ask You to remain with us and help us, You will keep us from stumbling and falling.
Thank You for the two great Sacraments we can receive frequently after Baptism, Lord, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which enables us to receive the greatest Sacrament of all, the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Without this heavenly Bread, we would surely perish as so many do today. May every Christian who prays the words in the prayer that You taught us, 'Give us this day our daily bread', come to know that it is not just ordinary bread that we pray for each day, but for the supersubstantial Bread that wells up to eternal life in us and makes us like You.
When the whole country of Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. But Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.’ There was famine all over the world. Then Joseph opened all the granaries and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine grew worse in the land of Egypt. People came to Egypt from all over the world to buy grain from Joseph, for the famine had grown severe throughout the world.
Israel’s sons with others making the same journey went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan. It was Joseph, as the man in authority over the country, who sold the grain to all comers. So Joseph’s brothers went and bowed down before him, their faces touching the ground. When Joseph saw his brothers he recognised them. But he did not make himself known to them, and he spoke harshly to them. Then he kept them all in custody for three days.
On the third day Joseph said to them, ‘Do this and you shall keep your lives, for I am a man who fears God. If you are honest men let one of your brothers be kept in the place of your detention; as for you, go and take grain to relieve the famine of your families. You shall bring me your youngest brother; this way your words will be proved true, and you will not have to die!’ This they did. They said to one another, ‘Truly we are being called to account for our brother. We saw his misery of soul when he begged our mercy, but we did not listen to him and now this misery has come home to us.’ Reuben answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you did not listen, and now we are brought to account for his blood.’ They did not know that Joseph understood, because there was an interpreter between them. He left them and wept.
PSALM 32(33):2-3,10-11,18-19
May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’
On the third day Joseph said to them, ‘Do this and you shall keep your lives, for I am a man who fears God. If you are honest men let one of your brothers be kept in the place of your detention; as for you, go and take grain to relieve the famine of your families. You shall bring me your youngest brother; this way your words will be proved true, and you will not have to die!’ This they did. They said to one another, ‘Truly we are being called to account for our brother. We saw his misery of soul when he begged our mercy, but we did not listen to him and now this misery has come home to us.’ Reuben answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you did not listen, and now we are brought to account for his blood.’ They did not know that Joseph understood, because there was an interpreter between them. He left them and wept.
PSALM 32(33):2-3,10-11,18-19
May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your skill.
He frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
O sing him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your skill.
He frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.
MATTHEW 10:1-7
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
How it must grieve You that the people chosen by God to be His own rejected the Messiah that their ancestors prayed and longed for when the Father sent You into the world in answer to their prayers. When we think we know the Heart and Mind of God better than He does, as so many Christians do. Pride, stubbornness, and hardness of heart have made them easy game for the Enemy. Concupiscence rules their lives, and many of them are reluctant to embrace the fullness of Truth in the Catholic Church because they will be called to live pure and holy lives. They prefer to cling to the sins of the flesh, which they would have to renounce and strive to live holy and pure lives.
You appointed the Twelve after spending a night in prayer. You called them by name, and empowered them with Your own authority and power, and this same authority and power have been handed down to the successor of Peter and the successors to the Eleven, the Bishops in the Catholic Church. This is why, outside the Church, there is no salvation, and whether or not we believe it does not make it any less true.
The Catholic Church is Your Body, we who are baptised are members of Your Body and children of God. Together with the Pope and the Bishops, we are to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, and we will be judged accordingly.
Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:
‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’
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