TUESDAY OF WEEK 22 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people. LK 7:16

1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-6,9-11

My Soul's Beloved, 

The tragedy of our lives is that generation after generation of Catholics has taken the great gift of our faith lightly. While we, who believe, have treasured what we received, we failed miserably to hand it down as well as we ought, and today we see the fruit of our lack of labour. We can blame no one for our failure to not only strengthen and increase the faith we received through God's graciousness, but also to encourage those entrusted to us to do so, through diligent prayer, meditation, and study. We failed to teach them by word and good example, and they, in turn, were like the seed that fell among the thorns and were choked by the pleasures and cares of the world.  

Beloved, what good does it do us now to allow regret to fill our hearts and fear for their salvation to haunt and trouble us, waking or asleep? Yes, we failed due to our own ignorance and failure to see that faith needs to be tended, nurtured, watered, and nourished if it is to flourish. But now, O Lord, hear our prayers, listen to our groans, take pity and compassion, and by Your power intervene and make Yourself known to them. Woo them back into the fold, and save them for Your greater glory, O Lord, and by the power of Your sacred and most Precious Blood, save them lest they perish forever.

You will not be expecting us to write anything to you, brothers, about ‘times and seasons’, since you know very well that the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. It is when people are saying, ‘How quiet and peaceful it is’ that the worst suddenly happens, as suddenly as labour pains come on a pregnant woman; and there will be no way for anybody to evade it.
But it is not as if you live in the dark, my brothers, for that Day to overtake you like a thief. No, you are all sons of light and sons of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness, so we should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay wide awake and sober. God never meant us to experience the Retribution, but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that, alive or dead, we should still live united to him. So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already.

PSALM 26(27):1,4,13-14

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

The Lord is my light and my help;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
before whom shall I shrink?

There is one thing I ask of the Lord,
for this I long,
to live in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my life,
to savour the sweetness of the Lord,
to behold his temple.

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord!

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

LUKE  4:31-37

My Soul's Beloved, 

Demons know who You are, Lord, but the people of God, those ransomed by Your precious Blood, remain willfully and woefully ignorant. Catholics and Christians pick and choose what they will believe and discard anything that is too difficult or will not affirm their sinful way of life. Anything too hard is disregarded and ignored, and they make of God and the glorious faith we have received, something hideous and diabolic. They make God in their image and likeness, and in doing so, create an idol that conforms and affirms them in their sins. Their hearts are hardened and impervious to grace.  Yet, O Lord, You are God, and no door or wall is impregnable to Your goodness, mercy, and grace. 

In this is my hope and the hope of every father, mother, brother, sister, friend, relative, of those for whose salvation we plead before the Mercy Seat of God. You are God, and by the power of Your glorious Name, we implore You to deliver, heal, and save.

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.