The word of the Lord remains for ever.
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought to you. 1PET 2:5
HABAKKUK 1:2-3,2:2-4
My Soul's Beloved,
We are children of Adam; this is why we grow weary of doing good while we wait for the day of the Lord, doing little or nothing to keep the flame of the Holy Spirit alive and burning in us. We fritter away the time allotted to us in sinful pastimes, we make excuses for our delay in living holy, God-fearing lives, and little by little give the devil a foothold in our lives. Then, when we have to suffer the consequences of our infidelity and our sins, we cry out to You for help and grumble when we think that You delay in coming to our aid. We sin with impunity for years, and when the time comes to reap the fruit of our sinful, unhealthy actions, we demand that You hasten and relieve us from the consequences of all the wrong choices we made.
Beloved, You are the Good Shepherd who is always seeking the lost sheep. You will leave the ninety-nine behind to look for the sinner. But first, we must repent, and we must be willing to let You grasp us by the hand and free us from the miry pit of sin into which we are sinking. We need You, Lord, hear our prayers for ourselves as well as for those we love who are unaware of the dangers of spiritual ignorance and indifference and for the sake of Your sorrowful passion have mercy on us all.
How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help
while you will not listen;
to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear
and you will not save?
Why do you set injustice before me,
why do you look on where there is tyranny?
Outrage and violence, this is all I see,
all is contention, and discord flourishes.
Then the Lord answered and said,
‘Write the vision down,
inscribe it on tablets
to be easily read,
since this vision is for its own time only:
eager for its own fulfilment, it does not deceive;
if it comes slowly, wait,
for come it will, without fail.
See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights,
but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.’
PSALM 94(95):1-2,6-9
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.
‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’
How long, O Lord, am I to cry for help
while you will not listen;
to cry ‘Oppression!’ in your ear
and you will not save?
Why do you set injustice before me,
why do you look on where there is tyranny?
Outrage and violence, this is all I see,
all is contention, and discord flourishes.
Then the Lord answered and said,
‘Write the vision down,
inscribe it on tablets
to be easily read,
since this vision is for its own time only:
eager for its own fulfilment, it does not deceive;
if it comes slowly, wait,
for come it will, without fail.
See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights,
but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.’
PSALM 94(95):1-2,6-9
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us:
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.’
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
2 TIMOTHY 1:6-8,13-14
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
St. Paul is writing to Timothy, a priest ordained by him by the laying on of his hands on him. He reminds him of his office, his duties, his obligations, and the amazing gifts given to him by the Holy Spirit. Today's Second Reading is a reminder to all priests who they are for the people of God and their mission. They must at all times and everywhere be aware of the rich graces heaped on them by virtue of their priestly calling, their anointing, and their consecration to the Lord for the work entrusted to them. They are the shepherds appointed by God to lead His people safely to the Kingdom of Heaven.
These instructions apply to us, too, as the people of God, as Catholics who belong to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church that You founded on Peter. Here alone is found salvation, for it is by Holy Mother Church that we receive supernatural life as we are nourished on the Sacraments You instituted. In her dwells the fullness of Truth that is handed down faithfully through the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles - the Magisterium, Sacred Scripture, and Sacred Tradition together build us up and equip us for every good work.
The whole Church needs to fan into flame the gift that God has given us by virtue of being Catholic. Thank You, Lord, for the prayers of the whole company of angels and saints in heaven, the prayers of the Church Suffering in Purgatory, and the holy men and women in the Church Militant. We believe, we hope, we trust in Your saving love and the love of our Father in heaven and the Gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to make it safely on this perilous journey from this life to the next.
I am reminding you to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God.
Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
LUKE 17:5-10
My Soul's Beloved,
LUKE 17:5-10
My Soul's Beloved,
We all pray for an increase in our faith, and today's Gospel, this 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, reminds us that we have already received this free gift of faith when we were baptised. The difficulty is that we have not exercised this faith. We have not encouraged its growth. We have not relied on it with greater confidence, relying instead on our human strength and wisdom. It takes courage to bring our friends and our loved ones to You and to be unafraid to strip the roof and lower them down before You. It takes confidence in You to pray loudly and boldly in Your Name and demand that people be set free from the bondages that hold them in slavery to all kinds of sins.
Our entire lives must be one of witnessing to a living faith. We must act in faith, pray with faith, and allow faith to permeate every area of our lives and all the circumstances of our lives. We must act on the faith we already have; only then will our faith increase, be strengthened, and grow. We are servants to the Servant. We are workers in the Lord's vineyard. We must work tirelessly, always using the gifts heaped upon us until we breathe our last breath on earth, only then can we hope for a reward. Until then, O Lord, keep us vigilant, keep us faithful, keep us unwearied of doing good. Thank You.
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.
‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’
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