Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children. MT 11:25
BARUCH 4:5-12,27-29
My Soul's Beloved,
My heart rejoices at the boundless hope that Your Word these days gives me. My heart is full and I rejoice, for I know that You are God who keeps His promises from generation to generation. Yes, today's first reading is the story of children whose hearts have strayed from the way that was shown to them by their parents. Wilful, selfish, foolish, they thought they knew better or allowed their feelings and their flesh as well as their limited experiences of the world and its prevalent culture to dictate their morals or lack thereof, and lived according to the siren call of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Concupiscence reigned for a while, but You, O Lord, heard our prayers and the prayers of fathers and mothers everywhere who cry out to You with broken hearts to seek and save Your lost little ones. You are the Good Shepherd. You will not permit those who belong to You to be lost because we are marked with the Sign of the Cross, and deliverance belongs to those whom our Father has marked for heaven. We are sealed by the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit. We are given Your Name, and we are made members of the household of God. Who can snatch from the hand of God what is His? No one.
Thank You, Lord, for seeking my loved ones, wooing them, allowing them to hit rock bottom, allowing them to wander far far away so they could no longer hear Your Voice but in the end, with the taste of ashes in their mouth and with broken hearts and lives, they will finally turn to You, our holy hope and You O Lord will bring each one of them back leading them gently home with cords of love. Thank You, my Lord and my God. Thank You for Your goodness, faithfulness, tender compassion, mercy, and abounding saving love.
Take courage, my people,
constant reminder of Israel.
You were sold to the nations,
but not for extermination.
You provoked God;
and so were delivered to your enemies,
since you had angered your creator
by offering sacrifices to demons, not to God.
You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you.
You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,
for when she saw the anger fall on you
from God, she said:
Listen, you neighbours of Zion:
God has sent me great sorrow.
I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity,
to which they have been sentenced by the Eternal.
I had reared them joyfully;
in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.
Do not, any of you, exult over me,
a widow, deserted by so many;
I suffer loneliness because of the sins of my own children,
who turned away from the Law of God.
Take courage, my children, call on God:
he who brought disaster on you will remember you.
As by your will you first strayed away from God,
so now turn back and search for him ten times as hard;
for as he brought down those disasters on you,
so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
PSALM 68(69):33-37
The Lord listens to the needy.
constant reminder of Israel.
You were sold to the nations,
but not for extermination.
You provoked God;
and so were delivered to your enemies,
since you had angered your creator
by offering sacrifices to demons, not to God.
You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you.
You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,
for when she saw the anger fall on you
from God, she said:
Listen, you neighbours of Zion:
God has sent me great sorrow.
I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity,
to which they have been sentenced by the Eternal.
I had reared them joyfully;
in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.
Do not, any of you, exult over me,
a widow, deserted by so many;
I suffer loneliness because of the sins of my own children,
who turned away from the Law of God.
Take courage, my children, call on God:
he who brought disaster on you will remember you.
As by your will you first strayed away from God,
so now turn back and search for him ten times as hard;
for as he brought down those disasters on you,
so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
PSALM 68(69):33-37
The Lord listens to the needy.
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,
the sea and all its living creatures.
For God will bring help to Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.
The Lord listens to the needy.
LUKE 10:17-24
No comments:
Post a Comment