WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 34 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Even if you have to die, says the Lord,
keep faithful, and I will give you
the crown of life. REV 2:10

DANIEL 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28

My Soul's Beloved,

King Belshazzar profaned the sacred cups and vessels that his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had looted from the temple by giving them to his guests to drink from them while singing and praising their false gods. They used sacred vessels in unholy ways and brought the wrath of God upon them.

We cannot profane sacred things and expect to go unpunished. Our body is holy, and when we profane it, we will be punished. My body is the sanctuary of the Living God and of  Your Holy Spirit. You deign to make my sinful body Your home. You desire to come into me and live in me. Yet I am most negligent of how I keep the temple of my soul. I am indifferent and lazy, and I dare to do absolutely nothing to prepare my soul so it can be a fit dwelling where You may enter freely and be one with me. Yet when I use my body for unholy and sinful things, I am taken aback like Belshazzar when I am visited by Your holy and righteous wrath. 

Forgive me, Lord, and forgive the whole world for our deliberate, willful destruction of all things good, holy, noble, and beautiful. We use the gifts You have so generously blessed us with not as You desire us to, but only to profane them. Grant us wisdom and true contrition of heart so we may repent before it is too late, and the world as we know it is not utterly given over to the rule of the Enemy. 

Daniel, whom the King knew only by reputation, was brought before the King to interpret the writing on the wall that was written by human fingers that suddenly appeared. The words written in an unknown language seemed ominous, and the king was visibly afraid. Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall and informed the king that his glory days were numbered and he would lose his kingdom for defiling what was holy and for worshiping false gods. 

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen; a thousand of them attended, and he drank wine in company with this thousand. As he sipped his wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women could drink out of them. The gold and silver vessels looted from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women drank out of them. They drank their wine and praised their gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared, and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote. The king turned pale with alarm: his thigh-joints went slack and his knees began to knock.
Daniel was brought into the king’s presence; the king said to Daniel, ‘Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah? I am told that the spirit of God Most Holy lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom. As I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be third in rank in the kingdom.’
Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. ‘Keep your gifts for yourself,’ he said ‘and give your rewards to others. I will read the writing to the king without them, and tell him what it means. You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and your singing women have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which cannot either see, hear or understand; but you have given no glory to the God who holds your breath and all your fortunes in his hands. That is why he has sent the hand which, by itself, has written these words. The writing reads: Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin. The meaning of the words is this: Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; Parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.’

DANIEL 3:62-67

Sun and moon! bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Stars of heaven! bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!

Showers and dews! all bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Winds! all bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!

Fire and heat! bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Cold and heat! bless the Lord.
Give glory and eternal praise to him!

LUKE 21:12-19