MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

God of hosts, bring us back:
let your face shine on us and we shall be saved. PS 79:4

ISAIAH 4:2-6

My Soul's Beloved, 

You, the Fruit of the womb of the Blessed Virgin, are the hope and glory of the whole world. The old has passed, and with the rejection of the Son of Man and the Son of God by the people of Israel, who fiendishly used Rome to carry out the most dastardly act of Deicide, brought about their own crushing destruction and downfall. Every prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled. You founded the New Jerusalem on Mt. Zion, the city on the hill where it pleases God to dwell in fullness.

Thank You, Lord, for the Church. Thank You for Peter and the Petrine ministry. Thank You for the Magisterium. Thank You for Your enduring presence among us in the Holy Eucharist. Thank You for the fullness of faith that we receive as members of the Church You founded. We are grafted into Your Body, and we receive life from You. Your glory fills our churches as You come down on our Altars all over the world at the hands of the priests, and we eat Your Flesh and drink Your Blood and receive supernatural life. In You, O Lord, we take shelter from the storms of life that so often overwhelm us. No matter what difficulties we may have to face because we are Yours and called by Your Name, we will count it all joy for we share in Your victory and Your triumph and our eternal destiny is with You.

That day, the branch of the Lord

shall be beauty and glory,
and the fruit of the earth
shall be the pride and adornment
of Israel’s survivors.
Those who are left of Zion
and remain of Jerusalem
shall be called holy
and those left in Jerusalem, noted down for survival.
When the Lord has washed away
the filth of the daughter of Zion
and cleansed Jerusalem of the blood shed in her
with the blast of judgement and the blast of destruction,
the Lord will come and rest
on the whole stretch of Mount Zion
and on those who are gathered there,
a cloud by day, and smoke,
and by night the brightness of a flaring fire.
For, over all, the glory of the Lord
will be a canopy and a tent
to give shade by day from the heat,
refuge and shelter from the storm and the rain.

PSALM 121(122):1-2,4-5,6-9

I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is,
there to praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
of the house of David.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
‘Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!’

For love of my brethren and friends
I say: ‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good.

I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’

MATTHEW 8:5-11

My Soul's Beloved, 

The centurion's faith is so astounding that You commented on it and praised his faith, but it puts most of us to shame millenia later, for our faith is often a poor, weak, vacillating thing. The character of this Roman centurion is remarkable on many levels. He cared deeply for his sick servant and empathized with his suffering. He was a man with authority and was aware of the power he wielded over his soldiers. He was aware of Jewish customs and was sensitive to the fact that he, being a Gentile, would cause You to become unclean had You entered his home, and so he asked that You command, and by Your authority, what You commanded would be accomplished. 

The centurion was convinced that by just a command, You could affect the healing of his servant even from a distance. His faith was rewarded. To this day and until the end of time, the Church recalls and honors him by the repeating his words at every Eucharistic celebration. ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; just say the word and my soul will be healed.' Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, increase my faith, so I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that whatever I ask of You in faith it will be done. 

When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.’