THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Obedient to the Father, you were led to your crucifixion
as a meek lamb is led to the slaughter.

ISAIAH 49:1-6

My Soul's Beloved, 

All we need is Your Word in Sacred Scripture and Your Church to know You, love You, and adore and worship You. We need to pay close attention, O Lord, and when we do, we will encounter You. Nothing is hidden, but only those who hunger and thirst for You will recognize You. But our eyes and ears need to be open, O Lord, only then will we see and hear, and rejoice in God's goodness and faithfulness. 

Lord, many times in Your public ministry, You, in Your humanity, would have been frustrated at the inability of Your chosen 12 to grasp all that You were saying to them. Over and over again, You revealed who You are, and even though they were witnesses of the great signs and wonders You performed in the physical, spiritual, and natural realm, they failed to understand. But You were patient with them just as You are patient with us. Understandably, they had difficulty in processing all that was unfolding before their eyes; we, however, have 2000 years of the Church studying, pondering, and being enlightened by the Holy Spirit. We have the holy lives of men and women, great teachers filled with wisdom, who unpack and reveal divine truths. Still, we remain indifferent, unmoved, uninterested in hungering and thirsting to come to the knowledge of Truth and in doing so encounter You, and be transformed by that ongoing encounter.

Beloved, open our hearts and minds to really meet You during the last days as we reflect on the price that God paid to save us and rejoice and exult in God's unfathomable love for us sinners. Thank You, Lord, for revealing to us that You are the Light of the world in whom there is no darkness.

Islands, listen to me,
pay attention, remotest peoples.
The Lord called me before I was born,
from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name.
He made my mouth a sharp sword,
and hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me into a sharpened arrow,
and concealed me in his quiver.
He said to me, ‘You are my servant (Israel)
in whom I shall be glorified’;
while I was thinking, ‘I have toiled in vain,
I have exhausted myself for nothing’;
and all the while my cause was with the Lord,
my reward with my God.
I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord,
my God was my strength.
And now the Lord has spoken,
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
to gather Israel to him:
‘It is not enough for you to be my servant,
to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel;
I will make you the light of the nations
so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’

PSALM 70(71):1-6,15,17

My lips will tell of your help.

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, free me:
pay heed to me and save me.

Be a rock where I can take refuge,
a mighty stronghold to save me;
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
Free me from the hand of the wicked.

It is you, O Lord, who are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, since my youth.
On you I have leaned from my birth,
from my mother’s womb you have been my help.

My lips will tell of your justice
and day by day of your help.
O God, you have taught me from my youth
and I proclaim your wonders still.

My lips will tell of your help.

JOHN 13:21-33,36-38

SATURDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN 3:16

EZEKIEL 37:21-28

My Soul's Beloved, 

I read Your Word and especially this particular passage often, and I know that Your promises and assurances are true for You are Truth itself, and yet, I ask, 'How much longer, O Lord, must I wait to see Your promises fulfilled?' My heart is heavy. My tears flow constantly. I see the years go rushing by, and still those nearest, dearest, closest to my heart, remain far from You. I fear for their salvation. I fear that they will be separated from You forever. I cannot bear this grief, My Lord. Yet, I know that You desire their salvation even more than I do. You died for them, and You plead for them night and day before Your Father. They are covered in Your Blood, their names are engraved on the palms of Your hands. I must believe this Lord. 

Grant me this grace, Beloved, to continue to pray unceasingly for them. To lift them always at Holy Mass and place them on the Altar of Sacrifice. In the end, I know Your Hand will save, so until that day and hour dawns, I will pray, I will praise, and I will give thanks now, Lord, for their conversion which will take place just as You have promised.

The Lord says this: ‘I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue them from all the betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them; they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever. I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them for ever. I shall make my home above them; I will be their God, they shall be my people. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever.’

PSALM - JEREMIAH 31:10-13

The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.

O nations, hear the word of the Lord,
proclaim it to the far-off coasts.
Say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him
and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.’

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
they will stream to the blessings of the Lord.

Then the young girls will rejoice and dance,
the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console them, give gladness for grief.

The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.

JOHN 11:45-56

My Soul's Beloved, 

The world is filled with people who, when they experience You, the Truth, come to believe, and there are many, many more, the Enemies of Truth, who rush to the powers that be, like the people in Your day rushed to the Pharisees to accuse You and stir the pot of hatred, envy, resentment, anger, because they refuse to see and recognize the day of Your visitation. To raise a man who was dead for four days, and not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that only God could perform such a wondrous sign, and continue to be hardhearted is nothing short of demonic. Never has anyone, by just the power of a word, done what You did. You called Lazarus by name and commanded him to come out, and he did, and he was restored to his rejoicing family.

We ought not to be shocked or scandalised when, within the Church's hierarchy, among bishops and priests, we find the heart of Caiaphas well and truly alive. It is so easy to twist the truth and make it sound like an imminent threat. They couch the lie in well-meaning, high-minded phrases, using words like compassion and mercy, when in fact they are doing and promoting the works of Satan.

Too many of us are filled with curiosity and not a genuine desire to experience, embrace, and live the Truth of the Gospel. We run after popular preachers, we are ready to journey to earth's end to listen to them, and we return to our homes with our hearts and lives largely unchanged. 

Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, ‘You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ This is no different from the age we live in; we are prepared to kill many Catholics and Christians just like the religious leaders of Your day did, fearing the power of the Gospel that teaches love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, self-sacrifice, generosity, the total gift of self to the other. However, as Caiaphas and his cohorts would discover, just as all the enemies of the Church will also learn to their bewilderment that his prophecy that (You) Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God, is being fulfilled in such an astounding manner today as tens of thousands will be received into the Catholic Church this Easter season.

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘and what action are we taking? If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.’ One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, ‘You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.

The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?’

THURSDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8

GENESIS 17:3-9

My Soul's Beloved, 

Just as You made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants forever, so too, my Lord, has God made a holy and irrevocable covenant with all who are grafted to You through Baptism. You are the Covenant of Love that unites us in the Holy Spirit with the Father. Beloved, God is faithful and will never go back on His promises. His covenant is eternal; however, we, sinners, both the descendants of the Old Covenant and the New, either individually or as nations, turn our backs on it, and thus we sever the sacred bond of love that makes us one with You.

All God's promises to His people are fulfilled in You, Lord, and this is why whoever rejects You rejects His Covenant. You, O Lord, the Eternal, firstborn, beloved Son of the Father, unite us to Him, and if we refuse a relationship with You, then we have no relationship with the Father. All the divisions, wars, the greed, the power structures set up by the spawns of Satan to devour, steal, and kill the vast majority of people for their own selfish and personal gain are because we have forgotten that we are one family. We are brothers and sisters, and we have a sacred duty to be our sisters' and brothers' keepers.

Our world is in shambles, and there is greater calamity, disasters, and wars that will visit us and annihilate us if we do not repent humbly and return to our Father's house. Have mercy on us, O Lord, and grant that by the power of Your precious blood and the merits of Your passion, we will reclaim our heritage and be saved.

Abram bowed to the ground and God said this to him, ‘Here now is my covenant with you: you shall become the father of a multitude of nations. You shall no longer be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I make you father of a multitude of nations. I will make you most fruitful. I will make you into nations, and your issue shall be kings. I will establish my Covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land you are living in, the whole land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity, and I will be your God.
‘You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation.’

PSALM 104(105):4-9

The Lord remembers his covenant for ever. 

Consider the Lord and his strength;
constantly seek his face.
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, the judgements he spoke.

O children of Abraham, his servant,
O sons of the Jacob he chose.
He, the Lord, is our God:
his judgements prevail in all the earth.

He remembers his covenant for ever,
his promise for a thousand generations,
the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.

The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

JOHN 8:51-59

My Soul's Beloved, 

The sheer audacity of those of us who would seek to contain and confine You, Your power, and Your identity in their own tiny, hide-bound minds, and reduce You to a manageable size according to their own lopsided and narrow vision and their own human wisdom and intellect. These are the ones who are most vociferous and diabolical in their strident, raucous denunciation of the Church and its doctrines, both oral and written. They refuse to accept and embrace the entirety of divine revelation, resulting in the hatred, often murderous rage, and division rampant among us.  

The most important thing to keep in mind, always, is that God is a mystery, a transcendent mystery, all-powerful, all-good, all-holy; we are but His insignificant creatures, dependent on You for our every breath. Take Your breath away, Lord, and we cease to exist.

Another aspect of You, Lord, in Your humanity, is that You did not back down from speaking truth to the powerful of Your day. You were fully aware that this very Truth that they refused to acknowledge and therefore rejected would bring about Your death by crucifixion. Yet, You did not back down. Truth remains the truth, even if the whole world rejects it, and a lie remains a lie even if the whole world embraces it.

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to be bold when boldness is required. To face the enemies of the Truth with quiet courage. To speak when words are necessary and to be silent when silence will be more powerful than any words we speak.

Your time had not yet arrived, and so when Your enemies picked up stones to kill You, You hid Yourself and left. However, when the hour of the redemption of the world would arrive, You would voluntarily give Yourself up and offer Yourself as the only and eternal Sacrifice acceptable to the Father for the salvation of the world.

Jesus said to the Jews:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
whoever keeps my word
will never see death.’
The Jews said, ‘Now we know for certain that you are possessed. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and yet you say, “Whoever keeps my word will never know the taste of death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? The prophets are dead too. Who are you claiming to be?’ Jesus answered:
‘If I were to seek my own glory
that would be no glory at all;
my glory is conferred by the Father,
by the one of whom you say, “He is our God”
although you do not know him.
But I know him,
and if I were to say: I do not know him,
I should be a liar, as you are liars yourselves.
But I do know him, and I faithfully keep his word.
Your father Abraham rejoiced
to think that he would see my Day;
he saw it and was glad.’
The Jews then said, ‘You are not fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!’ Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
before Abraham ever was,
I Am.’
At this they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The Word became flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory. JN 1:14

ISAIAH 7:10-14,8:10

My Soul's Beloved, 

The world is full of people who deliberately shut their eyes to the light and their ears to the voice that calls them out of bondage to freedom. They are so addicted to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life that they refuse to heed the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit abiding in them and inviting them to turn away from a life that leads to spiritual death forever.

Ahaz refused to ask for a sign even when the prophet himself asked him to do so. He preferred his own wisdom and to trust in his own resources, rejecting the plan of God who desired to help him and his people. So it is with us hypocrites as well. We know very well that if we asked for a sign, You would give it to us, and we would have to turn away from our sinful pleasure, our own worldly wisdom, and embrace the narrow way that leads to life.

Beloved, even though we refuse to humbly listen to God's plans for our lives, You still do not revoke those plans and promises just as the prophet said, whether or not Ahaz asked for a sign, God would still give the world the greatest sign of all:

‘The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.’

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Then Isaiah said:
‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

PSALM 39(40):7-11

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.

In the scroll of the book it stands written
that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law
in the depth of my heart.

Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.

I have not hidden your justice in my heart
but declared your faithful help.
I have not hidden your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

HEBREWS 10:4-10

My Soul's Beloved, 

Why are we so hidebound, so rigid, so bound in our own ideas that make us prisoners of the old and passing and refuse to embrace the wonderful, new, astounding, and amazing thing that God desires to do for us? This is what happened to the Jews and the Jewish nation. They refused to accept the time of Your visitation and have thus condemned themselves to a life without grace and truth.

But what about us, O Lord, who call ourselves Catholic and Christian? Many of us are no better. We have been raised on the faith of our parents and grandparents for generations and have never made it our own. This is why we are so woefully ignorant of the beauty, the truth, the goodness, and our Catholic faith. We have only a watered-down idea of what the Church teaches; this is why it is so easy for us to be swayed by false teaching.

There is only one Sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world, and that is the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God. There is only the supreme Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which makes this eternal Sacrifice present on every altar where the Holy Mass is celebrated. This is the will of the Father that we eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Lamb and receive eternal life. There is no other way to enter God's Kingdom. The quicker we understand this, the quicker we will make a good sacramental confession and be received into the sheepfold.

Bulls’ blood and goats’ blood are useless for taking away sins, and this is what Christ said, on coming into the world:
You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation,
prepared a body for me.
You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin;
then I said,
just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book,
‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’
Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.

LUKE 1:26-38

My Soul's Beloved,

With her fiat, the new Eve undoes the knot made by the old Eve. Today, in Passion Tide, we take a moment to savor the moment when the Eternal Word, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and all Heaven, waits in silent and eager anticipation for Mary's answer to the invitation of God extended to her by the Angel Gabriel. It took a few moments because she was taken aback by the Angel's greeting. It is understandable that this young, humble Virgin from the backwaters of Nazareth, who, although she was wholly wrapped up in God since her conception, was unable to quite grasp the extent of what was being asked of her. Yes, she was well acquainted with the prophecy, but she would never have imagined that it was speaking of her.

‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.’ 

Once the Angel explained how God would work the amazing miracle of grace, even though she did not fully grasp the extent of what it would all mean, her response was one she had always given to God; she said, 'yes' to Him as she had always done her entire life. ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ It would have been contrary to her nature to have said anything else yet, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit waited graciously for her consent. When she gave it, heaven erupted with joy and that joy spills over in the Church today as we celebrate this glorious feast when the Eternal Word stooped low from Heaven and entered the new Ark of the Covenant, the womb of Mary and took on flesh and blood. The Body that would redeem the whole world and everything in it.

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

https://lovesongstothebeloved.blogspot.com/2010/10/hail-mary.html

MONDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READING

I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man
– it is the Lord who speaks –
but in the turning back of a wicked man
who changes his ways to win life. EZK 33:11

DANIEL 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62

My Soul's Beloved, 

This is a tale as old as time of debauchery, treachery, and gross misuse of power by those entrusted to wield justice with honor and truth. How often, Lord, those who have been elected, anointed, and who have sworn before God and men to uphold divine laws, keep them and encourage and help others to do so as well, and how often these who are treated with respect and held in reverence have failed us. Those who have wantonly and grossly misused the faith and trust placed in them are found not only among leaders in the Church but everywhere.  

The more prominent the perpetrators of such evil, the more effectively they use their power to silence, crush, and destroy their victims, especially the most vulnerable. The innocent are defenceless against the crushing power that is wielded by wicked people holding prominent positions of power. The godfearing woman Susanna, wife of Joakim, a rich and very respectable man, still fell victim to the malice of these two old, wicked judges who had successfully taken advantage of other defenceless women in the past.

Every cry of the innocent raised to God is heard, and You will surely come to the aid of those who place all their hope and trust in You as You did in the case of Susanna. Daniel, a young man, stirred by the power of the Holy Spirit, did not allow fear to prevent him from calling out boldly against the injustice done to Susanna by the false witness of the two old and evil judges. Their false testimony came from their own lying lips, and they suffered the same punishment that they would have meted out against their innocent victim.

Let us never be afraid to speak truth to power boldly in the face of injustice, unafraid of the consequences. It is better to die for the truth than to live cowardly lives and be condemned eternally.

In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim. He had married Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, a woman of great beauty; and she was God-fearing, because her parents were worthy people and had instructed their daughter in the Law of Moses. Joakim was a very rich man, and had a garden attached to his house; the Jews would often visit him since he was held in greater respect than any other man. Two elderly men had been selected from the people that year to act as judges. Of such the Lord said, ‘Wickedness has come to Babylon through the elders and judges posing as guides to the people.’ These men were often at Joakim’s house, and all who were engaged in litigation used to come to them. At midday, when everyone had gone, Susanna used to take a walk in her husband’s garden. The two elders, who used to watch her every day as she came in to take her walk, gradually began to desire her. They threw reason aside, making no effort to turn their eyes to heaven, and forgetting its demands of virtue. So they waited for a favourable moment; and one day Susanna came as usual, accompanied only by two young maidservants. The day was hot and she wanted to bathe in the garden. There was no one about except the two elders, spying on her from their hiding place. She said to the servants, ‘Bring me some oil and balsam and shut the garden door while I bathe.’
Hardly were the servants gone than the two elders were there after her. ‘Look,’ they said ‘the garden door is shut, no one can see us. We want to have you, so give in and let us! Refuse, and we will both give evidence that a young man was with you and that was why you sent your maids away.’ Susanna sighed. ‘I am trapped,’ she said ‘whatever I do. If I agree, that means my death; if I resist, I cannot get away from you. But I prefer to fall innocent into your power than to sin in the eyes of the Lord.’ Then she cried out as loud as she could. The two elders began shouting too, putting the blame on her, and one of them ran to open the garden door. The household, hearing the shouting in the garden, rushed out by the side entrance to see what was happening; once the elders had told their story the servants were thoroughly taken aback, since nothing of this sort had ever been said of Susanna.
Next day a meeting was held at the house of her husband Joakim. The two elders arrived, in their vindictiveness determined to have her put to death. They addressed the company: ‘Summon Susanna daughter of Hilkiah and wife of Joakim.’ She was sent for, and came accompanied by her parents, her children and all her relations. All her own people were weeping, and so were all the others who saw her. The two elders stood up, with all the people round them, and laid their hands on the woman’s head. Tearfully she turned her eyes to heaven, her heart confident in God. The elders then spoke. ‘While we were walking by ourselves in the garden, this woman arrived with two servants. She shut the garden door and then dismissed the servants. A young man who had been hiding went over to her and they lay down together. From the end of the garden where we were, we saw this crime taking place and hurried towards them. Though we saw them together we were unable to catch the man: he was too strong for us; he opened the door and took to his heels. We did, however, catch this woman and ask her who the young man was. She refused to tell us. That is our evidence.’
Since they were elders of the people, and judges, the assembly took their word: Susanna was condemned to death. She cried out as loud as she could, ‘Eternal God, you know all secrets and everything before it happens; you know that they have given false evidence against me. And now have I to die, innocent as I am of everything their malice has invented against me?’
The Lord heard her cry and, as she was being led away to die, he roused the holy spirit residing in a young boy named Daniel who began to shout, ‘I am innocent of this woman’s death!’ At which all the people turned to him and asked, ‘What do you mean by these words?’ Standing in the middle of the crowd he replied, ‘Are you so stupid, sons of Israel, as to condemn a daughter of Israel unheard, and without troubling to find out the truth? Go back to the scene of the trial: these men have given false evidence against her.’
All the people hurried back, and the elders said to Daniel, ‘Come and sit with us and tell us what you mean, since God has given you the gifts that elders have.’ Daniel said, ‘Keep the men well apart from each other for I want to question them.’ When the men had been separated, Daniel had one of them brought to him. ‘You have grown old in wickedness,’ he said ‘and now the sins of your earlier days have overtaken you, you with your unjust judgements, your condemnation of the innocent, your acquittal of guilty men, when the Lord has said, “You must not put the innocent and the just to death.” Now then, since you saw her so clearly, tell me what tree you saw them lying under?’ He replied, ‘Under a mastic tree.’ Daniel said, ‘True enough! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God has already received your sentence from him and will slash you in half.’ He dismissed the man, ordered the other to be brought and said to him, ‘Spawn of Canaan, not of Judah, beauty has seduced you, lust has led your heart astray! This is how you have been behaving with the daughters of Israel and they were too frightened to resist; but here is a daughter of Judah who could not stomach your wickedness! Now then, tell me what tree you surprised them under?’ He replied, ‘Under a holm oak.’ Daniel said, ‘True enough! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God is waiting, with a sword to drive home and split you, and destroy the pair of you.’
Then the whole assembly shouted, blessing God, the saviour of those who trust in him. And they turned on the two elders whom Daniel had convicted of false evidence out of their own mouths. As prescribed in the Law of Moses, they sentenced them to the same punishment as they had intended to inflict on their neighbour. They put them to death; the life of an innocent woman was spared that day.

PSALM 22(23)

If I should walk in the valley of darkness, no evil would I fear.

The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.

He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.

You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing.

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.

If I should walk in the valley of darkness, no evil would I fear.

JOHN 8:1-11

My Soul's Beloved, 

With You, we sinners will always meet both justice and mercy. Justice demanded that sin be punished, and You who are mercy took on the punishment and satisfied justice. 

You spent the night in prayer on the Mount of Olives, a place of prayer where many in the past, including David, came to pray. This was a bittersweet place for You, for You knew that it would be from here that Your enemies would come to arrest You, and so would begin the painful and sorrowful journey, beginning with Your agony in this garden when Mercy would satisfy justice in expiation for the sins of the whole world.

It was daybreak, and already the people, hungry for Your word, came to the Temple to be taught by You. The scribes and the Pharisees, however, desired nothing more than to lay traps so they could destroy You. So eager were they that they actually were spying on a woman whom they knew was guilty of adultery, perhaps even the husband was complicit in this plot. The guilty man was nowhere on the scene, only the hapless woman, the useful pawn to their unscrupulous scheme, was dragged before You and thrown at Your feet. They shamed the poor woman publicly before the large crowd by announcing that she was caught in the very act of committing adultery. They proceeded to quote the law of Moses, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’

Justice demanded that You concurred with them according to the Law. Bending down, You began to write on the ground, but as they persisted, You looked at them and answered, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And You continued to write. One by one, they left, we are told, beginning with the eldest, for it is true that instead of getting holier as we get older, we become more sinful as we get more set in our sinful habits. Finally, after all had left, and when You were alone with her, Your merciful gaze met hers, and You spoke to her gently, comfortingly, and tenderly,  ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She replied, ‘No one, sir.’ She replied, and she then heard the same consoling words, which you say to all repentant  sinners, in the confessional, ‘Neither do I condemn you, go away, and do not sin any more.’  Thank You, Lord.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and do not sin any more.’

5TH SUNDAY IN LENT (2026)

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die. JN 11:25, 26

EZEKIEL 37:12-14

My Soul's Beloved, 

The world has strayed far from the way of Truth, perfection, and holiness, and is in great turmoil. Peace is a word on everyone's lips, but the reality of peace is a distant dream. You have said, 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.' But You have also said, 'I did not come to bring peace but a sword.' While these statements might appear contradictory, the promise is that only if we accept You as the Prince of Peace and Your gift of peace will we live as brothers and sisters in harmony. But if we reject You and Your teaching, if we reject the unity that You desire for all believers, then we will sow seeds of division, dissension, and bloody wars, and destruction is what we will reap. 

We only have to look at our war-torn world, and at the hatred that nation bears against nation. Greed for power is rampant, as well as greed to control the world's resources by the few who are strong, so they can choke and destroy the weak.

For the sake of the few who remain faithful, Beloved, have mercy on the many who are caught in the crosshairs of the wicked.

The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.

PSALM 129 (130)

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.

My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.)

Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

ROMANS 8:8-11

My Soul's Beloved, 

We live in a culture that celebrates the body, and the value that the world puts on the body kills the life of the spirit in us. We who are baptized are temples of the Holy Spirit, but if we neglect the things that give life to the soul, if we fail to receive the Sacraments that channel grace into our lives, then we will surely, slowly, allow the weeds to choke us and bring about our spiritual death.

Lord, how much longer will the world live in deliberate ignorance? It chooses to be blind to the teachings of the Church, which are necessary if we are to live joyfully in this life and hope for eternal joy in the life to come. So many Christians are abysmally ignorant of even the very basics of the requirements of living a holy Christian life, and make no attempt to make a serious effort to learn what the Church teaches and holds as absolutely essential if we are to be saved.

It is up to each of us who strive to live a life of holiness and perfection to be light and salt in the world so they can see for themselves that to live in You and be nourished by You, and Your Word, we can live and flourish even in the chaos and madness that is engulfing our world today.

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

JOHN 11:1-45

SATURDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance. LK 8:15

JEREMIAH 11:18-20

My Soul's Beloved, 

You are the Lamb of God who went humbly and meekly to Your most excruciatingly painful death by crucifixion. Your enemies took satanic delight in pouring on You every insult, every blasphemy, every cruelty that hell could think of, and You bore it all in silence. You are the example we need to follow in a world that hates goodness, beauty, and truth, and You, O Lord, are the embodiment of all three.

Grant us the grace to walk in Your footsteps on our own journey to Calvary. Our sufferings, humiliations, and sorrows are but a speck in comparison to Your most ignominious, torturous, and painful death. Your vengeance on Your enemies is mercy, forgiveness, absolution, and pardon to all who desire it. You do not desire the death of the wicked but that all turn away from their sins and be saved. Grant, O Lord, that we imitate You and offer the same kind of 'vengeance' that You offer by forgiving wholeheartedly all those who sin against us. 

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine. 

The Lord revealed it to me; I was warned. O Lord, that was when you opened my eyes to their scheming. I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, ‘Let us destroy the tree in its strength, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may be quickly forgotten!’
But you, the Lord of Hosts, who pronounce a just sentence,
who probe the loins and heart,
let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.

PSALM 7:2-3,9-12

Lord God, I take refuge in you.

Lord God, I take refuge in you.
From my pursuer save me and rescue me,
lest he tear me to pieces like a lion
and drag me off with no one to rescue me.

Give judgement for me, Lord; I am just
and innocent of heart.
Put an end to the evil of the wicked!
Make the just stand firm,
you who test mind and heart,
O just God!

God is the shield that protects me,
who saves the upright of heart.
God is a just judge
slow to anger;
but he threatens the wicked every day.

Lord God, I take refuge in you.

JOHN 7:40-52

My Soul's Beloved, 

To this day, people want to put God in constraints and will not allow God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be God, transcendent, immutable, above every other power, who is power itself. We human beings are bound by God's laws, but You, O Lord, are outside the Law and can do as You will. But many like the Pharisees who questioned Nicodemus say like them, ‘Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.’  

Who are we but Your creatures O Lord, who dare to question the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier and yet Christians and non-Christians alike dare to tell God that He cannot have a Son, that His Son was only a Man, that Mary, Your Virgin Mother was not sinless, that St. Joseph had other children with her, and that the Holy Spirit is the all-powerful love between the Father and the Son in whom all things come to be according to the Will of God and the Word of the Father.

You are who You say You are, and we believe, my Lord.

Several people who had been listening to Jesus said, ‘Surely he must be the prophet’, and some said, ‘He is the Christ’, but others said, ‘Would the Christ be from Galilee? Does not scripture say that the Christ must be descended from David and come from the town of Bethlehem?’ So the people could not agree about him. Some would have liked to arrest him, but no one actually laid hands on him.
The police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, ‘Why haven’t you brought him?’ The police replied, ‘There has never been anybody who has spoken like him.’ ‘So’ the Pharisees answered ‘you have been led astray as well? Have any of the authorities believed in him? Any of the Pharisees? This rabble knows nothing about the Law – they are damned.’ One of them, Nicodemus – the same man who had come to Jesus earlier – said to them, ‘But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a hearing and discovering what he is about?’ To this they answered, ‘Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.’

SOLEMNITY ST. JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

They are happy who dwell in your house, O Lord,
for ever singing your praise. PS 83:5

2 SAMUEL 7:4-5,12-14,16

My Soul's Beloved,

St. Joseph, Your foster father and most chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin, Your Mother, belonged to the line of David and thus You shared in his lineage, fulfilling this prophecy of Nathan. True to His Word, the Eternal Word of the Father came to us as the Son of Man by becoming incarnate of the Virgin Mary. God entrusted His most beloved Son and daughter to the safekeeping of his beloved and most faithful servant, Joseph of the house of David.

The house that God has built is You, Lord. You are its Cornerstone, and on You the whole structure stands immovable and rock-solid. Let the storms come, the winds blow, and churn up the waves so high that they threaten to destroy it, but it will stand firm, for we have Your assurance that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. St. Joseph, who was appointed Your guardian, is also the guardian of the Church. Just as he was vigilant in protecting You and Mama Mary, so is he vigilant in guarding the Church. He kept You and Your Mama safe; through his powerful intercession, he will keep the Church safe as well.

The word of the Lord came to Nathan:
‘Go and tell my servant David, Thus the Lord speaks: “When your days are ended and you are laid to rest with your ancestors, I will preserve the offspring of your body after you and make his sovereignty secure. (It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will make his royal throne secure for ever.) I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established for ever.”’

PSALM 88(89):2-5,27,29

His dynasty shall last for ever.

I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord;
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever,
that your truth is firmly established as the heavens.

‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty for ever
and set up your throne through all ages.

‘He will say to me: “You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.”
I will keep my love for him always;
with him my covenant shall last.’

His dynasty shall last for ever.

ROMANS 4:13,16-18,22

My Soul's Beloved,

All that St. Paul says of Abraham, our father in faith, is fulfilled gloriously in St. Joseph, the just and righteous. His faith in God's commands was acted on without question, promptly and without question. His silence is more eloquent than the words of all the sages, prophets, patriarchs, apostles, and disciples and every Church Father, Pope, and Bishop, who took up the pen to write about God and the Son of God.

Here was a man chosen by God of all the men of all time and in every age, just as He chose the Virgin Mary for the single most important work ever entrusted to a human being. You, O Lord, are the sinless one. Mary was full of grace from the moment of her conception and hence sinless as well. But St. Joseph was truly one like us, human and subject to all the trials that our flesh is subject to, and he came out as gold purified seven times in the furnace of tribulation and suffering. He was rightly called just.

St. Joseph, by virtue of his fatherhood to You, my Lord, is our father as well, just as God, Your Abba, is ours too. If Mary was given at the foot of the cross to the beloved disciple, he too was given to us, as guardian and protector of the Son whom we are privileged to call Brother, we too can call him abba, whom You called abba on earth. He continues to share this fatherhood with You in heaven as well, just as Mama Mary continues to be Your Mother. 

We thank You, Lord, for making us members of Your family and for the riches, treasures, and graces we receive by virtue of this relationship we share with You.

The promise of inheriting the world was not made to Abraham and his descendants on account of any law but on account of the righteousness which consists in faith. That is why what fulfils the promise depends on faith, so that it may be a free gift and be available to all of Abraham’s descendants, not only those who belong to the Law but also those who belong to the faith of Abraham who is the father of all of us. As scripture says: I have made you the ancestor of many nations – Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not exist.
Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled, he hoped and he believed, and through doing so he did become the father of many nations exactly as he had been promised: Your descendants will be as many as the stars. This is the faith that was ‘considered as justifying him.’

MATTHEW 1:16,18-21,24

My Soul's Beloved, 

In the middle of Lent, a time for fasting, reparation, repentance, and conversion, the Church gives us a day to contemplate the gift that God has given us, St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, chaste spouse of the Virgin Mother, protector and guardian of the Holy Family and of the Church. He is the terror of demons who trembled at the sight of his humility, his obedience, his silence, his unquestioning and ready availability to God, who could count on him to care for His priceless and most beloved Son, You, my Lord, and the daughter of Zion, Your Mother, Mary.

We are given the passage from St. Matthew's Gospel to contemplate how You came to be born. We are told of St. Joseph's betrothal to Mary, and they were to marry. But before he took her to his home, she was found to be pregnant with You. In these few short verses that speak of him, we are given a short but remarkable picture of his character. The author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals that he was a man of honor. He loved Mary very much and was careful to ensure that any action he intended to take would cause her no embarrassment or difficulty with the law. He would do all he could to ensure the separation would be done quietly. 

His decision would have caused him great suffering, for he had envisaged a life of joy with the woman he loved, but unable to fully comprehend what had happened, he was sure of the goodness and purity of the Woman, and possibly contemplating the prophecy of Isaiah, he thought this was the right course of action. Until the Angel Gabriel stepped in and revealed that he was an intrinsic part of God's plan of salvation and redemption of the world.

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.

MONDAY OF WEEK 4 IN LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord God of hosts may really be with you. AMOS 5:14

ISAIAH 65:17-21

My Soul's Beloved,

These wonderful promises have not been fulfilled in the world in any age past, or in the present one in which we are living. But this is Your assurance to all who believe. Until now, Lord, the world has been divided, and never has it been polarized as it is in the present age. Everyone is their own master, doing whatever pleases them with no regard for Your Word, for the Commandments, or for Your Church. 

If we truly desire the creation of new heavens and a new earth, then the whole world, every man, woman, and child must bend the knee before God and confess to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, that You indeed are Lord. You, O Lord, are the giver of all life. You are the Truth, and our lives must conform to You. You are Love, and this love of God, which is love between Father and Son and is poured out into the hearts of every believer, is the Holy Spirit. Unless we possess the Spirit, we are incapable of living a life of grace and therefore incapable of pleasing God. 

When every Catholic desires to see God exulting over the whole world, Lord, when we are determined to put an end to war, and the cries of oppression to end. When we work uncompromisingly to put an end to the killing of children in the womb by abortion. When every Catholic stands up with courage, unafraid to look evil in the eye, and call it out in every single instance, both great and small, and be prepared to die for the Truth. Then, O Lord, will Your Kingdom come among us, and there will be an end to evil. For the blood of those prepared to lay down their lives as You did for us, will give birth to a multitude of believers, and together we will hasten the coming of Your Kingdom.

Thus says the Lord: Now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men’s minds. Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating, because I now create Jerusalem ‘Joy’ and her people ‘Gladness.’ I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people. No more will the sound of weeping or the sound of cries be heard in her; in her, no more will be found the infant living a few days only, or the old man not living to the end of his days. To die at the age of a hundred will be dying young; not to live to be a hundred will be the sign of a curse. They will build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

PSALM 29(30):2,4-6,11-13

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me
and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead,
restored me to life from those who sink into the grave.

Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him,
give thanks to his holy name.
His anger lasts a moment; his favour all through life.
At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn.

The Lord listened and had pity.
The Lord came to my help.
For me you have changed my mourning into dancing:
O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

JOHN 4:43-54

Go home: your son will live.

4TH SUNDAY IN LENT, LAETARE SUNDAY, 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever follows me will have the light of life. JN 8:12

1 SAMUEL 16:1,6-7,10-13

My Soul's Beloved,

Each one of us who is baptized and grafted to You is chosen by You as David was chosen, anointed by You, as David was anointed, and made prophet, priest, and king by You by virtue of this glorious Sacrament of Initiation. You see us, Your gaze is always on us, even when we believe we are the youngest, not important, and sent to labor where perhaps the more important in the eyes of the world are not sent, yet even then, You know all and You have wonderful plans for us. Plans we cannot even imagine, for they are too glorious for us to even think of.

Thank You, Lord, for the oil of Chrism that anointed and consecrated us to You and to a life dedicated to You and Your glory at our Baptism and Confirmation. We forget O Lord, the purpose for which we were created - to know You, to love You, to serve You, and to live a life of grace and experience joy even in this valley of tears, and unimaginable joy with You in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Continue to fill us with Your Holy Spirit all the days of our lives so we may be a blessing to all we meet from this day forth until we come to live with You in heaven.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.’ When Samuel arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed stands there before him,’ but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him: God does not see as man sees: man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ He answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down to eat until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’ At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from that day on.

PSALM22(23)

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit.

He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name.
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort.

You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing.

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me
all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

EPHESIANS 5:8-14

JOHN 9:1-41

SATURDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8

HOSEA 5:15-6:6

My Soul's Beloved, 

Nothing that You have done from the time You laid the foundations of the earth has been hidden from us, whom You, O Lord, created in love. All we need to do to know Your will is to look for it daily in Your Sacred Word. Your plans for us in the world, in Your Church, and in our lives. We need to be so familiar with it that nothing will frighten us, alarm us, or discourage us. Rather, we will be encouraged, hopeful, and enthused always to actively seek Your will in all things and do it gladly and promptly.

The reason the yoke grows heavier and heavier is because we are being chastised for deliberately seeking our will over Yours. We prefer to wallow in the mire of sin and feed on scraps rather than claim our inheritance as children of God. We look for fulfillment in the noise and distractions of the world instead of seeking You in silence and contemplating with grateful hearts what the love of God has wrought for us in creating, saving, and redeeming us.

When we are contrite, repentant, and humble, You wash away our sins and restore our friendship with You. You fill us with the grace of the Holy Spirit and with joy and peace. These gifts are freely given to us when we approach You in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but we do not make use of this healing Sacrament as often as we can. You love us greatly, and You pursue us relentlessly. There is no place we can hide from You. You do not give up on us, and as long as we have breath in our bodies, You will seek us, woo us tenderly, and invite us to seek perfect joy and rest in You, and when we return to You, You will rejoice over us and restore to us all that we lost in rejecting You. Pity us, Lord, and do not permit our stupidity and foolishness to ever take us so far away from You that we are lost forever.

The Lord says this:

They will search for me in their misery.
‘Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;
he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;
after a day or two he will bring us back to life,
on the third day he will raise us
and we shall live in his presence.
Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;
that he will come is as certain as the dawn:
his judgement will rise like the light,
he will come to us as showers come,
like spring rains watering the earth.’
What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.
This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,
why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,
since what I want is love, not sacrifice;
knowledge of God, not holocausts.

PSALM 50(51):3-4,18-21

What I want is love, not sacrifice.

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

In your goodness, show favour to Zion:
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
burnt offerings wholly consumed.

What I want is love, not sacrifice.

LUKE 18:9-14

My Soul's Beloved, 

Pride and self-aggrandizement are the hallmarks of Satan and his followers. Too often, many of us believe that God will accept as worthy our lip service in following Your Commandments and offering token signs of love for You, whereas in truth our hearts are far away from You. Some among us belong to all the right associations, making quite sure that we are visible and at the forefront of all the activities organized by the parish. We attend every mission, novena, and any other religious and social activities that are held, and lose no opportunity to announce to anyone who will listen of our prominence and all of our good works. To those of us guilty of this, You will some day say, 'Depart from Me, I never knew you.'

Let us contemplate this parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayer and carefully and honestly examine our own conscience. Let me look unflinchingly at where and when I act like the Pharisee, seeking to be known for my good works, my daily Holy Mass attendance, preening with self-satisfaction at the good that God in His infinite goodness allows me to do, but I turn it into self-applause.

Have mercy on me, O Lord. Grant me the grace to make a rigorous self-examination of all my faults, reveal these wounds to You, allow You to grant me wisdom to see myself as I am, and to be healed of these sins. Grant me grace to look unflinchingly at my faults, my failings, and my sins and confess them so I can receive Your forgiveness and restoration as a child of God once again.

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’