Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with all your heart,
for I am all tenderness and compassion. JOEL 2:12-13
JEREMIAH 7:23-28
My Soul's Beloved,
From the opening lines in the Book of Genesis to its closing in the Book of Revelation, the triune God reveals Himself to us clearly and unmistakably. We have chosen to be blind and obtuse. We have chosen to go our own way. We have chosen to heed our own fallen instincts and deliberately walk away from Wisdom, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. You came to take by the hand, not angels but us, human beings, but we have ignored Your outstretched hand and instead wandered, like the prodigal son, far away from home to live a life of licentiousness and depravity.
In this holy season of Lent, the Church reminds us that we are created in Your image and likeness, and we can never find happiness apart from You. We have to only look at our war-torn, violence-ridden world to see the fruit of lawlessness. We are governed by power-hungry, ruthless, and wicked people, and this is the result of breaking every one of God's commandments generation after generation.
Just as Abraham pleaded with You to have pity for the sake of 10 good people and to hold back Your wrath so we will not be totally annihilated, I too plead with You, Beloved, for the sake of the faithful few to have mercy on the many. We lift up Your Passion to the Father and for Your sake and the sake of Your atoning sacrifice, to see Your most Precious Blood covering us sinners, and lift Your hand of chastisement and grant us pardon, healing, and peace.
These were my orders: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper. But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed the dictates of their own evil hearts, refused to face me, and turned their backs on me. From the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, day after day I have persistently sent you all my servants the prophets.
But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have grown stubborn and behaved worse than their ancestors. You may say all these words to them: they will not listen to you; you may call them: they will not answer. So tell them this, “Here is the nation that will not listen to the voice of the Lord its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.”
PSALM 94(95):1-2,6-9
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have grown stubborn and behaved worse than their ancestors. You may say all these words to them: they will not listen to you; you may call them: they will not answer. So tell them this, “Here is the nation that will not listen to the voice of the Lord its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.”
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.’
LUKE 11:14-23
My Soul's Beloved,
Where You are, there is the Kingdom of God. When You live and reign in us, the Kingdom of God is in us. When Christian nations give You, the Christ, the glory, the honor, the power, and the obedience and allegiance due to You, then in these nations will the Kingdom of God flourish and spread. Sadly, in our present age, the opposite is true. We have distanced ourselves from You in every possible way and this is why the reign of darkness has sucked all the light from our lives and from almost every nation in the world.
Nations are warring against nations, and people of different religions, different languages, and different cultural backgrounds are warring against each other, and our world today is a reflection of this hatred and suspicion of each other on a global scale. The victims are the poor caught in the crosshairs of power-hungry, wicked, stubborn, and vindictive leaders.
Satan is having a field day, pitting one group against another, and the division sown by evil is the cause of all that is wrong in our world. Have mercy on the faithful, O Lord, and in Your tender mercy and compassion, save us from the destruction that evil is hell-bent on visiting on us.
Heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus' sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Jesus was casting out a devil and it was dumb; but when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed. But some of them said, ‘It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils.’ Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? – since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils. Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges then. But if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.
‘He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.’
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