MONDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF EASTERTIDE - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4

ACTS 6:8-15

My Soul's Beloved,

Why are we unable to work miracles and great signs like Stephen? It is because we are not filled with grace that we do not possess the power of the Holy Spirit. As long as we are in love with our sins, our weaknesses, our habitual giving in to our pet temptations, we will remain weak and powerless to choose what is right, true, good, and beautiful. Stephen loved You very much. He believed. He acted on what he believed with faith and conviction that You will do what You said You would. He worked miracles by the power of Your Name. Your Name, O Lord, causes demons and hell to tremble, and unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit to do whatever we ask. You assured us that we would do even greater things than You, for You were going to the Father and You would send us the Holy Spirit. 

All who are baptized have received the Holy Spirit and power. We live such ineffectual spiritual lives because we are in love with our sins. We do not take the Commandments seriously. We make excuses for ourselves. 

Stephen believed and, believing he acted. He taught and preached with conviction, and when he worked miracles and great signs, he did so by the power of Your Name. This is why the enemies of the Church, who are no different in nature from Your enemies in the Sanhedrin, impelled by greed and love for power and position, hold the poor in slavery and bondage and use and discard them at will, without compunction. The vast majority of people are at the mercy of a few, and they impose draconian laws to crush the little ones. Anyone who dares to question the status quo has false accusations brought against them; the pet accusation used to destroy, imprison, and murder is one that has always been used to great effect - blasphemy. A whole lot of false witnesses come forward, a judgment is passed in favor of the ruling powers, and the sentence is carried out.

The early martyrs of the Church gladly went to their death, knowing that they would see You and remain with You forever. Grant us the courage, O Lord, to live our own faith boldly, and in our own little way die to ourselves daily.

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. So they procured some men to say, ‘We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.’ Having in this way turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they put up false witnesses to say, ‘This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this Place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.’ The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

PSALM 118(119):23-24,26-27,29-30

They are happy whose life is blameless.

Though princes sit plotting against me
I ponder on your statutes.
Your will is my delight;
your statutes are my counsellors.

I declared my ways and you answered;
teach me your statutes.
Make me grasp the way of your precepts
and I will muse on your wonders.

Keep me from the way of error
and teach me your law.
I have chosen the way of truth
with your decrees before me.

They are happy whose life is blameless.

JOHN 6:22-29

My Soul's Beloved,

I receive You daily in the Holy Eucharist. Do I come from habit? What do I ask of You when I seek You daily in the Holy Mass? Is it for selfish gain or for something more - to receive Your life of grace, which will help me to live in freedom that You give to all the children of God who are grafted to You and are privileged to call You Brother. 

The 5000 had their fill of bread, and they came looking for You in droves the next day, hoping for more of the same. You had spent 3 days teaching and preaching to them. You broke the Word to them, but that was not why they now seek You. Their desire is to satisfy their physical hunger without having to labor for it. Their desire for hearing the Word and being fed by it did not figure into their seeking for You at all. Too many of us today are just like them; we clamor for healing, for spiritual consolation, for the removal of our cross, we ask for temporal favors constantly, and forget that we are both flesh and spirit. The flesh will die, the spirit will live eternally. How I live today will determine where my spirit will be sent by You tomorrow. 

Beloved, grant me the grace not to be so caught up in the temporal that I forget the divine and the eternal. 

After Jesus had fed the five thousand, his disciples saw him walking on the water. Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten. When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’
Jesus answered:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs
but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Do not work for food that cannot last,
but work for food that endures to eternal life,
the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,
for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’
Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’