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
ISAIAH 55:1-3
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
In these verses from the prophet Isaiah, a glorious promise is made that will only be fulfilled many centuries later. To the poor who belonged to the chosen people of God, this promise of free corn, wine, and milk was amazing. But immediately, after these verses, he says, 'Why spend money on what is not bread, and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen to me, and you will have good things to each and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, listen, and your soul will live. And finally, he says, 'With you I will make an everlasting covenant.
Many of us spend our whole lives chasing the wind when all that God has promised is available to us right here, right now, and it costs nothing. When we partake of Your Body and Blood we receive all the good things that no amount of wealth, power, and influence can buy. You are the everlasting covenant of God's love with us and it is this Covenant of Love that guarantees us eternal life.
PSALM 145:8-9, 15-18
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
There is no other god but You O God. Who is like You? To those who believe, those who are grafted into Your Body, those who have Your Life coursing through them, are baffled by those who bow down and worship strange gods and believe bewildering things about the gods they worship because that is so contrary to the God of Love revealed to us and whom we experience personally, believe, adore, and worship.
You, Beloved, are God who became one like us, though sinless, in order to reveal to us the glory of God. You were visible, incarnate, and tangible. You came to reveal the Face of God in whose image and likeness we are created. A God who is kind, full of compassion, slow to anger, and abounding in love. On the Cross, You not only opened Your hand wide to grant us all our desires, but You emptied Yourself completely and poured out Your life for us that we may live.
Like Mary, Your Mother, and the handmaid of the Lord, grant that we keep our gaze fixed on You all the days of our life. Thank You for the heavenly manna, the Holy Eucharist, that wells up to eternal life in us. It is a guarantee of eternal union and communion with the Blessed Trinity now and for all eternity.
ROMANS 8:35, 37-39
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
How blessed we are for St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. He is a perfect example of what God can do with the repentant sinner whose heart is large enough to embrace the whole of God's plan for his life. God reveals Himself candidly to His friends as can be seen from the lives of so many who made a total gift of their lives to You.
Your Apostles, disciples, and every true follower must be prepared for a life of trial, hardship, suffering, persecution, and death to self. You were right when You said the flesh avails nothing, it is the spirit that gives life. This is why we are called to discipline the flesh in order to allow our spirit to align with Your Spirit who is the Spirit of Love, Truth, and Life.
It is only by a total donation of self in love, to You, that we come to know the Truth that sets us free. No matter how difficult life may get, despite all the suffering we endure, we are victorious and triumphant always, because we have You.
This is the confident belief of all who embrace You with an undivided heart, 'For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
MATTHEW 14:13-21
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
You were grieved on hearing the news of John the Baptist's death and You wanted to go away to be alone with Your friends and grieve Your loss. His death was a reminder that You too would soon face the same fate as Your cousin, John. Our natural, human response is to allow ourselves time to mourn the loss of those we love. But as we read further in this passage from the gospel of Matthew we also see how different You are from us.
Your preaching and teaching accompanied by miraculous signs in the healing of the sick, Your power over demons, and every other power, caused a great number of people to follow You everywhere You went. As soon as they heard You would be somewhere they flocked in droves with little sympathy for Your privacy or Your own need for rest and peace
Your reaction to the crowds who looked for You and found You was not irritation but compassion. You forgot about Yourself totally and reached out to cure the sick, to talk to them and teach them. The hours flew by that day and it was evening; the disciples encouraged You to disperse the crowds and send them away as it was late. The people would be hungry and could buy food from the village on their way home. The disciples themselves must have been hungry, tired, and longing for rest. They would have been taken aback when You said, ‘There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.’
Matthew tells us that there were about five thousand men, present including women and children and they told You that they only had five loaves and two fish. This was barely enough for them. You had them bring the food to You, instructed them to seat the people on the grass, You then took the bread and fish and giving thanks to Your Father in heaven, You blessed the bread, broke it, and asked them to distribute it to the crowd. The people ate until they were satisfied, the leftovers collected after they had eaten filled twelve baskets to the brim.
This miracle prefigures the institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on Maundy Thursday which culminated on the Cross on Good Friday. Since then, Beloved, we eat Your Body and we are satisfied and there is always an abundance left over, it will never run out until You return.
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4
ISAIAH 55:1-3
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
In these verses from the prophet Isaiah, a glorious promise is made that will only be fulfilled many centuries later. To the poor who belonged to the chosen people of God, this promise of free corn, wine, and milk was amazing. But immediately, after these verses, he says, 'Why spend money on what is not bread, and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen to me, and you will have good things to each and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, listen, and your soul will live. And finally, he says, 'With you I will make an everlasting covenant.
Many of us spend our whole lives chasing the wind when all that God has promised is available to us right here, right now, and it costs nothing. When we partake of Your Body and Blood we receive all the good things that no amount of wealth, power, and influence can buy. You are the everlasting covenant of God's love with us and it is this Covenant of Love that guarantees us eternal life.
PSALM 145:8-9, 15-18
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
There is no other god but You O God. Who is like You? To those who believe, those who are grafted into Your Body, those who have Your Life coursing through them, are baffled by those who bow down and worship strange gods and believe bewildering things about the gods they worship because that is so contrary to the God of Love revealed to us and whom we experience personally, believe, adore, and worship.
You, Beloved, are God who became one like us, though sinless, in order to reveal to us the glory of God. You were visible, incarnate, and tangible. You came to reveal the Face of God in whose image and likeness we are created. A God who is kind, full of compassion, slow to anger, and abounding in love. On the Cross, You not only opened Your hand wide to grant us all our desires, but You emptied Yourself completely and poured out Your life for us that we may live.
Like Mary, Your Mother, and the handmaid of the Lord, grant that we keep our gaze fixed on You all the days of our life. Thank You for the heavenly manna, the Holy Eucharist, that wells up to eternal life in us. It is a guarantee of eternal union and communion with the Blessed Trinity now and for all eternity.
ROMANS 8:35, 37-39
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
How blessed we are for St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. He is a perfect example of what God can do with the repentant sinner whose heart is large enough to embrace the whole of God's plan for his life. God reveals Himself candidly to His friends as can be seen from the lives of so many who made a total gift of their lives to You.
Your Apostles, disciples, and every true follower must be prepared for a life of trial, hardship, suffering, persecution, and death to self. You were right when You said the flesh avails nothing, it is the spirit that gives life. This is why we are called to discipline the flesh in order to allow our spirit to align with Your Spirit who is the Spirit of Love, Truth, and Life.
It is only by a total donation of self in love, to You, that we come to know the Truth that sets us free. No matter how difficult life may get, despite all the suffering we endure, we are victorious and triumphant always, because we have You.
This is the confident belief of all who embrace You with an undivided heart, 'For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
MATTHEW 14:13-21
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
You were grieved on hearing the news of John the Baptist's death and You wanted to go away to be alone with Your friends and grieve Your loss. His death was a reminder that You too would soon face the same fate as Your cousin, John. Our natural, human response is to allow ourselves time to mourn the loss of those we love. But as we read further in this passage from the gospel of Matthew we also see how different You are from us.
Your preaching and teaching accompanied by miraculous signs in the healing of the sick, Your power over demons, and every other power, caused a great number of people to follow You everywhere You went. As soon as they heard You would be somewhere they flocked in droves with little sympathy for Your privacy or Your own need for rest and peace
Your reaction to the crowds who looked for You and found You was not irritation but compassion. You forgot about Yourself totally and reached out to cure the sick, to talk to them and teach them. The hours flew by that day and it was evening; the disciples encouraged You to disperse the crowds and send them away as it was late. The people would be hungry and could buy food from the village on their way home. The disciples themselves must have been hungry, tired, and longing for rest. They would have been taken aback when You said, ‘There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.’
Matthew tells us that there were about five thousand men, present including women and children and they told You that they only had five loaves and two fish. This was barely enough for them. You had them bring the food to You, instructed them to seat the people on the grass, You then took the bread and fish and giving thanks to Your Father in heaven, You blessed the bread, broke it, and asked them to distribute it to the crowd. The people ate until they were satisfied, the leftovers collected after they had eaten filled twelve baskets to the brim.
This miracle prefigures the institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on Maundy Thursday which culminated on the Cross on Good Friday. Since then, Beloved, we eat Your Body and we are satisfied and there is always an abundance left over, it will never run out until You return.
