FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The Son of Man came to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many. MK 10:45

HAGGAI 1:15-2:9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The human spirit has a tendency to look at the glory days of the past and yearn for what has gone - but today Your Word reminds us that that is no way to live and if we do we will stagnate and die. The Holy Spirit is at work in us constantly making all things new.

The prophet Haggai comforted the people of God who were downcast because the Temple was destroyed and he assured them that God was at work to give them something new, something not seen before, something that would be far greater and more splendid than anything that existed in the past. 'To work!' the prophet said to the people because God was with them. 

God is always with us and although He does not need our help He lovingly desires our participation in His glorious plans for us. Every promise, every prophecy that He made in the past is fulfilled to perfection in You. All through salvation history God has said to His people, 'I am with you – it is the Lord of Hosts who speaks – and my spirit remains among you. Do not be afraid!' 

You know how fearful we are, Beloved, how easily we lose our peace, how readily we believe that we are swamped by our problems, there is no help in sight and we will never know joy and peace again. But this is a lie. You are Emmanuel, God with us and You ask us today to raise our eyes to You and to look at the marvels God has done for His people.

God's Kingdom is in our midst. God's Temple is set high on Mt Zion, and people from every nation, language, and culture stream to her and find their home in her. God's Temple is Your Living Body and the Holy Spirit dwells in fullness in her. The glory of the new Temple surpasses the old in every way for it is built on living stones. In this House of God is the entrance to the Kingdom of God - here is perfect peace and perfect rest for the God of Peace is its Cornerstone.

PSALM 43:1-4 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Life without hope is death to the human spirit. God's gift to His people is faith, hope, and love. Our hope is born of our faith, and our love of God and neighbor is the fruit of faith and hope.  

Thank You, Beloved, for the gift of faith in You and in Your Eternal Word. We believe and because we believe we will not be shaken no matter how terrifyingly the storm rages around us. There are times when we are overcome by the terrors of the night and the arrows that fly by day, but if we cling to our faith in You, hope will rekindle and we will withstand the onslaught of the Enemy.

You never withdraw Your presence from us but we withdraw from You when we sin or when we allow our fears to so overwhelm us we lose sight of You. We need You, Lord, we are defenseless against the Enemy. You alone can rescue and save us. 

Your Word is Truth and we can walk the Way with courage when we keep our steps from straying away from its powerful Light. Keep us safe in the shelter of Your holy Temple, the place where You dwell in fullness so we will be fed on the Manna that comes from heaven and receive divine life and grace.

May we never cease to praise and thank You for the gift of Your Church and for the safety she provides all the children who are born of her for she has Your guarantee that the gates of hell will never prevail against her.

LUKE 9:18-22 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Today's Gospel passage for our reflection tells us that You were praying alone in the presence of Your disciples - this teaches us that we can pray anytime, anywhere, whether we are alone or with others. Each time we close ourselves to the world and raise our hearts and minds to You in that infinity of the spirit within us we are united more intimately with you than those around us whom we can see, hear, and touch.

You then pose this question to the disciples, 'Who do the crowds say I am?' A disciple is one who, having encountered You personally, lives a radically transformed life. To merely be one among the crowd however is to be woefully ignorant of You.  Only a disciple who lives with You can be familiar with Your teaching, Your Word, Your way of living, and strives to imitate You will be able to respond to Your question directed specifically to us,  ‘But you, who do you say I am?’ as Peter did and say, 'You are the Christ of God.’ 

It was then that You made known Your mission, ‘The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’ This is the Good News that brings salvation to the whole world. First, there must be the Cross, there must be a living sacrifice, that makes atonement for the sins of the world, only then can we have the glory of the resurrection in which God graciously gives us all a share.

WEDENSDAY OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The kingdom of God is close at hand:
repent and believe the Good News. MK 1:15

EZRA 9:5-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

In the current age in which we live we make the prayer of Ezra our own. We come before You in our nothingness, we fall on our faces before You and we acknowledge that we have sinned grievously against You and against each other. We deserve all the sufferings we are enduring right now. Sin has so darkened our lives they have blotted out Your Presence in us. Our despair increases as our iniquities increase. 

All of us from the greatest to the least are guilty. We are wretched and powerless to rid ourselves of the weight of sins of our collective concupiscence, our world is blanketed in black despair because we refuse to acknowledge our guilt, confess our sins, and beg for mercy and pardon. 

But there is always hope, as even Ezra discovered in his days because there is always a remnant that remains faithful. They can be found everywhere and they are the ones who keep us ever before Your Face by their pleadings, their tears, their sighs, and their sufferings. Because of the faithfulness of a few many will be saved for they will move Your heart with their pleadings and with sighs too deep for words You will have mercy and deliver us from our willful slavery to the flesh, the world, and the devil.

Open our eyes O Lord, deliver us, and help us who believe to labor ceaselessly to build Your Kingdom on earth.

TOBIT 13:2,4,6-8 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

If we are punished it is because we have willfully broken the law. If we are destroyed it is because we have courted and flirted with evil in every despicable way. If we are consigned to eternal hellfire then it is because we have done everything in our power to be consigned to it. 

But You are a God of great mercy and compassion. Your punishment of sinners will not last forever. You will hear the prayers of Your faithful who plead for forgiveness for their own sins and the sins of the world. You are a God who saves and takes no delight in the destruction of sinners. 

You came into the world to seek and save the lost and You will leave the 99 behind in order to find the one that has wandered away from the fold.

While no one can escape Your judgment O Lord, we can also plead for and receive Your mercy. You came to save not to condemn.

Sinners, come back to him,

do what is right before him.
Who knows but he will receive you with pity?

Have pity on us, Beloved, and restore to us the joy of living that we have lost because we have sinned and we will praise You all the days that are allotted to us in this life and eternally in the life to come.

LUKE 9:1-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The cure to all the ills in the world is right here in our midst. In the first verse of today's Gospel text, we are told that You called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, You who called them and appointed them sent them out into the world to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

Holy Mother Church is rooted and grounded in You, she possesses the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the power of God and the glory of God are found in her. All that the world is required to do is to stream into her bosom, be embraced by her, and find in her the peace that You came to give the world. 

The Church on her part needs to rely on You completely in order to effectively release the power and the glory of the Holy Spirit. Your instructions are clear. Those in the highest echelons of power and authority in the Church are reminded of Your instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and let none of you take a spare tunic.'  

Material possessions weigh us down, make us anxious, inveigle us into desiring more of the world and less of You. We, and more especially Your anointed, need to be stripped of everything that hinders us from living the Beatitudes. Only when we imitate You will we be able to proclaim the Good News accompanied with miracles and healings as You did so many can come to know You, believe in You and be saved.