FRIDAY OF WEEK 20 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Teach me your paths, my God,
make me walk in your truth. PS 24:4, 5

EZEKIEL 37:1-14

My Soul's Beloved,

My glorious God, You know all things, You bring life where once there was only death. You are the Eternal Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that is infused in the Word made Flesh and who dwelt among us, can do all things. By the power of Your passion, death, and glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, Lord, You have the power to heal, restore, and make all things new. 

The dry bones of our lives, our spiritless and listless existence, You can transform with just a Word. You can breathe life into what is seemingly dead and You can raise to life, a life of abundance for Your love O Lord, and the giver of life is able, with just a Word, to make new, to refresh, and make fruitful where once there was only death and decay. 

For You, O Lord my God, nothing is impossible. I believe and believing, I rejoice.

‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

“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 106(107):2-9

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Let them say this, the Lord’s redeemed,
whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe
and gathered from far-off lands,
from east and west, north and south.

Some wandered in the desert, in the wilderness,
finding no way to a city they could dwell in.
Hungry they were and thirsty;
their soul was fainting within them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need
and he rescued them from their distress
and he led them along the right way,
to reach a city they could dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,
for the wonders he does for men:
for he satisfies the thirsty soul;
he fills the hungry with good things.

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

MATTHEW 22:34-40

My Soul's Beloved,

The world has made a parody of the commandments of love. It has reversed the right order for which God created us and in doing so we have handed it to the power of evil, darkness, decay, destruction, and death. Willful and woeful ignorance of God the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier of the world has brought us to the very brink of hell. We are teetering over the edge and we are in imminent danger of keeling over into the very pit of hades where the fire never goes out and the worms do not die. 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees of this world reign and control much of the large majority of people with lies, slander, blasphemy, and pandering to the basest of desires in human beings. Lord Jesus, the human spirit when ordered to God can live in heaven while still on earth. You have paid the price of our redemption. We are no longer slaves but free and in this complete and wondrous freedom, we have the power to choose life or death. To walk with God and the angels or to turn our gaze inward on ourselves and shrivel and die.

True love, the love which God has demonstrated, the love of God that became incarnate, is saving love, redeeming love, sanctifying love, fruitful love. Almighty, eternal God grant us wisdom to love as You love and we will live an abundant life filled with grace and truth.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

OUR LADY, MOTHER AND QUEEN, THURSDAY OF WEEK 20 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!
Blessed art thou among women. LK 1:28

ISAIAH 9:1-7

My Soul's Beloved,

Most of us O Lord will never begin to fully grasp the magnanimity of God in raising His creatures to the dignity of sons and daughters. We are the children of Adam and Eve. We inherited their tainted nature. Concupiscence is our lot and we struggle with sin and the battle would weary and crush us had not we been re-born of water, the Holy Spirit, and with Fire. 

The flower of creation is the Virgin Mother. In her is found the fullness of perfection for she is endowed by her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, with every grace and virtue. He has ravaged her with the power of His divine love - she on her part keeps her gaze ever downcast aware that all she is has been given to her. She was chosen by God to be the Ark of the Covenant and to give flesh to the Son of God when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her. From that moment on she was one with the Father, the Son she conceived and was born of her, and the Holy Spirit. She is the promise of the inheritance that we will all receive when You come again in glory to claim all creation for Yourself and You will establish Your Lordship over all. You are the King of Kings and You, O Lord have crowned Your Mother, Mary, as Queen of heaven and earth. All her perfection flows from the goodness of God and she knows it that is why she rejoices as she extols the goodness of God and when we look through her soul we see God magnified in glory, splendor, and majesty. 

For there is a child born for us,
a son given to us
and dominion is laid on his shoulders;
and this is the name they give him:
Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God,
Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.
Wide is his dominion
in a peace that has no end,
for the throne of David
and for his royal power,
which he establishes and makes secure
in justice and integrity.
From this time onwards and for ever,
the jealous love of the Lord of Hosts will do this.

PSALM 112(113):1-8

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

  praise the name of the Lord!

May the name of the Lord be blessed

  both now and for evermore!

From the rising of the sun to its setting

  praised be the name of the Lord!

High above all nations is the Lord,

  above the heavens his glory.

Who is like the Lord, our God,

  who has risen on high to his throne

yet stoops from the heights to look down,

  to look down upon heaven and earth?

From the dust he lifts up the lowly,

  from the dungheap he raises the poor

to set him in the company of princes,

  yes, with the princes of his people.

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore!

LUKE 1:26-38

My Soul's Beloved,

If there is just one thing that we remember it ought to be this - that God scorns the haughty but the little ones He raises up and lavishes with tender love. 

Nazareth was held in low esteem and it was said, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' And yet it was to Nazareth that the angel Gabriel was sent by God, to fulfill the Messianic prophecies through the fiat of a lowly little virgin, Mary.

Beloved, we thank the wisdom of Holy Mother Church who at various intervals in the liturgical calendar refreshes our memory of what God has done for us and Mary's immense role in His plan of salvation and the redemption of the human race.   

The greeting of the angel Gabriel sets the tone of how the whole world must view Mary for it is in sync with how God and heaven view her. ‘Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ There never was a moment in Mary's life from her conception until her assumption and coronation in heaven when God was not with her. He was woven in the warp and woof of her heart, her mind, her soul, body, and spirit. From the moment she breathed her first breath she breathed the breath of the Holy Spirit to whom she was espoused.  

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God - when we honor Mary, Your Mother, we honor God. The greater our praises of Mary, the greater our understanding of what God can do if we only live as Mary did humbly and totally submissive to the will of God. She often did not understand what God was doing but did not doubt or grumble or complain instead she meditated, pondered deeply, and contemplated everything in her heart. She conversed with God and waited patiently for His plan to unfold. She knew the Scriptures, she knew every prophecy and waited with Israel for the fulfillment of the Messianic promises and when heaven revealed to her that she was chosen to conceive the God-Man - Mary said 'yes'. ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God may I too, never forget that nothing is impossible to God and that in time every one of Your promises for the children of God will be fulfilled.