WEDNESDAY OF WEEK 18 IN ORDINARY TIME - 2026

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people. LK 7:16

JEREMIAH 31:1-7

My Soul's Beloved,

You are God, You are Almighty, You can do all things. Nothing in heaven, on earth, or under the earth is impossible for You to do. Those who belong to You, those who are called by Your Name, those whom You have invited to be one with You will be blessed. We might wander far from You, O Lord. We might play the harlot as Israel did over and over again, but when we repent, when our hearts are broken with sorrow, when we lament our past iniquities and are contrite and repentant, resolving to sin no more with Your help—when we come to You in humility and beg Your forgiveness—then You remove our sins from us. You cast them behind Your back. You forget them and remember them no more. And You make us Your virgin people once again. You are God, and with You this is possible. You can make us as joyful as little children who have not lost their innocence. This is our God, the God we love with our whole being and whom we desire to love faithfully all the days of our life.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, that we are Your Bride. We are members of Your Body. We receive life from Your Holy Spirit, the source and fountain of all grace and goodness. You are the Lord our God who emptied Himself, giving up all in order to restore to us what our first parents lost and destroyed so wantonly.

God’s love for us is everlasting. It is the same yesterday, today, and eternally. We, Your Church, rejoice in You, our Bridegroom, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord and our God. Grafted to You, built on the Rock with You as our Cornerstone, we shall not be shaken. Let the winds blow, let the storms come, let the waves batter us on every side—we shall remain firm because You are our sure foundation.

We are Your remnant people, the people whom You chose from every nation. We heard You call us by name and we responded, and now we are irrevocably Yours in time and in eternity. Here, O Lord, in Your House, You dwell in fullness of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. Thank You for establishing us as the New Mount Zion to which all the peoples of the world are invited to ascend to receive every good and perfect gift, so we can navigate this valley of tears yoked to You, so that when our days here are ended You will receive us and present us to Your Abba and our Abba, and we will remain with You forever.

I will be the God of all the clans of Israel – it is the Lord who speaks – they shall be my people.
The Lord says this:
They have found pardon in the wilderness,
those who have survived the sword.
Israel is marching to his rest.
The Lord has appeared to him from afar:
I have loved you with an everlasting love,
so I am constant in my affection for you.
I build you once more; you shall be rebuilt,
virgin of Israel.
Adorned once more, and with your tambourines,
you will go out dancing gaily.
You will plant vineyards once more
on the mountains of Samaria
(the planters have done their planting:
they will gather the fruit).
Yes, a day will come when the watchmen shout
on the mountains of Ephraim,
‘Up! Let us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God!’
For the Lord says this:
Shout with joy for Jacob!
Hail the chief of nations!
Proclaim! Praise! Shout:
‘The Lord has saved his people,
the remnant of Israel!’

PSALM JEREMIAH 31:10-12,13

The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.

O nations, hear the word of the Lord,
proclaim it to the far-off coasts.
Say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.’

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
they will stream to the blessings of the Lord.

Then the young girls will rejoice and will dance,
the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console them, give them gladness for grief.

The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.

MATTHEW 15:21-28

My Soul's Beloved,

You are God, You are Almighty, You can do all things. Nothing in heaven, on earth, or under the earth is impossible for You to do. Those who belong to You, those who are called by Your Name, and those whom You have invited to be one with You will be blessed. We might wander far from You, O Lord. We might play the harlot as Israel did over and over again, but when we repent—when our hearts are broken with sorrow, when we lament our past iniquities and are contrite and repentant, resolving to sin no more with Your help—and when we come to You in humility and beg Your forgiveness, then You remove our sins from us. You cast them behind Your back. You forget them and remember them no more. And You make us Your virgin people once again. You are God, and with You this is possible. You can make us as joyful as little children who have not lost their innocence. This is our God, the God we love with our whole being and whom we desire to love faithfully all the days of our life.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, that we are Your Bride. We are members of Your Body. We receive life from Your Holy Spirit, the source and fountain of all grace and goodness. You are the Lord our God who emptied Himself, giving up all to restore to us what our first parents lost and destroyed so wantonly.

God’s love for us is everlasting. It is the same yesterday, today, and eternally. We, Your Church, rejoice in You, our Bridegroom, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord and our God. Grafted to You and built on the Rock with You as our Cornerstone, we shall not be shaken. Let the winds blow, let the storms come, let the waves batter us on every side—we shall remain firm because You are our sure foundation.

We are Your remnant people, the people whom You chose from every nation. We heard You call us by name and we responded, and now we are irrevocably Yours in time and in eternity. Here, O Lord, in Your House, You dwell in the fullness of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. Thank You for establishing us as the New Mount Zion, to which all the peoples of the world are invited to ascend and receive every good and perfect gift. Thus we can navigate this valley of tears yoked to You, so that when our days here are ended You will receive us and present us to Your Abba and our Abba, and we will remain with You forever.

Jesus left Gennesaret and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said, ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. ‘Lord,’ she said ‘help me.’ He replied, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ She retorted, ‘Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.’ And from that moment her daughter was well again.

MONDAY OF WEEK 18 IN ORDINARY TIME - 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

JEREMIAH 28:1-17

My Soul's Beloved,

False prophets in the Church and in the world are the bane of our existence, and they cause many to remain in their sins and die in their folly. 

Grant us many prophets in the Church and in the world, who, like the prophet Jeremiah, speak the word of God in truth, unafraid of the consequence, even if it costs them everything. Grant O Lord that we too, who are members of Your Holy Church, hold fast to the truth as revealed to us by her, for she alone possesses the fullness of Truth, for You are her Bridegroom. 

Pity the ignorant, O Lord, who through ignorance and concupiscence prefer to believe a false gospel that proclaims self-indulgence and the pleasures that the world offers rather than embracing the Cross and the Way of Calvary that leads from Gethsamane, to Golgota, to the grace and to the glory of the Resurrection.

At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, a Gibeonite, spoke as follows to Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people. ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, says this, “I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. In two years’ time I will bring back all the vessels of the Temple of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon carried off from this place and took to Babylon. And I will also bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who have gone to Babylon – it is the Lord who speaks. Yes, I am going to break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”’
The prophet Jeremiah then replied to the prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people there in the Temple of the Lord. ‘I hope so’ the prophet Jeremiah said. ‘May the Lord do so. May he fulfil the words that you have prophesied and bring the vessels of the Temple of the Lord and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Listen carefully, however, to this word that I am now going to say for you and all the people to hear: From remote times, the prophets who preceded you and me prophesied war, famine and plague for many countries and for great kingdoms; but the prophet who prophesies peace can only be recognised as one truly sent by the Lord when his word comes true.’
The prophet Hananiah then took the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it. In front of all the people Hananiah then said, ‘The Lord says this, “This is how, two years hence, I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and take it off the necks of all the nations.”’ At this, the prophet Jeremiah went away.
After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke which he had taken off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah the word of the Lord was addressed to Jeremiah, ‘Go to Hananiah and tell him this, “The Lord says this: You can break wooden yokes? Right, I will make them iron yokes instead! For the Lord Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: An iron yoke is what I now lay on the necks of all these nations to subject them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They will be subject to him; I have even given him the wild animals.”’
The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, ‘Listen carefully, Hananiah: the Lord has not sent you; and thanks to you this people are now relying on what is false. Hence – the Lord says this, “I am going to throw you off the face of the earth: you are going to die this year since you have preached apostasy from the Lord.”’
The prophet Hananiah died the same year, in the seventh month.

PSALM 118(119):29,43,79-80,95,102

Lord, teach me your statutes.

Keep me from the way of error
and teach me your law.
Do not take the word of truth from my mouth
for I trust in your decrees.

Let your faithful turn to me,
those who know your will.
Let my heart be blameless in your statutes
lest I be ashamed.

Though the wicked lie in wait to destroy me
yet I ponder your will.
I have not turned from your decrees;
you yourself have taught me.

Lord, teach me your statutes.

MATTHEW 14:22-36

My Soul's Beloved,

All Your disciples, all those grafted into Your Body, all who belong to Your Church are invited to get into the Boat which is symbolic of the Church that You founded on the Rock of Peter with You as its Cornerstone. You desire us to stay away from the crowds after the work we have done, the works of the Holy Spirit, for the glory is due to You and You alone. Even though we are in the Boat it does not mean that storms will not assail us. That the winds and the waves will not sway us and threaten to take us off course or even drown us. However, our faith is in You, and our gaze is fixed on You alone. You will not allow anything the world, the flesh, and the devil throws at us to destroy us, for we are Yours. Called by Your Name. We eat Your Flesh, and we drink Your Blood, and we are sustained by the Life we have received from the Holy Spirit.

To each of us who are members of Your Body, You say when we are afraid, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ There is no storm, there is no evil, there is no sickness, there is nothing that can separate us from Your Love, O Lord. We are marked and sealed in Your Spirit. As long as our focus and our gaze remain on You, through all the vicissitudes of life, You will bring us safely home to heaven at last. As we navigate with You and the Holy Spirit, we will weather every storm until You come and lead us to the place that the Father has prepared for us from the moment He laid the foundations of the world.

You are not a mirage. You are not a ghost. You are real, and You are present with us, among us, and in us. Thank You, Lord, that all we need to do is to reach out to You, and if all we can manage is to touch the tassels of Your garment, it is enough. You will heal us and make us whole. 

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, while the boat, by now far out on the lake, was battling with a heavy sea, for there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and cried out in fear. But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ It was Peter who answered. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.’ ‘Come’ said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said ‘why did you doubt?’ And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’
Having made the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the local people recognised him they spread the news through the whole neighbourhood and took all that were sick to him, begging him just to let them touch the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched it were completely cured.