TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hail to you, our King!
Obedient to the Father, you were led to your crucifixion
as a meek lamb is led to the slaughter.

ISAIAH 49:1-6 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Every prophecy in the Old Testament and in particular all that the prophet Isaiah says today is fulfilled in You, and we, by virtue of our baptism, are given a share in Your triple calling as priest, prophet, and king.

You are the Eternal High Priest, the Prophet of Prophets, and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Father sent You into the world making with us a lasting Covenant that supersedes every other Covenant He ever made throughout salvation history beginning with the fall of Adam and Eve. 

God who created us for eternal joy loves His sinful creatures immeasurably and refused to abandon us to death. We were created for life in abundance and He would ensure we received it through You. Thank You, my Lord, and my God for coming into the world and paying the price that bought my salvation at the cost of Yours. Thank You for the brutal passion, the cruel suffering, and the barbaric crucifixion You endured for me. Thank You for praying for me to the end. Thank You for seeing me and loving me while You endured the savagery of the executioners and finding the strength to suffer the insufferable so I would not be lost to death forever.

Because of Your obedience even unto death on the Cross. Because You became less than us in order to redeem us and thus enable us to have a share in Your glory God has raised You high above all and has made You the light of the nations. It is right and fitting that God has ordained that no one can taste eternal bliss, nor can anyone enter the Kingdom of God unless they come through You.

PSALM 70(71):1-6,15,17 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

You are my refuge, my help, my deliverer, my savior, my redeemer, my Lord, my King, and my God. Why then am I so weak that I allow every trouble to fill me with fear and anxiety? My faith is weak. I allow every storm to buffet me and I become fainthearted and sorrowful. Thank You for Your patience and for ministering to me and consoling me. Thank You for Your ever-present help. Thank You for the gift of Your Mother Mary - she is my treasure just as she is Yours. She comforts me and intercedes for me. 

Thank You, Lord, for never giving up on me. Thank You for pursuing me even when I ran away from You. Thank You for heeding my prayers and answering me even when the answer was not what I was looking for. Thank You for delivering me from the Enemy.

You O Lord are my hope, my joy, and my peace. From You, I receive perfect rest from this turbulent world of sorrow and sin. From the moment of my conception, You have been with me leading me slowly, tenderly, and surely every step of the way that I journey from here until I reach that place of eternal rest in You. You are my eternal home.

JOHN 13:21-33,36-38 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Everything is now coming to a climax. You experience every human emotion of dread, sorrow, and sadness while Your whole being shuddered and recoiled inwardly from the barbaric suffering You knew You would have to endure shortly. Of the many things that wound You to the heart and trouble Your spirit greatly is the rejection of the very people God chose and sent You to save and the betrayal of  Judas, one of the Twelve - an apostle and a friend.  

The overwhelming sadness in Your heart causes You to reveal that one of them seated at the table and sharing the Passover meal with You would betray You. It sent shockwaves around the room prompting Simon Peter to ask the beloved disciple reclining next to You to find out from You who the scoundrel was. 'Who is it, Lord?' he asks and You reply, ‘It is the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I shall dip in the dish.’ Dipping the bread You gave it to the traitor Judas son of Simon Iscariot. His infamy will be remembered eternally. We are told that as soon as You pointed him to the rest Satan entered into Judas. Speaking directly to him You said, ‘What you are going to do, do quickly.’ Now that the hour had finally arrived You were ready. The evangelist tells us he left the room and walked out into the darkness as it was night. 

Judas was not to be a part of what was to follow since he had damned himself. You speak intimately to the rest, Your closest friends who would be the means by which the saving word of the Gospel would be preached to the ends of the earth.

Thank You, Lord, for the glory the Father has granted You through the Cross on which You were lifted high drawing all humanity to Yourself and redeeming the whole human race. Thank You for these holy days that are upon us and for the time granted to us to reflect on what You have done for us - thank You for Your abiding Presence in the world through the Holy Eucharist. You have not left us alone. We are never alone. You are Emmanuel, God with us until time shall cease.

MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK - 2023

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Hail to you, our King!
You alone have had compassion on our sins.

                                                        

                                    

ISAIAH 42:1-7 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Were it not for You what hope would we poor miserable creatures have?  The Father knew that we were doomed to die an eternal death but because He created us to share in His love He sent You into the world to become the means by which the world is ransomed. By Your wounds, we are healed. By Your Blood, we are washed clean. Through Your Passion and death, we have hope for a future with God in this present life and in eternity.

Thank You for Your obedience, Your humility, and Your willingness to take upon Yourself the sins of the world. Thank You for atoning for the sins of us all beginning with Adam and Eve. You came into the world in silence, You lived in anonymity for thirty years, You bore hardship, poverty, and privation although You are the Son of God. You became the Scapegoat driven into the wilderness so God could restore the heritage that our first parents rejected.

You demonstrated to us the power of obedience to the will of the Father and of living a life of spiritual poverty and detachment. We can never repay You for enduring the horror of Your Passion and the ensuing agonizing suffering brought about by our sins and our rejection of the Father's love.    

Thank You, Lord, for becoming sin, for being nailed to the Cross of humiliation and shame, thank You for being pierced with a lance, thank You for being raised aloft between heaven and earth so that we sinners can look at the One who was pierced for our sake and receive healing, wholeness, pardon, and life.

‘I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right;

I have taken you by the hand and formed you;
I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations,
‘to open the eyes of the blind,
to free captives from prison,
and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.’

PSALM 26(27):1-3,13-14 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Long before these sentiments could ring true the psalmist foretold what he perceived dimly. It was the Holy Spirit who inspired him to speak of things that would only find perfect fulfillment in You. Yes, God spoke many times, in many ways, and to many Old Testament prophets but He did so only in part. All that the psalmist says in this beautiful psalm is realized in You, is perfected in You, and is possible only because of You.  

Fear, anxiety, hopelessness, distress, despondency, and all the other negative emotions we experience cease when we put our hope, our trust, and our confidence in You. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and Your Word, O Eternal Word of the Father is true. 

We pray this psalm because we are assured from experience that with You we walk confidently in the valley of tears because You take us by the hand, You hold us up when we stumble, You seek us when we are lost, and You carry us when we lack strength of our own.

The Lord is my light and my help;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is  the stronghold of my life;

before whom shall I shrink?

When evil-doers draw near
to devour my flesh,
it is they, my enemies and foes,
who stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me

my heart would not fear.
Though war break out against me
even then would I trust.

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord!

JOHN 12:1-11 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Like Mary of Bethany love overpowers and overwhelms us when we experience God's forgiveness of our many sins both grave and small. The burden of guilt is lifted, our conscience is clean once more,  and our soul is restored to its pristine state before God who so very graciously forgives and forgets if we are truly repentant, contrite, and are resolved to sin no more. 

Today we see that love in action again. The evangelist John describes the last days before You will give Yourself up to death. You are visiting Your friends and they host a dinner in Your honor. Martha waited on You and the other guests, Lazarus whom You raised from the dead was seated at the table, and Mary their sister once again so enraptured by the love You have shown her by forgiving her many sins and restoring her soul anoints Your feet with a very costly ointment of pure nard and wipes them with her hair. The fragrance fills the house and is evocative of the love of God and the power of that love that ignites a response to that incredible love. Authentic love is extravagant, it does not count the cost and finds perfect joy in pouring itself out as a libation. While the mendacious, sanctimonious, thieving Judas,  scandalized by Mary's gesture, pretends that the perfume could have been sold and the money distributed to the poor.

You rebuke Judas rightly, saying to him, ‘Leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.’

As we conclude today's reflection we are being prepared for all the events that will take place in the coming days leading up to Your agony, arrest, trial, and Pilate's sentencing You to scourging and death by crucifixion even though he knew You were innocent. So great was the murderous hate in the hearts of Your enemies that they would know no rest until they had the satisfaction of seeing You humiliated and nailed to the Cross.