Sunday

*Bible Readings this week from the Roman Missal 1962

Num 20:1, 3; 6-13.
In those days, the Israelites held a council against Moses and Aaron. The people contended, exclaiming, Give us water that we may drink. But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, where they fell prostrate. They cried to the Lord, and said, O Lord God, hear the cry of this people, and open to them Your treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, they may cease to murmur. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord said to Moses, Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and in their presence order the rock to yield its waters. From the rock you shall bring forth water for the community and their livestock to drink. So Moses took the staff from its place before the Lord, as he was ordered. He and Aaron assembled the community in front of the rock, where he said to them, Listen to me, you rebels! Are we to bring water for you out of this rock? Then, raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you were not faithful to Me in showing forth My sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them. These are the waters of Meriba, where the Israelites contended against the Lord, and where He revealed His sanctity among them.

OBSERVATION: even Moses,  who did so much under God’s direction,  fell short of what God wanted and was prohibited from entering the long sought Holy Land.   How can we expect not to receive punishment in our lives as well?

 

Prayer:  Lord, I have cried to Thee, hearken unto me. Hearken unto me, O Lord. Lord, I have cried to Thee, hearken unto me.  Attend to the voice of my prayer, when I cry unto Thee. Hearken unto me, O Lord. Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.  Hearken unto me, O Lord.
*Psalm 140 (141)

Monday
John 4:5-42
At that time, Jesus came, accordingly, to a town of Samaria called Sichar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, wearied as He was from the journey, was sitting at the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a Samaritan woman to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me to drink; for His disciples had gone away into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, How is it that You, although You are a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you did know the gift of God, and Who it is Who says to you, ‘Give Me to drink,’ you, perhaps, would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water. The woman said to Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Whence then have You living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and drank from it, himself, and his sons, and his flocks? In answer Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He, however, who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting…

OBSERVATION: this is a clear indication that Jesus’ message and love extends to all people.

Prayer:   Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

 

Tuesday
John 4 cont… The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, or come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said, For you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. In this you have spoken truly. The woman said to Him, Sir, I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but You say that at Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messias is coming (Who is called Christ), and when He comes He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I Who speak with you am He. And at this point His disciples came; and they wondered that He was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, What do You seek? or, Why do You speak with her? The woman therefore left her water-jar and went away into the town, and said to the people, Come and see a man who has told me all that I have ever done. Can He be the Christ?

OBSERVATION:  this is a parallel of modern belief…the Protestants have a corrupted/man-made belief system with incomplete elements of Christian truth just as did the Samaritans in relation to the Jewish religion.

Prayer:   Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer.

 

Wednesday
John 4 cont… They went forth from the town and came to meet Him. Meanwhile, His disciples besought Him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But He said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. The disciples therefore said to one another, Has someone brought Him something to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Well, I say to you, lift up your eyes and behold that the fields are already white for the harvest. And he who reaps receives a wage, and gathers fruit unto life everlasting, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For herein is the proverb true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ I have sent you to reap that on which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors. Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, He told me all that I have ever done. When, therefore, the Samaritans had come to Him, they besought Him to stay there; and He stayed two days. And far more believed because of His word. And they said to the woman, We no longer believe because of what you have said, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is in truth the Saviour of the world.

OBSERVATION:   sowers-reapers-gatherers….all will receive a reward but all Christians do not have the same role.   Our challenge is to find God’s correct role for us in His Church.

Prayer:  Queen of Heaven rejoice, alleluia: For He whom you merited to bear, alleluia, Has risen as He said, alleluia. Pray for us to God, alleluia. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray : O God, who by the Resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, granted joy to the whole world: grant we beg Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may lay hold of the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
*Regina Coeli

 

Thursday
Dan 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62.
In those days, in Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Helcia; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the Law of Moses. Joakim was very rich; he had a garden near his house, and the Jews had recourse to him often because he was the most respected of them all. That year, two elders of the people were appointed judges, of whom the Lord said, Wickedness had come out of Babylon: from the elders who were to govern the people as judges. These men, to whom all brought their cases, frequented the house of Joakim. When the people left at noon, Susanna used to enter her husband’s garden for a walk. When the old men saw her enter every day for her walk, they began to lust for her. They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments. One day, while they were waiting for the right moment, she entered the garden as usual, with two maids only. She decided to bathe, for the weather was warm. Nobody else was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. Bring me oil and soap, she said to the maids, and shut the garden doors while I bathe. As soon as the maids had left, the two old men got up and hurried to her. Look, they said, the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that you dismissed your maids because a young man was here with you. I am completely trapped, Susanna groaned. If I yield, it will be my death; if I refuse, I cannot escape your power. Yet it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord. Then Susanna shrieked, and the old men also shouted at her, as one of them ran to open the garden doors.

OBSERVATION:  like these elders, many who have the appearance of righteousness and official office often as simply masking a corrupted sinner inside.

Prayer:   Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have Mercy on me a sinner.

Friday
Daniel 13 Cont…   When the people in the house heard the cries from the garden, they rushed in by the side gate to see what had happened to her. At the accusations by the old men, the servants felt very much ashamed, for never had any such thing been said about Susanna.   When the people came to her husband Joakim the next day, the two wicked elders also came, fully determined to put Susanna to death. Before all the people they ordered: Send for Susanna, the daughter of Helcia, the wife of Joakim. When she was sent for, she came with her parents, children and all her relatives. All her relatives and the onlookers were weeping. In the midst of the people the two elders rose up and laid their hands on her head. Through her tears she looked up to heaven, for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly. The elders made this accusation: As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman entered with two girls and shut the doors of the garden, dismissing the girls. A young man, who was hidden there, came and lay with her. When we, in a corner of the garden, saw this crime, we ran toward them. We saw them lying together, but the man we could not hold, because he was stronger than we; he opened the doors and ran off. Then we seized this one and asked who the young man was, but she refused to tell us. We testify to this.The assembly believed them, since they were elders and judges of the people, and they condemned her to death. But Susanna cried aloud: O eternal God, You know what is hidden and are aware of all things before they come to be: You know that they have testified falsely against me. Here I am about to die, though I have done none of the things with which these wicked men have charged me. The Lord heard her prayer.

OBSERVATION:  it is always right to choose to do what is right and honest when faced with equally bad outcomes.

Prayer:    Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my soul and my body. Do thou thyself
bless me, have mercy upon me, and grant me life eternal. Amen.

 

Saturday
As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: I will have no part in the death of this woman. All the people turned and asked him, What is this you are saying? He stood in their midst and continued, Are you such fools, O Israelites! to condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence? Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her. Then all the people returned in haste. And Daniel said to them: Separate these two from one another that I may examine them. After they were separated one from the other, he called one of them and said: How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term: passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says, ‘The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.’ Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together. He said: Under a mastic tree. And Daniel said: Well have you lied against your own head. For the Angel of God shall receive the sentence from Him and split you in two. Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. Offspring of Chanaan, not of Juda, Daniel said to him, beauty has seduced you, lust has subverted your conscience. This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Juda did not tolerate your wickedness. Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together. Under an oak, he said. Your fine lie has cost you also your head, said Daniel; for the Angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to make an end of you both. The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God, Who saves those that hope in Him. They rose up against the two elders, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of perjury. They inflicted on them the penalty they had plotted to impose on their neighbor: they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day.

OBSERVATION:  this is an  early indication of how God would use Daniel to show His Truth in the world.

Prayer:  Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.  Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
*Memorare