Sunday

Ex 32:7-14
In those days, the Lord said to Moses, Go down from the mountain to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshipping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, ‘This is your God, O Israel, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ I see how stiff-necked this people is, continued the Lord to Moses. Let Me alone, then, that My wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation. But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, Why, O Lord, should Your wrath blaze up against Your own people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent He brought them out, that He might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Let Your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing Your people. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how You swore to them by Your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’ So the Lord relented in the punishment He had threatened to inflict on His people.

OBSERVATION:  As with priests today, Moses interceded for his people, asking God’s mercy.

Prayer:  Having risen from sleep I hasten to Thee, O Lord, Lover of men, and by Thy loving-kindness I strive to do Thy work, and I pray to Thee:  help me at all times, in everything, and deliver me from every evil thing of the world and every attack of the devil, and lead me into Thine eternal Kingdom. For Thou art my Creator, the Giver and Provider of everything good, and all my hope is in Thee, and to Thee I send up glory, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.  Amen.
*Prayer for the next day’s morning

Monday
John 7:14-31
At that time, when the feast was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man come by learning, since He has not studied? Jesus answered them and said, My teaching is not My own, but His Who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, he will know of the teaching whether it is from God, or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no injustice in him. Did not Moses give you the Law, and none of you observes the Law? Why do you seek to put Me to death? The crowd answered and said, You have a devil. Who seeks to put You to death?

OBSERVATION:  this shows the important of prayer…it allows anyone to recognized the Truth of God.  Without it no one can tell the Will of God from the will of temporarily popular celebrity.

 

Prayer:  Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men of good will.
Tuesday

John 7 cont…

Jesus answered and said to them, One work I did and you all wonder. For this reason Moses gave you the circumcision — not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers — and on a Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath, that the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you indignant with me because I made a whole man well on a Sabbath? Judge not by appearances but give just judgment. Some therefore of the people of Jerusalem were saying, Is not this the man they seek to kill? And behold, He speaks openly and they say nothing to Him. Can it be that the rulers have really come to know that this is the Christ? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from. Jesus therefore, while teaching in the temple, cried out and said, You both know Me, and know where I am from. Yet I have not come of Myself, but He is true Who has sent Me, whom you do not know. I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me. They wanted therefore to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him because His hour had not yet come. Many of the people, however, believed in Him.

OBSERVATION: despite its clear roots in the spiritual, the  blind Jewish leaders could never recognize Jesus’ healing  as a permitted work of God on the Sabbath.

 

Prayer:   Blessed by the name of the Lord from henceforth and forever more.

 

Wednesday
Ezech 36:23-28
Thus says the Lord God: I will prove the holiness of My great Name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it. Thus the nations shall know that I am the Lord, when in their sight I prove My holiness through you. For I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put My spirit within you and make you live by My statutes, careful to observe My decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God, says the Lord almighty.

OBSERVATION: this is one of many prophecies fulfilled in the Old Testament…the exiled Jews returning to Israel despite  there seeming to be little of it at that time in captivity.

 

Prayer:   O Lord come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me.

 

Thursday
Isa. 1:16-19
Thus says the Lord God: Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before My eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool. If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land, says the Lord almighty.

OBSERVATION: these are examples of  corporal [in the physical world] words of mercy

 

Prayer:  Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Friday

Ecclus 45:1-6
Beloved of God and men, whose memory is held in benediction. He made him like the Saints in glory, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words He made prodigies to cease. He glorified him in the sight of kings, and gave him Commandments in the sight of his people, and revealed to him His glory. He sanctified him in his faith and meekness, and chose him out of all flesh. For He heard him and his voice, and brought him into a cloud. And, face to face, He gave him the Commandments, the law of life and understanding.

OBSERVATION:   the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiasticus is a source of many readings and references in the Church.

Prayer:   May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

 

Saturday
Matt 1:18-21
When Mary the Mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. But Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wishing to expose her to reproach, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.

OBSERVATION: throughout the time before the birth of Jesus St. Joseph was left ‘in the dark’ but rather than taking action on this own, he waited on God’s direction.  We should do likewise  (though it is rare for an angel to give the message to us!).

Prayer:  O my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
*Act of Contrition