February 2 - Presentation of the Lord
The BreadCast
(Mal.3:1-4; Ps.24:7-10; Heb.2:14-18; Lk.2:22-40) “Suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.” “And He will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” “To expiate the sins of the people” He has come – to bring us light. But to do this “He had to become like His brothers and sisters in every way”; He had to “share in blood and flesh” with us, and so share in our death, to overcome death and make us holy in the sight of God, that...
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February 1 - Sunday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time, Year A
The BreadCast
(Jer.1:4-5,17-19; Ps.71:1-6,15,17; 1Cor.12:31-13:13; Lk.4:21-30) “I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” When God calls Jeremiah to prophesy “against Judah’s kings and princes, against its priests and people,” He tells him to “gird [his] loins” and commands: “Be not crushed on their account.” For though his people “will fight against” him, they shall “not prevail over” him. The Lord makes Jeremiah “a fruitful city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass” able to stand against attacks of any in...
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January 31 - Prayer to St. John Bosco
The BreadCast
O teacher and father of the children in your care, in whose hands they were not abandoned but held in patience by Christ’s love – teach us, too, to have that same patience, to have that same love for those the Lord places in our care, that anger shall be banished from our hearts and our minds, that the wisdom of Christ’s sacrifice you taught and lived we too might embody, and so serve in raising the kingdom of Heaven among the children of this earth. And pray that we, too, may know the Lord’s gentle word and touch upon our own souls and so grow into His likeness.
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January 31 - Saturday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.12:1-7,10-17; Ps.51:12-17; Mk.4:35-41) “I have sinned against the Lord.” David is the man who “took the poor man’s ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor.” To feed his lust he has feasted on another man’s wife. And he sees the injustice of this; he recognizes his guilt when his sin is exposed. But why has he done it? “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this merits death!” And so David, too, has need of the true King and His cross to redeem him. What does the Lord say to David as he “lie[s] on the ground...
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January 30 - Friday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.11:1-10,13-17; Ps.51:3-7,10-11; Mk.4:26-34) “The seed sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens.” Jesus in our gospel tells us of the kingdom of God and of its gradual growth without our knowing. Seed is scattered, the Word is sown in our souls, and as we “[go] to bed and [get] up day after day,” remaining in the presence of the Lord, good fruits little by little reveal themselves in our lives – till finally at the time of judgment we are gathered into the heavenly reign. Though small and humble seed, once we are sown in the...
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January 29 - Thursday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.7:18-19,24-29; Ps.132:1-2,3-5,11-14,Lk.1:32; Mk.4:21-25) “If your sons keep my covenant and the decrees which I shall teach them, their sons, too, forever shall sit upon your throne.” Yes, “the Lord has chosen Zion; He prefers her for His dwelling.” His blessings are upon His Church and its people, for “the Lord swore to David a firm promise from which He will not withdraw: ‘Your own offspring I will set upon your throne,’” and Jesus completes that promise by establishing the New Jerusalem in His Name. But we must exhibit the...
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January 28 - Prayer to St. Thomas Aquinas
The BreadCast
O wise doctor of the Church who ate the bread of angels in your long hours of prayer and study and writing and shared with us the knowledge you gained of the sublime truth of God, shedding the light of reason upon the faith we hold so dear – teach us this day to know God that we might better love and serve Him, that we might not be blind to His presence in our midst, to the holiness to which He calls us. Pray we shall enter into His Cross, His love, His obedience; pray we, too, might have knowledge, true knowledge of His grace and the everlasting life which is ours in Him… and pray the...
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January 28 - Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.7:4-17; Ps.89:4-5,27-30; Mk.4:1-20) “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” David seems intent on establishing the Lord’s presence forever by building a permanent house in which He might dwell, but how well our God answers the great king’s thoughts with the promise of making “his posterity endure forever.” It is the Lord who establishes all, and so He states, “I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further...
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January 27 - Prayer to St. Angela Merici
The BreadCast
O holy virgin and spiritual mother to the poorest of girls, whom you protected and guided in wisdom and love, keeping them from the snares of the world and raising them in Christ; you who fulfilled so well the twofold call to love God and save souls – pray for those who so easily go astray this day in a world of great corruption, where souls are in danger of being captured by the wiles of Satan and sin; and pray, too, that there shall be many who desire as you have, with the living love of God, to bring them into His fold.
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January 27 - Tuesday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.6:12-15,17-19; Ps.24:7-10; Mk.3:31-35) “Lift up, O gates, your lintels; reach up, you ancient portals, that the King of glory may come in!” In our first reading David leads all the Israelites in, “bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.” “Dancing before the Lord with abandon,” he brings the ark into Jerusalem and sets it within its tent or tabernacle. All celebrate this day as they surround the ark on its journey and as David “offers holocausts and peace offerings before the Lord,” the ark...
info_outline(Is.7:10-14; Ps.24:1-7,10; Lk.1:26-38)
“Blessed are you among women.”
“The virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and shall name Him Immanuel because ‘God is with us.’” “The virgin’s name was Mary.” And she has given birth to the Savior.
“Who may stand in His holy place?” King David sings in our psalm. “Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?” Clearly Jesus is He. But as clear is that we are all called to be as He, and that she has been, she who is so like Him – she that is indeed His Mother. It is she who “seeks the face of the God of Jacob,” she “whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain…” and so she “receive[s] a blessing from the Lord,” the greatest blessing: the Son of God.
Fearful is she in her great humility in the awesome presence of the Lord. Questioning is she in the perfect innocence of her consecrated virginity. But obedient only is she as she hears of the answer to her devout prayer for the pregnancy of her kinswoman, and so assumes the role most native to her, the one she has promised to fulfill: “the maidservant of the Lord.”
O glorious Virgin Mary! You who worship so perfectly, so completely, the One who owns “the earth and its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it,” and so bring that very fullness to us all, teach us to be like Jesus your Son, whom you imitate so absolutely, so naturally. Teach us to be as He who is flesh of your flesh. Be our Mother as well, that we might be brother and sister and mother to the Lord. Aid us in giving our total consent to the will of God. “O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you.” Pray He be with us now, too.
“With that the angel left.” Upon receiving her wholehearted acceptance of her call, his mission is finished, and so he goes. Brothers and sisters, may the angel leave our presence so satisfied that the call of the Lord for our lives will be so well answered. Take heart that “nothing is impossible with God” and that as blessed as she is, so blessed does the Lord call you to be – if you but say yes to His word burning in your soul and lay down your life as has the Mother of God. Give the Lord your “yes” this day.
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O LORD, may the Blessed Virgin Mother of your Son
pray for us this day that we shall be pure as she,
and so, able to stand in your presence.
YHWH, she whom you call to be Mother of your Son is indeed sinless in your sight. Because her heart is clean, she can accept your Word and give birth to our Savior. O may we be of her race! May we with all our souls seek your face and so find the blessing that is upon her. O let us know your only Son in our midst!
The blessing you give us we could not imagine – it is beyond our ability to conceive. Yet, LORD, you come to us; you prepare a Virgin from among us that your Son might be with us and so we with you for all ages. O let all be done according to your will! Let us all follow the obedient path of our dear Mother. Let us be her children, O LORD, and so your own.
O Mother of our Lord, blessed among women, most blessed of our race, pray for us this dark day that we will hear the Word of God spoken to our hearts. Pray our hearts be pure as your own, that they might receive our Creator.