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...
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January 26 - Prayer to Sts. Timothy and Titus
The BreadCast
O blessed disciples of Paul and shepherds of the Church who imitated so well your father in the faith who imitated only the Lord Jesus Christ and thirsted for His Cross – pray this holy Apostle be our father, too, and you with him, that we too might embrace the Cross; teach us the sound doctrine handed on to you that we may hand it on and all souls might fight the good fight and run the race with Jesus unto eternal life. Pray for all the shepherds of the Church that they be faithful as you have been to rightful authority.
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January 26 - Monday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
The BreadCast
(2Sm.5:1-7,10; Ps.89:20-22,25-26; Mk.3:22-30) “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.” How different are the scribes who come to Jesus from the Israelites who come to David to crown him king. “The tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said: ‘Here we are, your bone and your flesh.’” So united would they be to him whom the Lord had said would “shepherd [His] people Israel,” so well do they remember his leadership in war, that they wholeheartedly invite him to rule over them. They believe what God...
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January 25 - Prayer on the Conversion of St. Paul
The BreadCast
O you who persecuted the Church of God but then preached the faith in earnest, you upon whom abundant mercy fell, whose weakness became strength as each day in bearing extraordinary torments you grew closer to God – show us the way to Heaven. Pray we fall continually from our horse, from our pride, and allow the Lord to change our lives. Pray repentance be our constant food, that the love of Jesus and His forgiveness we shall ever know in greater measure.
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January 25 - Sunday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year A
The BreadCast
(Is.8:23-9:3; Ps.27:1,4,13-14; 1Cor.1:10-13,17; Mt.4:12-23) “Light has arisen.” “Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness: for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.” Yes, “a light has shone”; Jesus has come. No longer do we walk in darkness. So we should proclaim with David: “The Lord is my light and my salvation”; we should long to dwell in the Temple He has built, “gaz[ing] on the loveliness of the Lord.” Here in His House we “see the bounty of the Lord in the land of...
info_outlineO 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.