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...
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January 24 - Prayer to St. Francis de Sales
The BreadCast
O most devout spiritual guide, great pastor of your flock and of all souls, you who speak to us even this day with your words of wisdom and blessed direction – pray every branch of Jesus’ vine may aspire to His perfection; in whatever state we find ourselves, let us set our hearts on loving the Lord and serving Him and neighbor prayerfully. Teach us to pray faithfully, to offer our lives in all situations, all for the glory of God. Our call may we hear and heed by your intercession, following the Christ and carrying His Cross as He leads.
info_outline(Jgs.13:2-7,24-25; Ps.71:3-6,8,16-17; Lk.1:5-25)
“From my mother’s womb you are my strength.”
How the above line from our psalm is reflected both in Samson and in John, and how parallel are the lives of these two great men. Of John it is said, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb”; of Samson, “This boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb” and “The Spirit of the Lord began to be with him.” The birth of both is announced by an angel of the Lord. Both will be born of women who were barren. Both will be nazirites, who shall “never drink wine or strong drink,” and whose head “no razor shall touch.” Both come for the deliverance of the people, though Samson only from “the power of the Philistines” while John comes to “prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed,” that we might have eternal salvation.
Of course, Jesus, too, will have His birth announced by the angel of the Lord; He will be born of a woman from whom it seems no child could come – a consecrated virgin – and this of the Holy Spirit, who is with Him even before time. His is a new testament, however, signified by His birth of a woman of youth and not old age. Though hailed by the old, He brings the newness of God into our midst. His birth fulfills all the births and words and wisdom of the prophets and judges and kings of the Old Testament.
But, returning to our psalm and its universal call in the voice of Christ (words which apply to all in their quest for God), we should remember today that for all, God is our “rock of refuge” on whom we “depend from birth.” “You have taught me from my youth,” the psalmist declares to the Lord, and so it should be true with us all that from the womb “till the present [we] proclaim [His] wondrous deeds.” He works in all our lives, brothers and sisters; He has brought us all to birth and is acting now, His Spirit upon us, to see that we are born into His kingdom.
The great figures of the Old Testament, and especially John, are models from whom we can all learn, holy men whom we can certainly admire. But as our Lord has stated clearly, none of those born of woman can compare with those born into the kingdom of heaven. And so, let us take our strength for our journey from His prophets and from His Word; from His Spirit let us receive what we need in this life for our journey to His paradise. As strong as were Samson and John, so much stronger can we now be by His Body and His Blood, our holy food on this earth, and by His Spirit upon us.
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O LORD, it is you who give us life
and make us strong –
your Spirit be with us.
YHWH, your power is upon the mothers of both Samson and John, and so upon their sons. They are born by your will to bring deliverance to the people. As they trusted in you from the womb, so let us be blessed to know you, LORD; let us be blessed to do your will.
Strength we should all take in you, O LORD, for you teach us from our youth to this day: the moment we turn to you, you come to us, and from our souls you would never take your leave. O let us trust in you, that in our lives your works might be done.
How hard it is for our wounded hearts to believe the glory you bring into our midst, dear LORD. Your presence is overwhelming to us and so difficult to bear. But you would make it easy, if we had but faith. Turn our hearts to the call to serve you, that we might be ready to receive you. O let us speak in your Name!