January 17 - Saturday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Release Date: 01/16/2026
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(1Sm.9:1-4,17-19,10:1; Ps.21:2-7; Mk.2:13-17)
“You are to govern the Lord’s people Israel,
and to save them from the grasp of their enemies round about.”
Tall and handsome, Saul gives every appearance of a king. And so God gives the people what they want in this “handsome young man” who “stood head and shoulders above the people.” But with Saul the Lord shall indeed prove that it is not upon appearances He gazes. In the failure of Saul’s reign will be revealed the emptiness of such outward attraction and our proclivity to desire what is appealing to the eye. For Saul shall not prove to be God’s anointed; His Christ shall be quite another.
It is not of Saul our psalm of David sings when it speaks of the blessings of the king. The “majesty and splendor [the Lord] conferred upon him” is as passing as his beauty. The “crown of pure gold” is to be placed upon the head of Jesus Christ alone; it is He the Father has made “a blessing forever.” His glory will be reflected in David, the ruddy shepherd youth whose son he is called, but will be fulfilled only in the Person of Jesus. It is He in whom all kings rejoice, in whom all find “the joy of [God’s] presence,” in whom all discover victory.
In our gospel, Jesus, the true king, comes, not with stately train, but “walking along the lakeshore.” And crowds of people follow Him, people not of power and riches or reputation; rather, “many tax collectors and those known as sinners joined Him.” This greatly disturbed the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees – it was not according to their vision of who He should be and what He should do. “Why does He eat with such as these?” they complain to His disciples. But He has a ready answer, one which cuts to the heart of us all and reveals the nature and purpose of this true king: “People who are healthy do not need a doctor; sick people do.” And so the Savior comes into our midst, neither tall nor handsome nor desiring praise, to save us from our sin.
We are all sick, brothers and sisters! Make no doubt; have no question about it. We need Him! It is this king and the “goodly blessings” that flow from Him that must be our heart’s desire, for He alone will bring us into the joy of the kingdom; He alone will save us from the sin into which we have all fallen. Let us follow Him as Levi, leaving behind our sinful station in life, and He will govern us well.
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O LORD, Jesus you have made King over us
that we might be saved from sin
and rejoice in your presence forever.
YHWH, your Son, our King, has come to call us from our sin, to save men in need of healing. And who among us is not in need of Him? Pity the poor soul who thinks himself so.
What are we in your sight, O LORD? However tall we might be, we are no more than ants. To you all men are sick and in need of a physician; you see how quickly our beauty fades.
Oh if we could only see as you see! If we could only recognize your greatness among us in the humble stature of Jesus, the holy One. Make us ready to follow Him as Matthew from his post. Somehow open our eyes to see His gaze passing before us.
Save us from the grasp of our enemies round about. Only you could govern us; only in you could we rejoice in victory. O LORD, let us join your Son in majesty and splendor – for us He is a blessing forever. In Him we find all we need. In Him we are all anointed kings.