January 20 - Tuesday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Release Date: 01/19/2026
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.16:1-13; Ps.89:20-22,27-28; Mk.2:23-28)
“Man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”
Indeed, how different the vision of God from the vision of man, and how well the Lord illustrates this in His rejection of Saul and His choosing of David. When Samuel sees Eliab, whose appearance and “lofty stature” are reminiscent of Saul, even this great seer is blinded by his eyes and must be directed by God to look beyond what is apparent to his sight. All seven sons brought to the feast are rejected by the Lord, and the youngest, “who is tending the sheep,” must be sent for. Jesse, his father, did not think David worthy of coming to the sacrificial banquet, but it is he who is the centerpiece of the celebration. This ruddy youth is the one chosen by the eyes of God.
And lest we think that there is some kind of diametrical opposition between physical beauty and interior loveliness, we must note that David is not ugly to behold and the Lord does not choose him for a poor appearance. He too was “handsome… and making a splendid appearance.” But the beauty of David finds its source not in the skin but in a heart set on God, and it is this faithfulness and dedication to Him upon which the Lord gazes and, so, chooses, and not upon the curls falling around his face. David’s appearance is beautiful because his soul is beautiful, and his soul is beautiful because it finds its life in God. And so, from the day of his anointing by Samuel, God’s prophet, “the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David” and there remained, for it had found its proper home.
In our gospel we have a quote like unto the one separated out for this day, and expressive of a similar lesson: “The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath,” Jesus tells the Pharisees critical of His disciples picking, peeling, and eating heads of grain on the Lord’s Day. For what do the Pharisees do but judge the law by its appearance alone, and fail to look into its heart. The law is indeed beautiful to behold and was made for man for his benefit, to draw him close to God; but how far from its purpose these leaders of the people have come, and so, how distant from the Lord they stand – unable to recognize Him as He stands before them. The sabbath itself was made for man’s rest and refreshment from labor, and yet when the disciples of Christ pick and eat to allay their hunger, to find refreshment for their failing bodies, these Pharisees deem it evil. Again one wonders how they can be so blind. Again it is apparent that they are unable to see beyond the surface. Empty indeed are their hearts.
As He has done for David, the Lord makes us strong, makes us fruitful and beautiful. He blesses our works as the works of this “highest of the kings of the earth,” if those works are founded in Christ. If we truly say with David, “You are my father, my God, the rock, my savior,” the Lord will hear us, and finding His presence in our hearts, He will bless us, even as His only Son.
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O LORD, your Spirit be with us as with David,
as with Jesus.
YHWH, give us eyes to see what you see, hearts to understand your will. Your Spirit dwell within us that we might be as your Chosen One.
O LORD, as we are presented before you, may we be acceptable in your sight. Let our hearts not be hardened to your Word but anointed by your Son’s blood. O that we might call you our Father and know Jesus as our Savior! Give us your Wisdom that we might radiate your beauty to all who look upon us this day.
David you blessed, dear God, as king of kings, as the child upon whom your favor rested. Is He not the figure of your only Son? In Him do we not see presaged the Christ who would be Lord even of the Sabbath?
And are we not called to be joined to Him, to have His anointing upon us this day, His Spirit to guide us in all things? Let us be fed by your Anointed, O LORD, that His crown might be upon our heads, that our eyes might be open to His glory.