Category: Daily Promises

“Eli, thinking her drunk, said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine!’ ” –1 Samuel 1:13-14 Mass Readings: January 9 First: 1 Samuel 1:9-20; Resp: 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8; Gospel: Mark 1:21-28 Listen to the Mass Readings In addition to accepting correction (see Prv 12:1), we as disciples of Christ must be open to giving correction (Lk 17:3; Gal 6:1). After first removing the plank of sin from our eyes (Mt 7:5), we must correct others in love and call them to repent. How we give correction is one of the...

“Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.” –Mark 1:9 Mass Readings: January 8 First: Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7;Resp: Psalm 29:1-4,3,9-10; Second: Acts 10:34-38; Gospel: Mark 1:7-11 Listen to the Mass Readings At the Jordan River, St. John the Baptist baptized thousands of people with a baptism of repentance. Repentance, or metanoia, was an 180-degree turn from sin. So what happened to those sins that those people left behind? Symbolically, the repented sins remained there, in the waters of the Jordan, after the people rose out of the water. Along comes Jesus, Who had no need...

The wise men “from the east arrived one day in Jerusalem inquiring, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed His star at its rising and have come to pay Him homage.’ At this news King Herod became greatly disturbed, and with him all Jerusalem.” –Matthew 2:1-3 Mass Readings: January 7 First: Isaiah 60:1-6; Resp: Psalm 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Second: Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6; Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12 Listen to the Mass Readings Herod understood the significance of Jesus’ birth. He knew that he had to join the wise men and “go and offer [Jesus] homage too” (Mt 2:8). Jesus’ birth means we...

“The man who sins belongs to the devil.” –1 John 3:8 Mass Readings: January 4 First: 1 John 3:7-10; Resp: Psalm 98:1,7-9; Gospel: John 1:35-42 Listen to the Mass Readings Sin is: rebellion against God, rejecting Jesus, Who loves us so much that He died for us, being deceived, and therefore being manipulated and degraded, slavery and an abuse of freedom, often enjoyable for a while, deadly, pride, denying reality, belonging “to the devil, because the devil is a sinner from the beginning” (1 Jn 3:8), breaking our baptismal covenant, hurting ourselves and others, acting as the devil’s child (see...

“Everyone who has this hope based on Him keeps himself pure, as [Jesus] is pure.” –1 John 3:3 Mass Readings: January 3 First: Philippians 2:5-11;Resp: Psalm 113:1-8;Gospel: Matthew 1:18-23 Listen to the Mass Readings The Christmas season is a time when a greater number of people commit suicide. Many others are more discouraged than usual because of family breakdowns that intensify at Christmas. At the very time the Hope of the World has come to us at Christmas, greater numbers of people are “without hope…in the world” (Eph 2:12). Some difficult situations have persisted for so long that it’s hard...