Tagged: memory verse

“I saw water flowing.” –Ezekiel 47:1 Mass Readings: March 28 First: Acts 10:34,37-43; Resp: Psalm 118:1-2,16-17,22-23; Second: Colossians 3:1-4; Gospel: John 20:1-9 Water trickled “from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east” (Ez 47:1). This trickle became a great river which emptied into the sea and made the salt waters fresh (Ez 47:8-9). Wherever this river flowed, it brought abundant life (Ez 47:12). In today’s psalm, the psalmist refers to “a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God” (Ps 46:5). Because God is present in His city and at this stream, this stream is a river of...

“There shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create.” –Isaiah 65:18 Mass Readings: March 27 First: Genesis 1:1–2:2 ;Second: Genesis 22:1-18;Gospel: Luke 24:1-12 Sadly, in our modern secular culture, there isn’t always rejoicing and happiness in what God creates. Many groan when God creates a new life in the womb. The following comments are routinely heard these days: “You’re pregnant again?” “That baby has birth defects. You should abort it.” “How will this world survive with so much overpopulation?” or “You ought to get that fixed.” Most importantly, God creates people anew in Baptism and via constant conversions....

“The angel answered her: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy Offspring to be born will be called Son of God.’ ” –Luke 1:35 Mass Readings: March 25 First: Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; Resp: Psalm 116:12-13,15-18;Second: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Gospel: John 13:1-15 Nearly two thousand years ago, God became man. This made it possible for God to die. Dying made it possible for Him to rise from the dead. In this way, God saved us from sin, slavery, self-deception, self-hatred, alienation, death, Satan, and hell. The incarnate Jesus saved...

The Lord wants to love us freely. However, many of us are not open to the overflowing intimacy of God’s love. Our sins have made us afraid of love. We are afraid to be encompassed in the consuming fire of God’s love (Heb 12:29). Consequently, the Lord must heal our sinful defection (Hos 14:5) in order to freely communicate His love to us. God, Who is Love (1 Jn 4:16), clears away our sins, the obstacles we place in the way of His love, by: convicting us of our sins (Jn 16:8), activating our guilt as a warning sign of...