Tagged: verse for the day

“Never have we been slaves to anyone. What do You mean by saying, ‘You will be free’?” –John 8:33 Jesus said: “I give you My assurance, everyone who lives in sin is the slave of sin” (Jn 8:34). Everyone who sins is a slave. Even everyone in debt is a slave, for “the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Prv 22:7). Therefore, the world is full of slaves. However, slaves can be freed from slavery to sin and the world by offering themselves to Christ to become slaves of justice (Rm 6:18). “That is why, if the Son frees...

“With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained.” –Numbers 21:4-5 Mass Readings: March 20 First: Numbers 21:4-9;Resp: Psalm 102:2-3,16-21; Gospel: John 8:21-30 Listen to the Mass Readings God’s people complained about the manna He freely gave them daily for years. Although the Lord had freed the whole nation from slavery to Egypt, they complained against the Lord and Moses (Nm 21:5, 7). “In punishment the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died” (Nm 21:6). The Lord loves us too much to condone our selfish ungratefulness. We either...

“[Joseph] did as the angel of the Lord had directed him.” –Matthew 1:24 Mass Readings: March 19 First: 2 Samuel 7:4-5,12-14,16; Resp: Psalm 89:2-5,27,29; Second: Romans 4:13,16-18,22; Gospel: Matthew 1:16,18-21,24 Listen to the Mass Readings St. Joseph often found himself enmeshed in a series of unexpected circumstances. First, God became Lord of His marriage in a way no man could ever have imagined. Then, like a common refugee, Joseph was turned away from decent accommodations when he and Mary most needed them, at the moment of Jesus’ birth (Lk 2:7). Then, during a dark night, he had to flee from...

“I – once I am lifted up from earth – will draw all men to Myself.” –John 12:32 The Lord promised us a new covenant (Jer 31:31). Jesus called it the covenant in His blood (Mt 26:28). Jesus “became the Source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him” by learning “obedience from what He suffered” (Heb 5:9, 8). “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24). Once Jesus was lifted up on the cross, He began to draw all...

“Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me.” –Jeremiah 11:19 Mass Readings: March 17 First: Jeremiah 11:18-20; Resp: Psalm 7:2-3,9-12; Gospel: John 7:40-53 Listen to the Mass Readings Two weeks from today is Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil. Spiritual warfare may well intensify as we near the time to renew our baptismal promises. This renewal is the culmination of Lent and the center of the year. Because of this renewal’s strategic importance, the devil rages as we prepare to reject him, all his works, and all his empty promises....