Tagged: verse for the day

“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...

“They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to Me.” –Jeremiah 7:24 Mass Readings: March 23 First: Isaiah 49:1-6;Resp: Psalm 71:1-6,15,17;Gospel: John 13:21-33,36-38 The prophet Jeremiah has described for us the physiology of sinners. In our sinful rebellion against the Lord, we harden our hearts, turn our backs to God, turn away our faces from God, and stiffen our necks (Jer 7:26). If we don’t repent, the parts of our bodies become even more distorted and perverted. For example, the sinners who martyred Stephen were “stung to the heart,” grinding their teeth,...

“Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations.” –Deuteronomy 4:6 Mass Readings: March 22 First: Isaiah 42:1-7; Resp: Psalm 27:1-3,13-14; Gospel: John 12:1-11 Because of their disobedience, the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. They may have assumed they were obeying God, but Moses warned them that they were not obeying carefully enough (Dt 4:6). Jesus’ disciples probably thought they were obeying Him. However, Jesus proclaimed that He expected them to obey even the smallest part of a letter of the law (Mt 5:18; see also Ps 119:112). Then...