Mar 27, 2023 | DAILY BREAD
Monday of the 5th week of Lent
St John of Egypt
First reading – Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62
The story of Susanna tells us about the source of our choices we have before the Lord and before the world. Our choices should be out of our love to the Lord and not out of fear of the world. Our choices should be out of our commitment to the Word of God and not out of the logic of the world. Our choices should be out of our faithfulness to our vocation and not out of the necessity of the occasion. Our choices should be out of our view of eternity and not out of our comfort in this world. Our choices should be out of our adherence to the truth and not of our adherence to falsehood. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to make correct the source of our choices.
Mar 25, 2023 | DAILY BREAD
5th Sunday of Lent
First reading – Ezekiel 37:12-14
The Lord is speaking through Prophet Ezekiel. He is speaking about three things He is going to do. “I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel”. He is going to open the graves. He is going to raise His people. He is going to lead them back to the soil of Israel. These three acts of mercy and kindness of the Lord. He is going to open the graves. The Lord wants to open the graves. Graves of vengeance, graves of revenge, graves of jealousy, graves of spite, graves of laziness, graves of lust, graves of lies, graves of irresponsibility, graves of disrespect, etc. He wants to take us out of these graves. He wants to bring us out. He wants to give us the life to be raised up from the graves. The life of forgiveness, life of pardon, life of caring, life of respect, life of responsibility, life of purity, etc. With this life, we can stand up. We can become His people. With this life, we can follow the Lord. We can follow His path. We can follow His word. We can follow His life. Let’s reflect: Am I ready to respond to the mercy of God which opens the grave, raises me up and leads me to His life?
Mar 24, 2023 | DAILY BREAD
The Annunciation of the Lord
First reading – Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10
This solemnity is very important as it’s the day of incarnation. It is the profound act of love of God. It’s the act of mercy of God by which God saves the humanity. It’s the act by which God became “God with us”. For that God chose Mary. Mary collaborated with the plan of God. In Mary, heaven and earth unites by her “yes” to cooperate with God. In Mary, the love of God incarnated to be with us. God is not anymore far away, but He is with us. God is not an unseen reality, but He is the person of Jesus Christ. That is why the feast of Annunciation is so important. It is the feast where God assumed our nature. He became part of me. He became part of you. This reality of incarnation began in Mary and continues with Mary along our side together with Jesus. This mystery is bigger that us. God became man so that we can be sons and daughters of God. We are not any more creatures but sons and daughters as the only Son assumed our human nature. Let’s reflect: how much can I wonder about the mystery of Incarnation?
Mar 23, 2023 | DAILY BREAD
Friday of the 4th week of Lent
First reading – Wisdom 2:1,12-22
The book of wisdom says, “The godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning”. It’s interesting to analyze these words. The godless are those who take the place of God. Don’t care so much about anything else other than themselves – their interests and their world. In fact, there is nobody else in their life. That’s why they are talking to themselves. And how are they talking, they are talking with misguided reasoning. They are misguided by their ego and pride. They are misguided by their selfish interests. They are misguided by their blindness caused by their malice. Because malice is the only way to save your ego always. Because they don’t see anything else than themselves. There are moments in our life when we tend to become like these. Those moments in which we fail to see the importance of holiness over our own interests. Those moments we fail to embrace the rewards of holiness by choosing the rewards of selfishness. Those moments in which we drop our selflessness to achieve something with greed. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to examine how much our ego misguides our reasoning.
Mar 22, 2023 | DAILY BREAD
Thursday of the 4th week of Lent
Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop
“But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God” for the people who did a great sin. This is something we have to learn very much in our life. To plead with the Lord our God for others, especially for the mistakes of others. This is very good for our relationship with God. This shows our openness to God. This shows our trust in the Lord. This shows our freedom with the Lord. Not only that, but it is also the best way to deal with the sins and mistakes of others. Instead of getting irritated, or instead of getting angry, we must learn from Moses to plead with the Lord for others who are in mistakes. There is something more important in the prayer of Moses. That is his self-sacrifice. We read that the Lord wanted to destroy the people who sinned and make a great nation out of Moses. That was a big opportunity to Moses to become the father of a great nation and take the place of Abraham. Moses did not accept this offer to make himself something bigger. He chose to plead mercy for the people. That is why the pleading of Moses is special because he pleaded in his sacrifice, he pleaded in his self-denial. We must learn to plead for others before the Lord with our sacrifices and self-denial. Let’s reflect: Lent is the time to learn to plead for others with our self-sacrifices.
