Monday, July 7, 2025

ISAIAH 62:4-5 (2025)

ISAIAH 62:4-5

No longer will you be named Forsaken; no longer will your land be called Abandoned; but you will be called My Delight and your land Espoused. For the Lord delights in you and will make your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, so will your builder marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.

---- mine,

While the prophet speaks of God's covenant people and the land He gave them, I speak these words to you. For a very long time now, you have experienced sorrow, heartache, anxiety, and loss. Day after day, you bring before Me your prayers to restore what was lost by those of your flesh who have sinned through a lack of discipline, a lack of prayer, self-indulgence leading to living immoral lives. Smothering conscience, losing sight of all that was taught to them in their childhood and youth, until all control was lost and the spiritual rot set in. Breaking the spirit and allowing evil to enter and reside. The punishment was brought about by vanity, pride, and self-indulgence with no boundaries, and the whole body was broken. You watched the slow decay and destruction, and you stood by helpless, afraid of the worst but never giving in to complete despair. You came to Me, threw yourself on My mercy, and begged Me for help, strength, and restitution, even while your heart was filled with fear that perhaps all was lost. But you forgot that I punish only to bring about healing, repentance, contrition, forgiveness, and pardon. I heard your prayer, I wiped your tears. My heart broke even as yours was broken. But I had to apply the remedy, painful as it was. I had to strip away, cleanse thoroughly through suffering, before putting together again. No longer will either you or your loved ones be considered Forsaken. Never will you feel abandoned. I delight in you, I have made a covenant with you which will never be broken, nor will I forget that you are espoused to Me. Fear not, ---- my own, all I have said I will do. They will return, and not only you but heaven will rejoice at their return to the Father's house.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

2 CHRONICLES 6:17-21 (2025)

2 CHRONICLES 6:17-21

Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant David. “But will God indeed reside with mortals on earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you. May your eyes be open day and night toward this house, the place where you promised to set your name, and may you heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.  And hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; may you hear from heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.

---- mine,

Samuel prayed after building a beautiful temple to God, the Almighty, Creator of all and Supreme Ruler of the heavens and the earth, fulfilling the promise his father, David, had made. But God prefers to make His temple in human hearts. Is your heart, ---- my own, a fitting residence for Me, for the Holy Spirit, and for My Father? It is indeed our delight to dwell not only among you but to reside in fullness in the Church, My Body. Just as the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit descended into the womb of My Virgin Mother and tabernacled in her womb, making her the New Ark of the Covenant, so too do I make My home in the Church all over the world. From the most beautiful cathedrals to the most humble and rough chapels everywhere in the four corners of the globe, I come down from heaven and at the words uttered by the priest, and in his hands I honor My Covenant and I AM present on every altar in fullness, body, soul, and divinity. Nothing delights Me more than to forgive sins and make every member of My Body worthy to receive My Body and My Blood. For a while, I am united in an intimacy closer than any human closeness is possible, and in this spiritual embrace, more intimate than the human marital embrace, I and my beloved are one. So few are aware of this and are taken up into the mystical moments when God, bowing low, enters into the human heart. So many receive Me unworthily, indifferently, with neither gratitude nor thanksgiving for the greatest Gift that they will receive this side of heaven. This is the moment when I hear every prayer, so in the most loving and intimate words speak to Me, tell Me everything, and I will hear, I will answer, I will forgive, I will restore, I will make whole in every way that wholeness is needed. Please do not wound My Heart by receiving Me indifferently. I so long for these moments of intimacy with you. So many hearts are selfish, hard, and cold. You receive Me and comfort Me while I AM one with you in the Holy Eucharist. And pray that all who receive Me may become aware of the great treasure that God gives them, for My Father will not spare anyone who receives Me, the Beloved Son of the Living God, with callous indifference,