(Is.53:10-11;   Ps.33:4-5,18-20,22;   Heb.4:14-16;   Mk.10:35-45)  “We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” And this is He who is both priest and victim, for “He gives His life as an offering for sin” – He Himself is our sacrifice.  Here is one who is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses… one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”  Here is He who has suffered the affliction of our fallen state but to raise us up with Himself from the mire, from the lowly condition we have come to know as our own.  Here is He who “give[s] His life as a ransom for many.” But why?  Why is the Lord “pleased to crush Him in His infirmity”?  Why is our high priest so humbled in the sight of all?  Why is there such suffering in the world…?  Why need you ask?  Why need you question the will of God?  Do you not believe that “upright is the word of the Lord, and all His works are trustworthy”?  Do you not realize that the Lord looks with kindness upon all “those who fear Him… to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine”?  Do you trust your own eyes more than the vision of God? But if you must know, the Lord God tells you, “Through His suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt He shall bear.”  If you must inquire, hear that it is for your sin there is suffering in the world and the Lord and His followers must carry the cross.  You need look no further than the blood on your hands…  But seeing this, do not fear – rejoice.  Rejoice, for now we may “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”  Now the Savior does “lord it over” us by His sacrifice.  Now this “slave of all” has “authority over [us]” by the suffering He has undergone.  And now we must join Him on this cross. “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” – His words to James and John are spoken to us all.  Glorious is the sacrifice to which we are called.  For He who is both priest and victim would now lift us with Himself through the veil of pain to the holy heavens, that knowing the fruit of “His affliction,” with Him all might “see the light in fullness of days.” “Our soul waits for the Lord”; it suffers with Him.  And it is not disappointed by the sacrifice it shares. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "The Sunset Bleeds Me Clean" (2nd half) from Bearing the Birth Pangs, tenth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, He who is slave of all, He who has shed His blood to save our souls –   with Him let us be one. YHWH, your Son has given His life as a ransom for sin, that we might approach the throne of grace and find mercy, and find the blessing of your kindness upon our souls.  He has borne our guilt, and so from it we are freed.  But we must bear the Cross with Him if we are to find our way to Heaven. This is the greatest grace, is it not, O LORD –  that we are called to share in the suffering of your Son, to drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism?  We are called to serve as He has served, to give our lives with Him, and so to come to the place He has come, to your right hand in the kingdom.  O if we could only be as slaves of all! By His death He has ransomed many.  Sharing in our weakness, suffering for our sakes – bearing His affliction, He shall see the light in fullness of days.  And we poor souls who trust in Him find our hope fulfilled, dear LORD, in that same light of your face.

O apostle of Christ’s Sacred Heart, in mystic wonder you beheld Him and let Him wash you clean in the streams that flow from His Heart divine – pray indeed we shall unite ourselves to Jesus and His love, that we shall submerge our needs and sorrows in the abyss of His mercy and seek perfection in union with His Sacred Heart. There let us find salvation, reparation for all our sins; there let us find heavenly joy, the peace that surpasses understanding. With you let us enter His presence, let us be bathed in His light, ever progressing toward His kingdom till we are devoted entirely to advancing His eternal glory. Pray His will and His way be known in us as we entrust ourselves to His love.

O mother of the unfortunate and model of prayer and penance, completely you gave yourself to service of the Lord and neighbor, chastising your flesh by constant fast and abstinence and generously offering your goods and your time to all those in need – pray we shall at least desire to imitate your thorough devotion, that our lives will be spent not on things of this world but for the reign of Heaven. All we can do for others let us do, and let all be done for God, that He alone will rule our hearts and lives and we will worship Him alone, dying to ourselves all the while.

(Rm.4:13,16-18;   Ps.105:6-9,42-43;   Lk.12:8-12)   “All depends on faith, everything is a grace.”   Faith is our father; it brings us to life for it makes us children of “the God who restores the dead to life and calls into being those things which had not been.”  By faith we entrust ourselves into God’s hands and become as Abraham, who is “our father in the sight of God in whom he believed.”  “Hoping against hope, Abraham believed and so became the father of many nations,” and insofar as we believe, we become his children before God.  Indeed, it is through faith alone that we are born into His kingdom. And having faith, we must acknowledge its presence in our lives by witnessing to the Son of God.  If we are His disciples, as we must be, we will not hide His grace working in us but allow it to bear fruit in the profession of that faith before the world.  And so, as we “come before synagogues, rulers, and authorities,” as we stand before the face of this generation, as we do anything in this world, we must “not worry about how to defend [ourselves] or what to say.”  Jesus tells us, “The Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment all that should be said.”  And so by this trusting in Him we prove ourselves children of faith. This is the manner in which I produce this writing.  Trusting in Him as entirely as my faith allows, I am not concerned beforehand what I shall speak, what I shall write upon this page.  In the measure that I am a child of grace, I prove it by my allowing Him to speak through me at this moment and in His way.  This is what we must strive to do with all our work, in all our lives.  All our lives are founded upon this faith, and the Lord calls us in an ever greater way to express that faith, to live that faith, by consecrating all we think and do to His will and desire.  It is for us to but come into His presence, to remember He is here with us, and so to find His grace at work in our lives. We must be prepared and be preparing ourselves always to stand before Him forever.  As we place ourselves in His presence now, it is so that we die to ourselves and begin to live by His grace.  More and more we must trust in that faith which joins us to Him and makes us children of the promise which “holds true for all Abraham’s descendants… for all who have his faith.”  Faith alone will bring us to life, for faith alone brings us into the presence of Him who is life.  Enter His grace, brothers and sisters, and find it working in your life. ******* O LORD, if we believe in you, you will be with us. YHWH, you restore the dead to life and call into being those things which had not been.  And so, should we not put our faith in you?  And so, should we not proclaim your glory before men?  With a God such as you, what need we fear?  O let us live in faith and so be blessed! All indeed depends on faith, O LORD; it is our very life breath.  Everything is a grace from you who bring all things into being, and we must acknowledge that grace at work in our lives in order to join ourselves to you and that grace, and so find life itself.  Separated from you we shall but die, but as children of Abraham, as children of faith who believe in you and in your Son, we shall live forever. You are faithful and true to your Covenant with your chosen ones.  Let us trust in you, LORD,  and in your Spirit’s movement in our lives.

O teacher and Mother who served to reform your sisters and the lives of all Christians, you led all souls along the way of perfection, which is Christ Himself – pray his love may fill our hearts that union with the Father we indeed may find; inspire us by your teaching to seek Him who makes His home in us… and pray we shall have your courage, your faith in the face of trials, as we work to bring Him to others and so suffer under His Cross. Pray we shall know as you the joy of such persecution, which brings us only closer to God, our spirits wed to His surpassing peace. O pray, dear Mother, we shall be entirely forgetful of ourselves as we remember His presence in our lives.

(Rm.4:1-8;   Ps.32:1-2,5,7,11;   Lk.12:1-7)   “Happy is the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile.”   All our sins shall be taken away by the Lord who watches over us and loves us, if we but believe. We must lay bare our souls, brothers and sisters.  We cannot hide from the eternal, piercing light of God.  His hand is upon us at all times; His heart is open always for our entering in.  It cannot be otherwise with the Lord of the universe, in whose sight “even the hairs of [our] head are counted.”  And He who surrounds us desires but our love, desires but our faith, desires but that we come into His presence confessing our sins, and He will take them away.  And we shall not be “cast into Gehenna” but drawn into His kingdom. His kingdom is coming.  Jesus sees it as He gazes out at the dense “crowd of thousands” gathering before Him.  He sees the kingdom coming as men’s hearts turn to Him.  And so He warns His disciples, who shall be the laborers to reap His harvest, “Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,” for if they should take pride in their mission, if they should find in their deeds “grounds for boasting” and so forget the favor of God by which all are justified, they shall indeed tempt the fires of Gehenna.  “Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight,” for the Lord hears “what you have whispered in locked rooms.”  So, keep your hearts set on Him and His goodness, and the truth of the Gospel will be proclaimed to the world, and you shall save your immortal soul. Jesus knows, too, that the faith of His disciples and their declaration of His Word to the world will bring persecution.  He sees in this scene, too, the cross set before Him, and He knows those who follow Him shall share in it as well.  And so He reassures His children that the Father is with them, that He treasures them even as He treasures His Son, and so the powers of this age will hold no reign over them, and that they should “not be afraid of those who kill the body and can do no more.” Yes, our soul is in His hands.  He has power to forgive and to protect, if we but come to Him as children, if we but come to Him in faith.   ******* O LORD, all is known to you – let us confess our sins, and we will be saved. YHWH, of what can we boast, we who cannot forgive our own sins?  Truly, we are in your hands, and so should fear you. But in your kindness you readily forgive our transgressions; if we turn to you, our sins are wiped away.  And so, there is nothing we need fear, LORD, as long as our desire is for you. Help us to confess our faults that you might remove all our guilt.  Inspire us to call upon your NAME, O LORD, and we shall rejoice in your blessings.  If we but have faith in you, your justice will be upon us. There is nothing of consequence we can accomplish on our own, nothing but sin.  All the good that we do comes from you, and so, what cause have we to be proud?  Let us not be false in our love for you, LORD, but even in the deep recesses of our hearts proclaim your glory continually.  O may all men come to faith and be saved!

O slave become Shepherd of the universal Church, firmly you defended her teaching and recognized that all sins may be forgiven by the Lord through her; then after serving faithfully at the helm of Peter’s bark, you died and were buried with your martyr brothers, whose grave you so treasured – pray we, too, remain firm through all the difficult trials and temptations of this world, that our death may be as blessed as your own and we come to rest safely in God’s arms. O that by such incorrupt faith and unshaken courage we too shall be raised from the dust, from our humble origins, to sit with our Lord in His kingdom.

(Rm.3:21-30;   Ps.130:1-7;   Lk.11:47-54)   “This generation will have to account for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.”   And so shall it be with Christ’s own blood, the fulfillment of all the martyrs’ sacrifice; for these same scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus proclaims guilty of the prophets’ murders will indeed devise the murder of the Son of God.  And they prove the truth of His words immediately by their manifestation of “fierce hostility to Him” and their thus giving birth to the plot to crucify Him. Perhaps most appropriate for today, with regard to Paul’s epistle to the Romans, is the Lord’s admonishment of the lawyers: “You have taken away the key of knowledge.  You yourselves have not gained access, yet you have stopped those who wish to enter!”  It is essentially the same message the Apostle teaches: “The justice of God has been manifested apart from the law… that justice of God which works through faith in Jesus Christ.”  It is not through “observance of the law” that justification comes; the works of the law – circumcision, animal sacrifice, dietary rules – which address the body, are useless in this regard.  God is Spirit and it is spiritual means He uses to redeem us – we must come in faith to Him.  And those who would restrict faith by the imposition of these laws serve only to impede the working of the Spirit and His grace.  Paul states the question succinctly: “Does God belong to the Jews alone?  Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?”  If He is God of all nations, it is not meet to impose Jewish religious practice upon those apart from Jewish tradition.  But these protectors, or rather “possessors” and defilers of the law – defiling it by their greed in seizing it, their pride in assuming it as their own and not God’s – cannot accept that “it is the same God,” that the Gentiles are equal in grace with the Jews… and so to them this teaching is blasphemy. At the root of the problem is the fact that these leaders are not as the psalmist in our readings today, who sings: “My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn.”  Nor do they cry “in supplication” “out of the depths” of their iniquity for God’s forgiveness.  If they had been so disposed, they would have seen who stood before them, they would have recognized His coming, and they would have fallen to their knees and found His grace. Let us not be so hardhearted, for indeed the blood of Jesus is upon the hands of all who sin, just as His salvation is upon all who repent and believe in Him.  Water alone will not wash us clean; we must recognize the lack of love we have, and find His Spirit working in us. ******* O LORD, your justice is shown in your mercy, which you offer to every faithful soul. YHWH, we have all sinned and fallen short of your glory, and cannot by our own strength find our way back to you.  We cannot justify ourselves but need the grace that comes to us through the blood of your Son to justify our souls, to set us right with you. But what of those who fail to see they need your forgiveness, who fail to recognize that they, too, are sinners, that they have the blood of Jesus upon their hands?  O LORD, how can these be justified?  How can they come to faith in you if they do not listen to the One you have sent to draw us back to your presence?  They shall but continue in the way of sinning, mounting up the blood of the prophets for judgment day. Your Son offers His life for our sakes; freely He sacrifices Himself upon the Cross that we might be saved.  Help us to turn to Him, O LORD, to see what we have done, repent, and be redeemed.  You are the God of us all, and to all souls Jesus’ blood does call.

(Rm.2:1-11;   Ps.62:2-3,6-7,9,13;   Lk.11:42-46)   “Your hard and impenitent heart is storing up retribution for that day of wrath when the just judgment of God will be revealed.”   “He will repay every man for what he has done…  Yes, affliction and anguish will come upon every man who has done evil…  But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who has done good.”  This is the just judgment, and it comes only from God, not from sinful man. And so we are chastised in preparation for that day, that of His wrath we may be spared.  We should all wish to be “insult”ed by Jesus as are the Pharisees and lawyers in today’s gospel, here, today, while there is still time.  We should all desire His difficult words of instruction which would serve, if heeded humbly, to separate us from the sins of the world, the attachments of this life that cling to our soul and prevent our coming into His presence.  Under His mighty hand we should all subject ourselves, that He might lighten our “impossible burdens,” that He might take from us all that is not holy, all that is not true – that we might be freed from the judgment upon our souls and walk with Him in immortality.  We must be ready for His day.  But as it is the darkness is with us. “Only in God is my soul at rest.”  With David we must sing this truth from our hearts.  The emptiness of the flesh and its imagination must not possess us; vain pride must take no place in our lives…  All our lusts must be set aside and we must know with certainty that only in God do we find our peace: He is our refuge and our strength.  “He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold,” we must cry, and “trust in Him at all times,” or wandering from the truth we will find ourselves in the way of destruction. “God’s kindness is an invitation to you to repent.”  In His patience He gives you time to turn from sin and find His grace and mercy.  Pray He will convict you of your sin in this time and you will not convict yourself by your judgment of others.  Seek His redeeming hand at work in your life and do the good before Him.  Then you “shall not be disturbed,” when His Word has taken root in your soul, when you have left behind all the vanity of this world.  Then the glory of God will be your own, and nothing shall remove it from you.  Soften your heart to His blessed chastisement; it shall work for you against the day of judgment. ******* O LORD, we will be judged by what we do, and by what we fail to do – let us set our hearts on you alone. YHWH, let us not fall into judgment of others but treasure rather your Son’s chastisement of our souls, that we might find freedom from our sins and take our refuge in you alone.  Soon your just judgment will be revealed; let us benefit from your kindness and take this time to repent, lest we be condemned on your day of wrath. Your love, O God, is shown in the call to repentance you make to all your children, the Jew first, then the Gentile.  You indeed chastise every son whom you love.  And so Jesus proclaims great woe upon the Pharisees, hoping to turn them from their wicked ways; and so St. Paul makes known to us our hard and impenitent hearts, that from the punishment they invite we might be spared. While there is time, O LORD, while your grace and mercy are yet being offered forth, let us place our trust in you alone, and so find rest for our souls in your eternal glory.

(Rm.1:16-25;   Ps.19:2-5;   Lk.11:37-41)   “They stultified themselves through speculating to no purpose, and their senseless hearts were darkened.”   If these words do not refer to modern man most poignantly, then I imagine nothing can be said of anything.  In ancient times, “they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images representing mortal man, birds, beasts, and snakes” and bowed down to statues as if they were gods.  The images man worships today are also the creations of his own hands, sometimes as physical as the idols worshiped before the time of Christ – who does not long to see his own image on one of our television sets, and who is held in greater esteem than those movie stars whom we have never met but know only of their image on a screen? – but perhaps most particularly they are the vain ideas, which reveal their utter absurdity to any mind with a modicum of common sense, but which are propounded as sacred by the elite thinkers of our day.  Their numbers seem endless, and one wonders if man will rationalize himself out of existence, as perhaps he already has philosophically in the declaration that God is dead, and so often done in reality through movements such as Communism and Nazism. Indeed, how relevant are all Paul’s words today: “They certainly had knowledge of God, yet they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks”; “they claimed to be wise, but turned into fools instead”; “they engaged in the mutual degradation of their bodies.”  But “the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the irreligious and perverse spirit of men who… hinder the truth.”  “These men who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” cannot but come to naught, for “day pours out the word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge” – the Gospel goes forth “to the ends of the world” and Truth overwhelms all lies.  As Jesus overturned the Pharisees who “cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within… are filled with rapaciousness,” so shall the mind of modern man be shown for all its absurdity in the clear light of day. Time.  There is but time to wait.  Time for the Word to go forth and to pray for the conversion of the nations, of all peoples.  And there is hope, hope that men shall turn from their absurdity and their perversity to embrace the light of the Gospel and the true teaching of love it brings.  We pray the senseless will find faith and be led thereby to salvation.    ******* O LORD, openly your Word speaks to all men’s hearts, calling them to salvation. YHWH, how shall the senseless mind of man be redeemed?  If it turns from you, the Creator of all, to give praise to senseless creatures, will it not be ever as blind as they?  Trapped in its own contrivances, it shall never see the light of day or hear the Word of Truth.  And so, to these faithless souls the Gospel will be so much foolishness, as in foolishness they die. Your Word goes forth to the ends of the earth and is revealed in all Creation.  But men who cannot see beyond the flesh quench the Spirit even as they engage in the destruction of their bodies.  For the purity of your Creation they pervert, and so fail to stand in your holy light.  O LORD, let us cleanse the inside of our cup that we might come to your glory! Your eternal power and divinity help us to recognize, that filled with knowledge of you, O God, we may keep our hearts from being darkened by the false worship of this corrupted age.