HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART TODAY

PRAYER BEFORE HOLY MASS     Act of Love before Mass

O my God, I love Thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength and with no other desire than to be inseparably united to Thee. It is through Thy Divine Son that this union is about to be realized within me. In Holy Communion I long to identify myself with Him, that it will no longer be myself, but Him, who lives in me; and when I have received Jesus within myself, then I shall love and be loved by Thee in that same measure, in which I am united to Him. Hasten then, to give me Thy Divine Son, at the hands of Thy priest, that through Jesus, I may unite myself forever to Thee, O God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.  

Mass Readings  Lectures du jour Reflection for the day

First reading Exodus 2:1-15

Pharaoh's daughter finds Moses among the bulrushes

There was a man of the tribe of Levi who had taken a woman of Levi as his wife. She conceived and gave birth to a son and, seeing what a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him; coating it with bitumen and pitch, she put the child inside and laid it among the reeds at the river’s edge. His sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him. 

Now Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river, and the girls attending her were walking along by the riverside. Among the reeds she noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it. She opened it and looked, and saw a baby boy, crying; and she was sorry for him. ‘This is a child of one of the Hebrews’ she said. Then the child’s sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and find you a nurse among the Hebrew women to suckle the child for you?’ ‘Yes, go,’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her; and the girl went off to find the baby’s own mother. To her the daughter of Pharaoh said, ‘Take this child away and suckle it for me. I will see you are paid.’ So the woman took the child and suckled it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who treated him like a son; she named him Moses because, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ 

Moses, a man by now, set out at this time to visit his countrymen, and he saw what a hard life they were having; and he saw an Egyptian strike a Hebrew, one of his countrymen. Looking round he could see no one in sight, so he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. On the following day he came back, and there were two Hebrews, fighting. He said to the man who was in the wrong, ‘What do you mean by hitting your fellow countryman?’ ‘And who appointed you’ the man retorted, ‘to be prince over us, and judge? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Moses was frightened. ‘Clearly that business has come to light’ he thought. When Pharaoh heard of the matter he would have killed Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and made for the land of Midian.

Responsorial Psalm

Seek the Lord, you who are poor, and your hearts will revive

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Harden not your hearts today,

but listen to the voice of the Lord.

Alleluia!  Ps. 94:8

Gospel  Matt. 11:20-24

It will not go as hard with Sodom on jugement day as with you

Jesus began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent. 

‘Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard on Judgement day with Tyre and Sidon as with you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be exalted as high as heaven? You shall be thrown down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom on Judgement day as with you.’

Eternal God, King of glory I thank you for your mercy and faithfulness over all your creatures.  Father I am guilty of not trusting in your mercy, in your divine providence whenever I am facing difficulties that seems too much to bear.  My God and Father I sometimes doubt your power to save me.  It is so most times when the challenge seems to persist. It seems there is no end to the persecution, to the betrayal, to not realising my dreams and aspiration. Looking at our world,  the destruction and persistent evil, I often ask where are you God creator of everything that exist. It is hard for me to understand that goodness comes out evil. Father it is a great mystery I find difficult to understand and challenges my faith in you.  

Then my Father, you have done so many marvelous deeds beyond my imagination, beyond my understanding. Help me my God my Father never to doubt your mighty deeds over me, and over all your creatures.  Forgive my lack of faith. Lord Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour I trust in you. Virgin Mary Mother of Christ, my Mother pray for me. Saint Joseph ray for me.