"You Are My Valentine," says the Lord!

How "beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful you are" (Song of Songs 1: 15)!
As "a lily among thistles, so is my love among the maidens (Song of Songs 2: 2).
Pleasantly, "In his longed-for shade I am seated..." (Song of Songs 2: 3).
Pleased am I that "the banner he raises over me is love" (Song of Songs 2: 4).
Yes, "My beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come...my lovely one, come'" (Song of Songs 2: 10).


Vineyards "are in flower." "Come, then, my love, my lovely one, come" (Song of Songs 2:15 & 13)
Alas, "let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and you face is beautiful" (Song of Songs 2: 14).
Lo, I ask you to "be my beloved," says the Lord (Song of Songs 2:17).
Enclosed, are we, in a garden of love--God's love! "Let my beloved come onto his garden, let him taste its rarest fruits" (Song of Songs 4: 16)!
No way will I give myself totally to anyone but to my Beloved:  "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is for me" (song of songs 7:11).
To me, Jesus says: "Open to me...my love, my dove, my perfect one...." (Song of songs 5: 2).
I "am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine. He pastures his flock among the lilies" (Song of Songs 6": 2)
Now, again, hear the Lord say to you: "How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight" (Song of Songs 6: 7).
Every day, I ask God to "set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as death,...The flash of it is a flash of four, a flame of Yahweh Himself. Local no flood can quench, no torrents drown" (Song of Songs 8: 6-7).
'So, I will seek the Lord who seeks me, His beloved!

Daily awakened, I will listen for my Beloved's voice of love!
Always in need of love, I know that my Beloved lives within me, walks beside me, and behind me, hemming my in and keeping me from harm.
Yes, my Beloved is always with me as Lover, as Redeemer and Sanctifier!

God's Peace Enabling Us to Walk as Jesus Walked

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, persons highly favored by God and playing a significant role in our salvation.  The first reading, Sirocco 3: 26, 12-14, speaks to us of the importance of how one relates to one's parents and how parents relate to their children! Paul asks us, in the second reading, Colossians 3: 12-21, to "[p]ut on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another; if one has a grievance against  another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so much you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful."

There is no better counsel for the New Year! We do not need to look for any other New Year's Resolutions. If we read this passage from Colossians every evening and examine our behaviors that day in light of this passage, we are well on our way to experiencing the peace that only God can give!  In that peace is the strength we need to begin anew the next day as "God's chosen ones, holy and beloved," putting on "heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another."  It is in peace that we are given the wisdom to forgive others as God has forgiven us. It is the peace of Christ that opens our hearts to God's love within us, "the bond of perfection."

Let us pray for this peace that God wants to give us each day and each night.

God's Beloved Children

In today's first reading, 1 John 2: 3-11, St. John addresses us as the "Beloved".

What a powerful message. John names us for who we really are:  God's "Beloved",   that is "dearly loved," or "a much loved person,"  "one who is loved affectionally and unconditionally". By whom? God, our creator.  Proof? God sent His only begotten Son to earth to become one of us to teach us how to love and how much the Father loves us. He sent His only begotten Son who held nothing back to show us the depth, the breadth, the length and the height of God's love for each one of us--being obedient to the Father to the point of enduring a torturous death at the hands of evil men for our salvation!

In today's Gospel, Luke 2: 22-35, the prophet Simeon gives testimony to who Jesus is and why He was sent to us by saying:  "...my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."   Prophetess Anna, also there at the moment that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the Temple to meet the requirements of the Law, "began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38), and, not only the deliverance of Jerusalem, but also the deliverance of all humankind from Satan's determination to keep us out of heaven by luring us into sin and disobedience, into lying, cheating, and other sins that harden our hearts and block us from seeking forgiveness of our sinful behaviors and attitudes..

How does John the Baptist prepare the way of the Lord? By "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3: 4).

May you and I, in humility, admit our sinfulness before the Lord, repent and be saved.  May we recognize our need for our Savior Jesus Christ.

Signed for and by Christ

In today’s first reading, Ez 9: 1-7, 10; 18:22, we are presented with the fact that those who were faithful to the Lord and who lamented the abominations practiced by some of the Chosen People were marked on their foreheads with a “Thau” cross and were spared from being wiped off the face of the earth. In Baptism, you and I were marked on our foreheads, as well, and sealed for Christ in our Confirmation. We belong to the Lord and He will never abandon us. The Lord God will protect us in all of the vicissitudes of our lives. The day will come, as with Ezekiel, when we will see the glory of the Lord above us in eternity, where a place is prepared for us as well. Truly, as we pray in today’s responsorial psalm, “From the rising to the setting of the sun is the name of the Lord to be praised. High above all nations is the Lord; above the heavens is his glory. Who [we ask with the psalmist] is like the Lord, our God, who is enthroned on high, and looks upon the heaves and the earth below?”

What am I doing to ready myself to see the Lord in my midst when God chooses to reveal Himself? What am I doing as I await the Lord’s appearances? As Satan prowls the earth, will the Lord say to the evil spirits: “See the Thau cross on her/his forehead; do not touch her/him?” And finally, what am I doing to prepare myself for that day when the heavens will open and the Lord escorts me into paradise?  Am I keeping my focus on Jesus each day, each hour, as I live my life for God alone, as I strive to become one the Trinity?

God's Marriage with Humankind

Today’s first reading, Tobit 6: 12-11; 7: 1bcde, 9-17; 8: 4-9a,  continues the story of Tobit and his son Tobiah, who travel to Media, where Tobiah is given his kinswoman Sarah as his wife.  Raguel, Sarah’s father, is delighted but needs to tell Tobiah that the seven previous men to whom he  gave Sarah each died on the first night of their being together.  Raguel says to Tobiah:  “Your marriage to her has been decided in heaven! Take your kinswoman; from now on you are her love, and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after….Take her and bring her back safely to your father. And may the God of heaven grant both of you peace and prosperity.”

In my morning’s meditation, the thought occurred to me that this is also about God’s relationship with you and me—a relationship decided in heaven. God, the Father, says to Jesus, His Son:  “Jesus, my Son, “from now on you are…[Dorothy Ann’s—insert your name] love and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after….Take her and bring her back safely to…[Me].”  The reverse is true, as well, which reads:  “And, Dorothy Ann (insert your name), from now on you are my Son’s love and He is your beloved. Jesus is yours today and ever after.” 

I was then awakened to the reality as how this story is about Jesus giving His life for us. Jesus, by becoming our spouse, our beloved, our Savior, was tortured by a scourging, a crowning with thorns, a crucifixion, and rose to save us from the Evil One.  Jesus died for us so that you and I, in turn, would die to sin and rise to holiness, die to selfishness and rise to selflessness, die to being unjust and rise to being just in all our dealings with others, die to being deceitful and rise to being truthful, die to being proud and arrogant and rise to being humble in the Lord Jesus, our Savior.

My response: Thank you, Lord, for taking on being my shepherd and all the inherent dangers of that position.  Thank you for choosing me to be your beloved.

Your response?