The BreadCast

O wheat of Christ ground by the teeth of wild beasts and so made His bread, His leaven unto Heaven… by such heroic witness you became one with the Lord, joining Him in death and so in eternal life – pray we shall find the strength and faith to follow in your sacrificial footsteps, that it will also be our sole desire to die in Jesus' name, to be remade in His glory. Teach us the way, for it seems...

(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...

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 fi...

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 Heav...

(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...

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 H...

(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 i...

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 m...

(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 statu...

(Rm.1:1-7; Ps.98:1-4; Lk.11:29-32) "You have a greater than Jonah here." Greater than any prophet is He. Wiser than Solomon is the Lord who is the source of all wisdom. For it is He of whom the prophets speak; it is His promised coming "the Holy Scriptures record." The fulfillment of prophets and kings is in our midst. Our high priest is with us offering the sacrifice of Himself. Let us thirst for...

(2Kgs.5:14-17; Ps.98:1-4; 2Tm.2:8-13; Lk.17:11-19) "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God." "The word of God is not chained." It cannot be imprisoned. It is free. And it cannot be limited by national boundaries; it is for everyone. The universal call of salvation is made most clear in our readings today: in our first reading, Naaman the Syrian is healed of his leprosy, and i...

O humble and joyful Shepherdof loving Mother Church who desired so to bring her balm of mercy to a confused and bitter world, that it might become more fully human by imbibing of the fountain of her life-giving doctrine and so discover the love and peace it so desperately seeks in vain ideologies that pass like mist in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ – pray we all find our dignity in Christ and...

(Jl.4:12-21; Ps.97:1-2,5-6,11-12; Lk.11:27-28) "Near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision." And so, "blest are they who hear the word of God and keep it." For though "sun and moon are darkened and the stars withhold their brightness," though "mountains melt like wax before the Lord," "light dawns for the just," and for them "the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills shall flow w...

(Jl.1:13-15,2:1-2; Ps.9:2-3,6,8-9,16; Lk.11:15-26) "It is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness!" And we must be prepared. We must rend our hearts and not our garments. We must "spend the night in sackcloth," repentant of our sins. We must "proclaim a fast" and "cry to the Lord," "for near is the day of the Lord." The prophet Joel sounds this alarm several hundred ye...

O caretaker of souls who sought so diligently and with wisdom and love to reform the Church and all her members, beginning with those in higher office, and so were persecuted by men who would not be healed of their disease – pray that all will be taught the true doctrine of the faith, from early childhood to adult vocation; may all know to what they are called as Christians in this world. And may...

O shepherd of a faithful people, you shed your blood with your brothers as a holy offering unto the Lord after drawing many souls into His fold; beheaded for your success as Christ's evangelist, still you lead faithful souls to God – pray we shall be so ready to lay down our own lives for the propagation of the Word of God, and that on our journey we shall be protected from all the snares of the d...

(Mal.3:13-20; Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5; Lk.11:5-13) "For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays." Both our psalm and first reading make clear the distinction between the blessed and the condemned: "The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes," our psalmist declares. The wicked are "like chaff which the wind drives away," while the j...

(Jon.4:1-11; Ps.86:3-6,9-10,15; Lk.11:1-4) "Your kingdom come." "You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish." How beautifully Jonah speaks of God's blessed compassion on His people. And how poorly he is able to accept and live that grace. The Lord's forgiveness extends now to the ends of the earth; let us not be loathe to offer it unto all. In our first...

O Mother of prayer and of this prayer in which we meditate on the life of our Lord and Savior through your blessed intercession, it is through you we gain victory in Christ; His life, death, and resurrection become fruitful in you, and united with you, and so with Jesus, we repel our enemies. O dear Lady, our saving Lord comes not to us except through you: He is born in you, He dies with you at Hi...

(Jon.3:1-10; Ps.130:1-4,7-8; Lk.10:38-42) "He repented of the evil that He had threatened to do them; He did not carry it out." Ninevah is spared. Because "they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth," because they repented of their sin and called "loudly to God," He did not punish them for their iniquity but forgave them and withheld "His blazing wrath." And so this...

O crown of contemplation whom none excels in solitude, in knowing the presence of the Lord alone in a cell, apart from the world – a simple chapel pray we find in the chambers of our heart that we might chant His praises all the time in the quiet, in His sight. Let us ever work to discover His breathing in our souls, that one with Him and with our brothers ever we might remain. Obedience is all we...

(Jon.1:1-2:1,11; Jon.2:2-5,7-8; Lk.10:25-37) "A Samaritan who was journeying along came on him and was moved to pity at the sight." First let me note that the book of Jonah is not a parable, not an imaginary story, as popular scholarship would have us believe. How do I know this? I have faith, yes, which those who would explain away any miracle of God so sorely lack; but I know it, too, by Scriptu...

O apostle of mercy, the mercy of Christ poured freely upon all souls for the salvation of the whole world, especially the worst of sinners… you suffered with our divine Lord that souls might indeed be saved; with His Passion you were intimate, blessed with fellowship with Jesus and His Mother and vision of their presence – pray a measure of your penitential devotion, a drop of our Savior's holy bl...

(Hb.1:2-3,2:2-4; Ps.95:1-2,6-9; 2Tm.1:6-8,13-14; Lk.17:5-10) "The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint." And we are servants of this Gospel. And so, with faith and in patience we must accomplish "what we [are] obliged to do." We must serve the Word of God. Never hardening our hearts against the voice we hear, rather, we should "stir into flame the gift of G...

O image of Christ, simple, humble, and pure, indeed you bore the marks of Jesus in your own body and in your own soul; wed to lady poverty, you embraced loving chastity and boasted of nothing but the Lord alone – pray, dear brother, for all children of God, for all your wayward brothers distracted by the wealth of this world, that we may be so blessed by the Spirit to serve the Lord and our neighb...