The BreadCast

O chosen one of the Lord, how well you answered His call, giving yourself entirely to the angel's word and so conceiving in your womb the salvation of the world – pray, O Spouse of the Holy Spirit, that His voice might inspire in us your same commitment to the Word of God and its working in our lives; pray the Son be conceived in us as well that we too might serve to bring His salvation forth into the light of this day. How shall we give ourselves completely to the Lord without your prayers, dear Mother, without your blessed intercession…? O pray we shall follow in your wake and add our 'yes' to your own, that the Lord may indeed work in us, that He might make His home in us and we come to our home in Heaven.

(Is.7:10-14,8:10; Ps.40:7-11; Heb.10:4-10; Lk.1:26-38) "Behold, I come to do your will." Today we celebrate the fact that the Word became flesh, that God became man through Mary and dwells among us to take away our sins. In this is fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The Lord Himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name Him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us!'" She is the Virgin; He is the Son – we are they with whom He dwells. Praise God for His grace! Obediently Jesus takes on the body prepared for Him by the Father for all ages; humbly He bows under the Hand of God. To come among us is His delight. For He shall fulfill the prescriptions of the old law – as is written, so shall it come to be. And in His blood poured out for our sakes, in the love He shares with us men, indeed shall be fulfilled the will of God. No longer need we wait or search in vain, for all that is written is accomplished in Him. And Mary is, of course, the perfect reflection of the Lord's obedience; it is she in whom He is formed. As He says, "Behold, I come," she says, "Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord." As the Lord says, "In the written scroll it is prescribed for me. To do your will, O God, is my delight," His Lady says, "May it be done to me according to your word." And so by the obedience won from her by the angel, this Blessed Virgin "will conceive in [her] womb and bear a son, and [she] shall name Him Jesus"; and "the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." She in her innocence and by the fullness of grace at work in her believes the reply to her question, "How can this be?" She is assured by the miracle spoken of Elizabeth – for which this holy woman must certainly have prayed – and so the words of the angel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you," are realized; and she who believes becomes the instrument of our salvation. Brothers and sisters, "we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all." His coming among us is more than the greatest miracle; it means life for our very souls. For by His incarnation and by the sacrifice of His flesh for our sakes is effected the cleansing of our sins and the drawing up of our lives unto heaven where He eternally dwells. As He has dwelt with us, so may we now dwell with Him who has come for this purpose. Let no fear grip your heart. Consecrate yourself to Him and to His holy sacrifice. And give yourself to His Mother, that she may form you in His image, and you may know the blessed obedience which both hold, and which is itself the means of our salvation. Written, read & chanted by James Kurt; produced by Roger Fortney. Music by Roger Fortney; used by permission. ******* O LORD, make us all as your handmaid, ready to do your will. YHWH, make us as selfless as Mary, as selfless as your Son, offering our bodies to your service, caring only for the salvation of others' souls. Freely let us give ourselves to your will, that your Son may work through us. A Virgin conceives and bears a Son, LORD, and so your Word is fulfilled; your Word now walks among us. This Virgin you prepared from all eternity to accomplish your will of saving souls. Your own heart you placed within her, one of selfless sacrifice, and now as the angel comes to her, she is ready to accept your Word. Upon hearing of her cousin Elizabeth, she is convinced that the angel is from your side, LORD; hearing answer to her sincerest of prayers, she knows you are in this Word. Did she not perhaps offer her virginity for her cousin's fertility? Certainly her purity is blessed with the greatest fruitfulness, even as she who was thought barren prepares to give birth to a son. Make us so fruitful, dear God. Let us too lay down our lives, as has your Son, as has His Mother, that we might be of your generation, we pray.

(Nm.21:4-9; Ps.102:2-3,16-21; Jn.8:21-30) "From heaven He beheld the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die." As the Lord has said to the Pharisees: "You belong to what is below; I belong to what is above." And truly, how could we come to where He is unless He reached down to lead us there? The Israelites show just how much they are of this world below when they reject the food of the heavens in utter bitterness: "We are disgusted with this wretched food!" they say of the manna the Lord has provided. And punishment comes to them in the form of a serpent for their cursing the hand of God. And the Pharisees are the same. They have the living bread from heaven standing before them, teaching them, yet they cannot grasp what He says and with mockery ask, "Who are you, then?" when He tells them, "I AM." And so they too "will surely die in their sins" for their rejection of the great I AM. But yet there is hope. For the Israelites, Moses "make[s] a serpent and mount[s] it on a pole," and those who gaze upon it are healed from the serpent's deadly bite. And, of course, Jesus Himself will mount the wood of the cross and be fixed there – and the Pharisees and we who gaze upon our sins (which, as with the serpents, have caused this punishment), we who see what we have done and repent thereof, shall be healed, restored, forgiven. "When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize that I AM," says the Lord. And now we look up at Him who has died for us and pray He will take us where He has gone, that our cry will come to Him, that He will regard "the prayer of the destitute" and lift us up to heaven with Him as we share in His cross. ******* O LORD, you have answered our prayers; let us be released from death by looking upon your crucified Son. YHWH, we are doomed to die; apart from you there is no life, and we have separated ourselves from you by our sin, by our complaining against your goodness toward us. How can one come to your presence on high if he desires but the world below, where is but dust and death? May we hear the call of your Son, who by His Cross would lead us to your kingdom. Jesus will die. On the Cross He will be lifted up, crucified by sinful hearts. But His death means only life for us, for He is Life itself, O LORD, He is one with you; and that life is more powerful than the imposter death, which fades to nothing before His glory. Your Son cannot but be raised on high, dear LORD, for He is one with you and dwells ever in surpassing light, to which He would draw all souls. May we indeed recognize He is the great I AM and come to life with Him, separated far from our sin and the poison it brings. Hear our prayer and save us.

O missionary shepherd whose love for the truth was a love for Christ and a desire for your flock to know Him and the way to glorify God, you who gave yourself for the Truth that is Christ and for His Church on earth, through whom He teaches all men and brings them into His fold – may we, too, lay down our lives and work as hard as you have done in the name of Jesus, that all our lives and the lives of all His flock might be in accord with the will of the Lord and faithful to the Mother He has left for our care; let all that is not of God be cast from our midst by the Spirit of Truth this day.

(Dn.13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; Ps.23:1-6; Jn.8:1-11) "Let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her." "Then the audience drifted away one by one, beginning with the elders." And no one was left to accuse her. In both our gospel and our first reading a woman is accused of adultery, one justly, the other unjustly. Yet both are freed. For under the old law the innocent were to be set free, but under the new, even the guilty. In the blood of Christ sinners are saved from the fate they deserve; the Lord does not condemn us, and only He has power to do so – for it is always against Him that we sin. It is curious to note that in both reading and gospel the accused woman is brought before the man against whom she is principally accused of sinning. In the case of Susanna, it is her husband Joakim to whom the people come with their difficult questions, "because he was the most respected of them all"; and the woman in the gospel is brought before Jesus, the Lord and the bridegroom of us all. It is only wed to Him that we find salvation, and He does not disappoint the repentant adulteress today. Nor shall He condemn any of us who stand before Him weeping for our sins against His pure love. There is a "dark valley" through which we all must walk. One day we shall all stand before the Judge. Some will be persecuted only for righteousness' sake, accused of that which they have not committed; others will stand in the full light of their sin. But all before Christ might find forgiveness, if they but realize their faults and who it is stands before them. For the love of God is unimaginable; it is not something we humans can put our fingers upon. The love of God and the grace and mercy He holds forth will never be deserved by our race. Yet they are there. Yet are we washed clean. Yet the Truth will set us free. Let no man condemn another; "the angel of God waits" "to receive the sentence from Him" – none of us is able to move His hand. And so, always we must forgive to find His grace alive in our souls. ******* O LORD, open the gate that we might enter in and dwell in your presence. YHWH, let all hear and heed the voice of your Son, who is the true Shepherd leading repentant souls to salvation. Send your apostles into every house that all might hear the call of Jesus, be purged in the fire of the Holy Spirit, and come to dwell in your House, beholding your holy face. Let us be led forth by the Christ to your mountain, O God. Make us one flock in Him, all as your blessed children. O let us be as sheep slaughtered for your table, joining your Son on the altar of sacrifice; by His voice let us be cut to the heart and in our repentance become a holy offering to you. False prophets keep far from us, dear LORD, those who work but for pay, who care nothing for your flock. In the Spirit send forth disciples to lead to running water those who thirst for you, O living God.

(Ez.37:12-14; Ps.130:1-8; Rom.8:8-11; Jn.11:1-45) "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." "You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!" says the Lord God through the prophet Ezekial. "The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through His Spirit dwelling in you," says St. Paul. And our psalm sings of the Lord's "plenteous redemption," that "He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities"; and so, "more than sentinels wait for the dawn, let [us] wait for the Lord," who dispels all darkness, all death, by His Word, by His presence among us. Let us but believe in Him, and we shall live. The dawn comes to Bethany, to Martha and Mary, and to Lazarus. It comes to us all in this powerful sign of the Lord's conquering of all darkness and death, "that [we] may believe." Wrapped in burial cloth is Lazarus, laying in the sealed tomb four days. The tears of a people are shed for the loved one who has died, and Jesus joins their weeping. Deeply human is the Lord, and so, "perturbed and deeply troubled" He becomes at the sorrow we all know when death is near. He longs ever to cry out to us not to mourn, but believe, and now we hear His voice call upon the Father's name; and now as He "crie[s] out in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'" we see that what He says is true: He is the resurrection and the life. And so, believing in Him, no longer does the Christian fear death. Death is of the flesh, but we are "in the spirit." "The body is dead because of sin," but "the spirit is alive because of righteousness." And so, as we rise from the graves opened by the powerful word of the Lord, as we rise from our iniquities unto eternal life, we know His Spirit at work within us, the Spirit of Christ that is only life. In Him let us take refuge; in Him let us believe. He is here with us to keep us from death, to release us from all darkness – to free us all from sin. Let us remain with Him and so have eternal life. Written, read & chanted by James Kurt; produced by James Kurt. Music: "Be Well" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, let us live in your Son and so in you that we might do your works in this world and praise you forever in Heaven. YHWH, let us be built into and grow as the Body of your Son. Make us a royal priesthood, a holy nation – your Church. Into your House let us come and dwell, eternally praising your Name. Jesus is in you and you are in Jesus, and those who believe in Him and so in you become one with Him, and so with you, dearest LORD and God. O Father in Heaven, to Heaven let us come, to oneness with you. Let us do your works on earth and so find our way to your kingdom. Why should we be troubled when we have the promise from Jesus that He prepares a place for us? Why should we fear when He is near in the power of the Holy Spirit? Let us follow closely the way He leads, that indeed we might exult in your presence forever.

(Jer.11:18-20; Ps.7:2-3,9-12; Jn.7:40-53) "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more." With these words "they were hatching plots against" Jeremiah, and in the same way against Jesus. And so, "like a trusting Lamb led to slaughter," "like the lion's prey, to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue" are they. But "the malice of the wicked [shall] come to an end." "The upright of heart" are ever persecuted. Even Nicodemus, "one of their own number," a member of the Pharisees who are seeking the life of the Lord, was "taunted" when he "spoke up to say, 'Since when does our law condemn any man without first hearing him and knowing the facts.'" But the Lord "sustain[s] the just" "because of the innocence that is" theirs. In Him do they "take refuge," and He will not leave them a prey to their teeth. Even the temple guards recognize the power of the word that comes from Christ. "No man ever spoke like that before," they state as the reason that "no one laid hands on Him." "He is the Messiah," it is sure, and only the hardest of heart are able to blind themselves to the authority that issues forth from His lips. But the Lord is the "searcher of mind and heart," of "heart and soul"; He is the just Judge, the just God, and so even as He rescues the innocent from trial, so He "punishes day by day" the evil man. Their plots shall come to naught; in vain do they pursue Him. For though He shall allow them "to apprehend Him," yet He will be eternally free from their clutches. Indeed, He will be fixed to a cross. Indeed, like an innocent lamb He shall not open His mouth to protest or to call upon the angels for assistance. And they shall think that He is theirs. But rise from the dead He will, and His Name will be spoken to the ends of the earth. For nothing can destroy the power of the Word of God. ******* O LORD, though the innocent man be condemned, you are there to save him. YHWH, you save us from every snare of the devil, every plot of the wicked; you do not leave us prey to the lion's teeth. Though we be ringed about by our accusers, though with your Son we be crucified, yet we shall not be destroyed – with Him we shall be raised on high. For you, O LORD, are a just Judge; you look into the hearts of all. You know who is set upon the doing of your will and who would oppose you and your blessed One. Let us never be a curse unto you. Though we be condemned by men, in your sight let us ever be holy. No man ever spoke like your Son, dear LORD, for no man else is the Word Himself. He comes from your very heart, and becomes our daily Bread. In your House with Him let us make our home, though it mean persecution and certain death. For in Him we shall be protected always, and brought quickly to your side.

O righteous man called by God to be foster-father of His only Son and protector of His Mother, you who were obedient to the Spirit, who took Jesus by the hand and led Him from the temple in Jerusalem to the home in Nazareth where Mary made a place for Him – pray that we shall be built into the house of Abraham, the man of faith, into the house of David, your father, into the House the Holy Spirit builds for the faithful even this day, where our Mother waits for us with you and all the saints; pray that we too shall hear the words spoken over you by the Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Master." Pray we shall be righteous as you.

(2Sm.7:4-5,12-14a,16; Ps.89:2-5,27,29,37; Rom.4:13,16-18,22; Mt.1:16,18-21,24a or Lk.2:41-51a) "I will be a father to him, and he shall be my son." It is through Joseph that Jesus is a son of David and so fulfills the promise to the king made by God: "Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever," for He is the heir "raise[d] up" after David "who shall build a house for [His] name." "In heaven [the Lord has] confirmed [His] faithfulness," and on earth He has made it known. And so Jesus says of God, "You are my Father, my God, the Rock, my Savior!" and we of faith join His refrain. As with Abraham, Joseph is made foster father of Jesus not merely by physical descent from David but "through the righteousness that comes from faith." For as Abraham believed and so became "the father of many nations," so Joseph believed that it was "through the Holy Spirit that [Jesus] ha[d] been conceived" and "did as the angel commanded him and took Mary into his home," thus becoming a father to Him who would "save His people from their sins." Like Abraham "he believed, hoping against hope," and like Abraham he is blessed. But, of course, Jesus is more than the Son of Joseph; in fact, this is the great sacrifice Joseph makes. For truly he cares for Him who is more Son to the Father in heaven and Son of Man, born for all the human race. Evident this is when He is found by Joseph and Mary in the temple after three days and He asks them (a question much like those He might have been putting to the teachers of the faith): "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" and in the curious fact that His parents waited a day before journeying back to Jerusalem to look for Him, for they were "thinking that He was in the caravan" – so much a part of His people had He become. Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man, yet "obedient to them" – Joseph and Mary – He ever was. And they were ever obedient to the dictates of the Father, that they should care for His only Son. And so Joseph, husband of Mary, a simple carpenter, fulfills in simple fashion all the Lord had set out for him. May we, too, by faith fulfill all the care we must take for Jesus, His mother, and His people. Written, read & chanted by James Kurt; produced by Roger Fortney. Music composed and performed by Carie Fortney; used by permission. ******* O LORD, let us dwell in your House forever. YHWH, your Son is known as the Son of David, the Son of Joseph the carpenter. And truly He is the fulfillment of your promise to the king that his son shall ever sit upon the throne. But He is conceived by the Holy Spirit: He is the Son of God. Give us the faith of Joseph that we might believe this and take Him into our home. In our houses He would dwell, in our very souls. Thus would He make them your House, dear Father, as is the soul of His Mother, and the soul of the righteous man we celebrate today. Your Church let us be, dear God; in faith let us ever remain. Your kindness to us is indeed great, O LORD; your very life you would share with us this day. In your kingdom let us make our home – your sons and daughters let us be. Jesus sits upon the throne now, for He is the Christ. And so, your Covenant stands firm forever: all who believe in Him will be blessed. O LORD, make us righteous in your sight, even as the humble Joseph. In our lives let your will be done… In your Son let us make our home.

O steadfast teacher of the faith whom exile could not keep from proclaiming the truths of Scripture and the Church, whose pastoral zeal called souls to the blessed chamber of our divine Lord Jesus Christ that we might unite with Him who united Himself with us to draw us unto Heaven – pray that the shepherds of the Church shall be just so diligent and faithful as you have consistently been in imparting the Word of God to waiting ears and hearts, that all might be nourished well and so prepared to meet our King and Bridegroom, grace upon grace overflowing in souls led by the Spirit of Truth.