The BreadCast

O proclaimer of the Word of God, we know of our Lord who suffered and died that we might rise with Him on the third day because the Spirit inspired you to tell us of this Good News. Faithful you were to the Lord and to His blessed apostles, and so became an apostle yourself, carrying the Gospel to men of every nation – pray that the Word which you have served to impart to us may be remembered and cherished in the hearts of all believers, and that we, too, shall work, inspired by the Spirit, to build up the Body of Christ, making it ready for His return to dwell with us forever.

O charitable and zealous soul who gave your life that others might know the true and abiding Catholic faith, you who cared for the sick and the dying, those who were ailing in body and diseased in spirit – how shall we learn to sacrifice all as you have done, to stand in the face of opposition and speak the truth though those we would help would devour us instead of listening to the words come from the Savior’s mouth? Penance and prayer are so far from us this day, and who really cares to show others Christ’s way? Pray this ship shall be strengthened by holy souls eager for the salvation of all and confirmed in the truth and love of the Spirit.

O persecuted shepherd whose flock repeatedly drove you from their midst but who accomplished great work of conversion among them… to these indignant souls you repeatedly returned, ever spreading Christ’s net further – pray for us, apostle to nations, that in God’s Church today His Word may go boldly forth to convert hearts so hardened by sin, that the acquired ignorance of peoples returning to paganism will be thoroughly dispelled by truth. Forth let all souls journey, humbly proclaiming the Gospel till all have heard and understood the glory to which they are called by our Savior.

O courageous soldier in the army of our Lord, you gave up the ranks of this passing world for the kingdom wrought by Jesus Christ, dying willingly for such a just cause and showing us the path we must tread to be found worthy to stand with our God – pray that we may be strengthened in the battle of earthly life, that our weak limbs may not be disjointed, that we might not tremble in fear at the threats of the mighty but take our refuge in the Almighty and fight for Him who fights for us until we are wrapped in His arms, until we cling to His breast.

(Acts 4:8-12; Ps.118:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29; 1Jn.3:1-2; Jn.10:11-18) "There is no salvation through anyone else." Do not "trust in princes" or in any man; it is by Jesus alone "we are to be saved." Though "the builders rejected" Him, though the princes of this age saw fit to crucify the Lord – yet "God raised [Him] from the dead" and exalted Him above every power on earth and in heaven. And so He is indeed now the foundation of our salvation, the only shepherd who will lead us to the Father… the one who "lays down His life for the sheep." Many wolves there are who fat themselves, scattering the sheep to desolate places. Their care is for the "pay" they receive and not the welfare of the flock they fail to tend. Only Jesus cares for the human race; only the Christ serves His sheep in love – only He dies that we might live, that we might indeed become members of His flock. And so, "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"; "what love the Father has bestowed on us" in Jesus, His only Son, for now we can be like Him – now we are God's holy children. Taking "refuge in the Lord" by His Son, we come at once to our salvation. Oh what glory is ours following in our Savior's wake! Listen to what our Good Shepherd states: "I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." Realize to what union with the Father of all you are called by the Child He has borne to us for our redemption. Oh how "wonderful in our eyes" this should be! And consider if you will that one day we His children "shall see Him as He is." How shall our souls bear such blessing? Brothers and sisters, like the cripple seemingly doomed to a life of incapacity are we all. But what Peter has effected by a word in Jesus' name is now ours by that same name and through the ministry of His apostles. How? you say. How shall I discover such salvation? How shall this lame man leap like a stag? Faith. Faith in the Son draws the Father's mercy from above. And if I must tell you further, I shall, you wayward soul. Confess your sins! Kneel before the priest the Lord has ordained as His instrument of salvation and bare your heart to God on high. What graces are yours if only you have faith in the Lord and the Church He alone has founded. Turn from the wolves that besiege you, and come to Him who "is good." Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Souls at a Carnival" from All One, sixth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, your Son has died that we might be saved; let us listen to His voice and follow Him. YHWH, your Son lays down His life for us that we might be as He is, that we might be your children. In His Name all are healed from their sins, raised from the dust to be seated with Him. Help us to take refuge in Him and so in you; let us trust in this stone the builders have rejected. Jesus dies for us; for the sake of your sheep He is crucified, O LORD. Yet He takes up His life again, and thus we are raised with Him. He does not run from the sacrifice you call Him to make, but knowing well it is the only way we shall be saved, fully embraces your command. O let us be as He is! willing to lay down our lives. Then truly we shall be your children. There is no other name by which we are to be saved; there is no other way. In the Cross let us find our life this day, dear God. May your Son shepherd us to your kingdom.

(Acts 3:13-15,17-19; Ps.4:2,4,7-9; 1Jn.2:1-5a; Lk.24:35-48) "He is expiation for our sins." Brothers and sisters, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one." For us this Savior has come; for our sins He has died on the cross. Even as it is written of Him in Scripture, so all has been accomplished in His Name. And so we need fear no more. We need not be "startled and terrified" at the sight of Him in our midst. He has come to us and has taken His place among us, even as He sits at the right hand of God. And His place among us is the cross, even as God announced – "that His Christ would suffer" – and by His sacrifice He has been greatly blessed, and we greatly blessed with Him. Now His blood, once shed by our own hands, pours upon us for "the forgiveness of [our] sins." David once cried, "When I call, answer me, O my just God, you who relieve me when I am in distress," and so in Christ his prayer is answered; for in this Jesus, our greatest distress – that inflicted by our transgressions – has been washed clean from our murderous souls. He lives. He lives now, brothers and sisters, to make intercession for our sins "and for those of the whole world." Let us all come to Him in truth and find "the light of [His] countenance shin[ing] upon us!" The light the Lord is, the salvation He affords to each of our souls, must "be preached in His name to all the nations"; all must come to know the blessing embodied in the risen Christ: all must see Him, that in His redemptive wounds all might take refuge. It is the will of God that all sins "be wiped away," that all hearts be converted to truth and light, that all might live before Him in eternal peace. Do not delay your repentance in His sight; freely forgiveness pours from His side. For this alone He has died, but to receive His mercy you must reform your lives. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Wish I'd Never Done It" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, may the blood of your Son cleanse us of sin, and may our own death glorify you. YHWH, Jesus was killed by being hung on a tree, but you preserved Him from among those going down into the pit, you brought Him up from the netherworld, and with Him all those obedient to His Word. Now in glory He sits with you upon the throne, and the angels and all creatures in Heaven and on earth and under the earth praise His holy Name. And, yes, those who follow Him here unto death shall come to such glory with Him in Heaven. To the Lamb who was slain belong all honor and glory and blessing; and to His disciples, to those who lay down their lives that His sheep might be fed, comes the blessing that rests upon Him. O LORD, make us fruitful in your sight! May we help turn the mourning of mankind into dancing and singing before your throne. Forever let us give you thanks for having been found worthy to suffer dishonor here for the sake of your Name.

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.

(Acts 4:32-35; Ps.118:1-4,16-18,22-24; 1Jn.5:1-6; Jn.20:19-31) "His mercy endures forever." Our psalmist "was hard pressed and was falling, but the Lord helped" him. The disciples were locked in their rooms for fear, but "Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" Thomas was hardened in unbelief, but His God appeared to him and said, "Bring your hand and put it into my side." We are all sinners, but to us each, Christ offers mercy. From that side into which Thomas placed his hand "blood and water" poured forth for the cleansing of souls and the realization of new life. The institution of Baptism and the Eucharist had come, and so the Church is born from the side of its Savior. And so all souls are justified; and so all souls find new life. And so all of the "community of believers" become "of one heart and mind." This is Divine Mercy Sunday, so proclaimed by the Spirit who testifies through Holy Church, and that to which the Spirit testifies is truth. God's encompassing mercy our Mother and our Lord would have us celebrate this day – of that which Jesus thirsts to share with us, she and He would have us drink. Let none be unbelieving. Let none despair. Let all be blessed to own that faith which "conquers the world," that makes us "children of God." The Lord is ready to forgive men's sins; He is desirous of this above all things. He has given power to His disciples to forgive in His name… Let all come and share in His mercy. Let us love God and one another, my brothers and sisters. Let us love the Father by accepting the grace that comes from His Son, and let us love one another by sharing that grace and mercy with everyone. We keep His Word when we share in His mercy, when we swim in the ocean of love the water and blood from His side create. And new life will be our own as it was for the first disciples; there is nothing lacking for "those who have not seen but believed." In fact, more blessed may we be now, for we must have the greater faith. Forever the Lord's mercy endures. Every day it is poured forth. And today we declare in truth its great graces, that all might be one in the Lord. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Cleansing" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, your risen Son stands before us and calls us to touch His hands and enter into the wounds in His side that we might believe in Him and be cleansed of sin. YHWH, Jesus is the Christ, your only Son: let us believe in the preaching of the apostles and become one in His Name. May all have their sins forgiven, their doubt washed away in His blood, that all might declare with Thomas, "My LORD and my God!" Jesus is God as you are God, O LORD, and we desire to be one with you by the grace and mercy that come to us through His death and resurrection. If we had but faith in Him, we would conquer the world; all sin falls by the wayside when His Spirit is upon us, and we can but shout in victory at the glory in our midst. O may His peace indeed be with us, the peace which passes not away, the peace that comes to us in the Breath of the Holy Spirit. O LORD, let His nail marks be in our hands and His wound in our side that your love we might know to the depths of our souls.

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.

(Jer.31:31-34; Ps.51:3-4,12-15; Heb.5:7-9; Jn.12:20-33) "Father, glorify your name." Jesus cries out in supplication to Him who is "able to save Him from death," but He prays not to be saved from death, not to be saved from the sacrifice He must make, but only that in His death the Father might glorify His name. His "hour has come," He knows. He hears from His apostles of the Greeks who seek Him, and He knows it is now time for Him to return to the Father and for His apostles to take over the work He has begun – to carry His salvation to the nations. And though He is "troubled," knowing "the kind of death He would die," knowing that it is the only path to the Father, yet He does not ask to be saved "from this hour." His only desire is to fulfill the Father's will by being "lifted up from the earth" in crucifixion and resurrection that He might "draw everyone to [Him]self" and to the glory in the Father He knows. And of course "He was heard because of His reverence." Because His cry is sincere, is a laying down of His life in perfect humility and perfect love, the Father readily answers His prayer. Even in "a voice c[o]me from heaven" He responds, speaking not for the sake of His Son – who needs no such assurance, who is dead to Himself and serves the Father perfectly – but for those whom the Son would save by His "fall[ing] to the ground" in death. For them, for us, the Father answers, for this is the Son's wish. And if we are holy as He, we "all, from least to greatest, shall know" the Lord our God just as He knows Him – we shall have our prayers answered as readily as the cries of supplication of our Savior. And so we shall be saved; and so we shall be preserved from death… and so we, too, shall glorify the Father's name. As the Lord listens to David when he cries out in his penitent psalm, so shall God come and make our hearts clean: so shall He come and write His name upon them as we cry out to Him. And we shall be blessed as Jesus, and we shall stand just as steadfast. Renewed in spirit, our offenses wiped out, we shall stand in the Son's stead upon the cross and in the kingdom. "Your Holy Spirit take not from me," O Lord, for it is the proof of your presence within me; it is the seal of your Son and His blood upon my soul. By your Spirit I know I shall be protected from death; by His touch I am led to my salvation. Father in heaven, glorify thy name in me as in thy Son. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "The Sunset Bleeds Me Clean" (1st half) from Bearing the Birth Pangs, tenth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, may we be made perfect as your Son as we join Him in His sacrifice. YHWH, the Cross of your Son is the source of our eternal salvation. In His blood is written the New Covenant you promised your people. For by His sacrifice our sins are removed and our hearts made new, that your Name might be written upon them. Our sins are forgotten by you that we might remember your glory forever. And we are called to lay down our lives with Him: where He is, so shall His disciples be. And so, upon a cross we must find ourselves, a grain of wheat fallen to the ground. If we hold to our lives in this world, what shall we do but die, LORD? But if we hate the world and even our own lives, we shall find eternal life in you through your Son. Jesus is our Savior. In Him your Name is glorified, O LORD. May your Name be glorified in us as well, as in His blood we are cleansed of our sin and joined to Him in your kingdom.