Beads of Joy Blog II (2025 - 2026)

🌿 Saturday, March 21, 2026 Never Has Anyone Spoken Like This Man Photo created by James Dacey, Jr using Co-Pilot. Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 7:2-3, 9-10, 11-12 Gospel: John 7:40-53 📖 The Gospel - John 7:40-53 The crowd is divided over Jesus. Some say He is the Prophet. Some say He is the Messiah. Some want to arrest Him. The guards who were sent to arrest Him came back empty-handed. The chief priests demand, why did you not bring Him? And the guards say simply, never has anyone spoken like this man. 🙏 Gospel Reflection Never has anyone spoken like this man. That is one of the most extraordinary testimonies in all of the Gospels, and it comes not from a disciple, not from a believer, but from the guards who were sent to arrest Him. When they heard Him speak, they just couldn't do it. They came back empty-handed and reported that the...

🌿 Friday, March 20, 2026 They Plotted Against Jesus But His Hour Had Not Yet Come Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Day of Abstinence • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:17-18, 19-20, 21, 23 Gospel: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 📖 The Gospel - John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Jesus travels through Judea as the authorities are seeking to kill Him. He goes up to Jerusalem for the feast and begins to teach. The crowd wonders, is this the one they want to kill? And yet here He is, speaking openly. And Jesus says, " You know me, and you know where I come from. But the one who sent me is true. And no one arrested Him because His hour had not yet come. 🙏 Gospel Reflection His hour had not yet come. That phrase appears again and again in John's Gospel like a slow drumbeat getting closer, His hour, His hour, not yet His hour. And when it final...

🌿 Thursday, March 19, 2026 Solemnity of Saint Joseph Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Solemnity of St. Joseph • Year A • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29 Second Reading: Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 Gospel: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a 📖 The Gospel - Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a Joseph discovers that Mary is with child. He is a just man and does not want to expose her. He plans to divorce her quietly. And then an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph woke up and did what the angel commanded him. 🙏 Gospel Reflection He woke up and did what the angel commanded him. That is the entire biography of St. Joseph in one sentence. And it is enough. It is more than enough. It is one of the most powerful statements of fai...

🌿 Wednesday, March 18, 2026 The Authority of Jesus the Son Photo created by James Dacey, Jr using Co-Pilot. Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 49:8-15 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18 Gospel: John 5:17-30 📖 The Gospel - John 5:17-30 Jesus responds to criticism about healing on the Sabbath with a very profound statement. My Father is at work until now, and I am at work. And then He opens a window into the relationship between the Father and the Son that takes your breath away. The Son can do nothing on His own. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Because the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything. 🙏 Gospel Reflection My Father is at work until now, and I am at work. That single sentence got Jesus in serious trouble with the religious authorities, because they understood immediately that He was claiming a relations...

🌿 Tuesday, March 17, 2026 Happy St. Patrick's Day! Photo created by James Dacey, Jr. using Co-Pilot. Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Feast of St. Patrick • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 Gospel: John 5:1-16 📖 The Gospel - John 5:1-16 Jesus comes to the pool of Bethesda, where a man has been lying ill for thirty-eight years. He asks him the question that cuts right to the heart, do you want to be well? The man gives excuses about why healing hasn't happened. Jesus says, " Rise, take up your mat, and walk." And the man is immediately healed. 🙏 Gospel Reflection Today is the feast day of St. Patrick, the man who was enslaved, escaped, heard God calling him back to his captors, and returned to Ireland to set a nation free with the Gospel! There is something wonderfully fitting about celebrating Patrick on a day when Ezekiel gives us the vis...

🌿 Monday, March 16, 2026 A Man Searching For Jesus Jesus says, Go, Your Son Will Live Photo created by James Dacey, Jr using Co-Pilot. Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II ✝️ Today's Mass Readings First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-21 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-13 Gospel: John 4:43-54 📖 The Gospel - John 4:43-54 A royal official comes to Jesus in desperation; his son is dying. He has traveled a day's journey just to find Him. Jesus tests him first, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And the man simply says, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus says, go, your son will live. And the man believed the word Jesus spoke to him and went. 🙏 Gospel Reflection Isaiah opens today with one of the most breathtaking promises in all of Scripture, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. G...