1st Week after Holy Cross

TUESDAY
Revelation 1:9-20
I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus. I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet, which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest. The hair of his head was as white as white wool or as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. His feet were like polished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing water. In his right hand he held seven stars. A sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth, and his face shone like the sun at its brightest. When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld. Write down, therefore, what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards. This is the secret meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Mark 9:33-37
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”

In Revelations, we learn that Churches have angels in a similar way to how people have guardian angels. Angels are good and pure and holy. Jesus speaks of the purity and innocence of children. However, it is wrong to say that because someine is good or pure he or she is an angel. Angels are a unique entirely spiritual part of creation, and we await bodily resurrection.

Holy are you, O God, in your compassion you have given life to our corrupt nature.
Holy are you, O Strong One, in your love you have purified us from our sins, in your mercy you have washed them away.

Holy are you, O Immortal One, you have given us life and
purified us from our iniquity.
Glory to you because of your love for our human race. In your kindness sinners have obtained the forgiveness of their sins.
Unceasingly they adore you and call upon your name.
Lord, grant pardon to all the sinners who beg you, in your
goodness, to pardon their faults. Make us worthy to stand at your right hand and glorify your grace forever.