Sunday Mass Reading 2   from the Epistle of St. James 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.

My Musings at Mass during this reading of Scripture

I was thinking of Apple and iTunes never paying me for my musical cd, yet they profit off of me, and my music more than I do. I get ONE PENNY for ONE Download of my songs. Since I am not a performer…I’m too old to go down that road…I do not get paid my fair share, for my music.

As this went through my mind, I also recalled co-managing two large cattle ranches, in my prime of life. One was on an 800 Acre Cattle Ranch for one year, and One was on a 400 Cattle Ranch for five years of work. We got “free rent” in exchange for work around the clock 365 days a year. That’s it. Yet, our landlord paid the next folks who lived there, a living wage in addition to free rent. Sort of leaves a feeling of having been de-estimated, for the very hard, back-breaking work you did. I am glad I was very young, or I could not have done it. I can thank GOD for the good memories and the challenging memories. Actually, both jobs were a joy to do. It’s only now that I’m old and my bones are on a decline, that I think or rather am tempted to be bitter. I suppose that is from the devil a pity party that I better not relish in and instead ask Our Lady of Fatima to take it to GOD in my prayers. Thanking Him for the Joy of the Cross rather than bemoaning the weight of my cross. Only in GOD can any of us do this sort of thanksgiving.

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Uniting our crosses, with Christ’s Precious Body/Blood, Soul/Divinity during Sunday Mass is what we must do.

For as that Vatican II Document, Lumen Gentium said, “Mass is Prayer Par Excellence!”

“My Jesus, Pardon and Mercy, through the merits of Thy Sacred Wounds!”