Daily Thought

  A Great Question! Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? Corrie Ten Boom

  Beautiful Prayer of Consecration To Mary For Priests Immaculate Mother, in this place of grace, called together by the love of your Son Jesus the Eternal High Priest, we, sons in the Son and his priests, consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart, in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will. We are mindful that, without Jesus, we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5) and that only through him, with him and in him, will we be instruments of salvation for the world. Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the inestimable gift of transformation in Christ. Through the same power of the Spirit that overshadowed you, making you the Mother of the Saviour, help us to bring Christ your Son to birth in ourselves too. May the Church  be thus renewed by priests who are holy, priests transfigured by the grace of him who makes all things new. Mother of Mercy, it was your Son Jesus who called us to become like him:  light of the world and salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14). Help us, through you

  The Universal Call To Holiness ⏤ Being Perfected in Love of God and Love of Neighbor The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one—that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity. Catholic Church. (2011). Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium #41. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

  Avoiding the Snare of the Pharisees Lectio Matthew 23:27–32 Meditatio “… on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.” Jesus sounds harsh in his rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees in this Gospel. It might sound as if he is rebuking some terrible sinners. But the people of Jesus’ day did not consider the scribes and Pharisees as sinners, as they did the tax collectors and prostitutes. The scribes were religious professionals—something like priests and religious today. And the Pharisees were laymen who were trying to live their faith fully, beyond the bare minimum—something like Catholics who go to daily Mass. Jesus’ rebuke is also addressed to us. On the outside we may look like good and holy people. Jesus isn’t saying that we shouldn’t. It’s praiseworthy to raise our children conscientiously; dress modestly; and give of our time, talent, and treasure in charitable works. But what is on the inside? What is in our hearts? Jesus comes bac

  Little Things Mean A Lot Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily. St. Francis de Sales

  Knowledge In Service of Love There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love. St. Bernard of Clairvaux

  It No Longer I Who Live Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desire, and his disposition live and reign there. St. John Eudes

  The Classic Sin of Pride Because you are haughty of heart, you say, “A god am I!” (Ezekiel 28:2) Located on an island off the Phoenician coast, the city of Tyre depended on trade for its very existence. But instead of dealing fairly with its neighbors, it took advantage of them. Tyre’s greed even led it to plunder Israel (Joel 4:5-6). It was this arrogant attitude that led Ezekiel to prophesy against the nation. Because of their wealth and accomplishments, the people of Tyre had become blinded to their need for God. Before we condemn Tyre ourselves, we should admit how easy it is for all of us to fall into a similar trap. For example, maybe we believe that somehow we deserve the gifts and blessings we have because we worked hard for them and fail to see that they come from the Lord. Or we might start to look down on some of the people around us because they haven’t achieved as much as we have. We may even start taking advantage of such people the way Tyre treated its neighbors. In al

  A House of Prayer For All Peoples My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Isaiah 56:7) All of today’s readings tell us that God’s salvation is meant for everyone. The prophet Isaiah speaks of foreigners who will join themselves to the Lord (56:6). The psalmist declares, “May the peoples praise you, O God” (Psalm 67:6). Jesus praises a Canaanite woman’s faith (Matthew 15:28). And Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, proclaims that God wants to “have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32). For the Jewish people in today’s first reading, this must have been difficult to accept. They had just returned from exile to discover foreigners living in their holy city, Jerusalem. Their covenant told them that they were set apart as a holy people chosen by God. So how could “impure” Gentiles be living on their land? They forgot that God had chosen them by his grace, not just for their own sake, but to bring his light to every nation. This call became increasingly clear in the early Church.

Trust  A LIFE LIVED CLOSE TO ME WILL NEVER BE DULL OR PREDICTABLE. Expect each day to contain some surprises! I know you greet that prospect with mixed emotions because of your love-hate relationship with surprises. You enjoy the adrenaline rush that accompanies new, unexpected experiences; this wakes you up and takes you beyond your ordinary routine. Yet there is also a part of you that longs for your life to be predictable. In fact, you usually try to arrange things as to minimize the possibility of being taken by surprise.  I will never limit Myself to doing only what you can anticipate and understand. My ways and thoughts are too high above yours for that to be possible. To do so would be to cease being God! So, expect your life to become increasingly surprising as you grow closer to Me. Still, I want to help you become joyful about your unpredictable journey with Me.  There is actually much merit in expecting surprises. This helps you view an unforeseen event not as something wron

The Transfiguration We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven. (2 Peter 1:18) Think of the number of times a court case has been won because of compelling eyewitness testimony. Or think about how someone’s personal story about their faith has stirred your own faith. Clearly, eyewitnesses carry a lot of weight! In today’s second reading, Peter offers his eyewitness testimony about the Transfiguration so that his readers could deepen their belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. It wasn’t a “cleverly devised myth,” he assures them. No, Peter was there in person and saw Jesus, a flesh-and-blood person himself, appear in “majestic glory” on Mount Tabor (2 Peter 1:16, 17). Though Jesus isn’t with us in the same way he was with Peter, he is still revealing his glory to his people today—and you have experienced this reality. Every time you see the priest lifting up the Host at Mass, you are witnessing Jesus’ glory. Every time you hear the priest in Confession say, “I absolve you of your sins,”

The Beauty of Prayer My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. St. John Vianney

A Prayer For Guidance          But I, through the abundance of your mercy,           will enter into your house.           I will bow down toward your holy sanctuary           out of fear of you.           LORD, guide me in your justice because of my foes;           make straight your way before me. Psalm 5:8-9

Friendship with the Lord Ask those who love Him with a sincere love, and they will tell you that they find no greater or prompter relief amid the troubles of their life than in loving conversation with their Divine Friend. St. Alphonsus Liguori