Daily Thought

Complete Trust Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don’t think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him. St. Padre Pio **I am leaving tomorrow morning for vacation. The next Daily Thought will be on September 5th.

The Dangers of the Spirit of the World We have lost sight of the fact that Christians cannot live like “everyone else”. The foolish notion that there is no specifically Christian morality is merely one way of saying that a fundamental concept has been lost: the “distinctively Christian” as opposed to the models offered by the “world”. Even religious orders and congregations have confused true reform with a relaxation of the traditional austerity previously practiced. They have confused renewal with comfort. To give a small but concrete example: a religious reported to me that the downfall of his monastery began very concretely with the declaration that it was “no longer practicable” for the religious to rise during the night to recite the nocturnal office. But that was not the end of the matter. The religious replaced this uncontested but significant “sacrifice” by staying up late at night to watch television. An apparently minor matter. But the present-day decline of the indispens...

Dwelling On God's Kindness Sorrow for sin is indeed necessary, but it should not be an endless preoccupation. You must dwell also on the glad remembrance of God's loving-kindness; otherwise, sadness will harden the heart and lead it more deeply into despair. St. Bernard of Clairvaux

God's Generosity - A Benefit To Us All! Lectio Matthew 20:1–16 Meditatio “… my own money.…” God doesn’t have money, and he certainly doesn’t need it, so this parable must be about something else. Most people would say, “This parable is about rewarding the work we do for God. The people who go into the vineyard early are like good Christians, who support their parish, donate to the food pantry, make honest decisions in their businesses, protect life, and take their kids to church on Sunday.” Well, if that’s so, I ask, then who are the latecomers who were hired throughout the day? At this point people begin to squirm a bit. It’s hard to point the finger at others and identify them as the latecomers who don’t deserve a full day’s wages. We might name those whom everyone would agree are either sinners or scoundrels: murderers, terrorists, those involved in child slave traffic or pornography rings. These people make us feel more secure in our place among the laborers who hav...

He Strengthened My Spirit!          I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;           in the presence of the angels to you I sing.           I bow low toward your holy temple;           I praise your name for your mercy and faithfulness.           For you have exalted over all           your name and your promise.           On the day I cried out, you answered;           you strengthened my spirit.  Psalm 138:1-3

Don't Be Held Back! Lectio Matthew 19:16–22 Meditatio “If you wish.…” The young athlete approached the Olympic trainer. “What do I need to be really good?” Unimpressed, the trainer yawned and said, “You know the routine: eat right, work out daily, see your doctor.” “But I’ve done that since I could walk! What else?” The coach turned. He sensed something here. With a glint in his eye, he ventured, “If you want to go for the gold, leave everything—family, school, friends, and options. Give away the amateur’s gear. Then come, train with me.” Later, the youth confessed, “I wanted more, but not that much more!” What do we really want? Paul writes, “… the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tm 6:10). “Stuff” doesn’t make us bad or unhappy, just the attachment does, the clinging for dear life to it. “It” can also be security, position, ability, or friendship. And when these are somehow wrested from our grasp, then come the tantrums. Our relationship to what we value ...

The Importance of Recreation It is necessary sometimes to relax our minds as well as our bodies by some kind of recreation. St. John the Evangelist, as Cassian relates, amusing himself one day with a partridge on his hand, was asked by a huntsman: How such a man as he could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner? St. John said to him: Why do you not carry your bow always bent? Because, answered the huntsman, if it were always bent I fear it would lose its spring and become useless. Be not surprised, then, replied the apostle, that I should sometimes remit somewhat of my close application and attention of spirit in order to enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more fervently in divine contemplation. It is doubtless a vice to be so rigorous and austere, as neither to be willing to take any recreation ourselves, nor allow it to others. To take the air, to walk, to entertain ourselves with cheerful and friendly conversations, to play on musical instrumen...

The Sacrifices Called For In Marriage Sometimes our health and our own duties do not allow us to suffer the hardships of penance, even though everybody admits that the road of our earthly existence is covered with small crosses. The acceptance of these crosses in the spirit of penance is the vast field where we can exercise penance. Besides, we are to fulfill our everyday duties and the will of God in every instant of our lives. The latter, which we must do perfectly in every action, word, and thought, demands giving up a lot of things we like: and this is a plentiful source of penance. However, Jesus urges us not to be sad when doing penance, but to do it for love. A soul that loves God is always ready to please, with every thought, word, and action, throughout one’s entire existence. And should any affection be sacrificed in order to give joy to God, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity to prove our unselfish love. That is why the saints were alw...

The Truth Shall Set Us Free No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hetacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves? St. Maxilian Kolbe

Celebrations & Sundays Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! Today we begin a short course of reflection on three dimensions that beat the time, so to speak, of the rhythm of family life: celebration, work and prayer. We begin with celebration. Today we will speak of celebration. And we say immediately that a celebration is an invention of God. We recall the conclusion of the account of Creation in the Book of Genesis, which we heard: “And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation” (2:2-3). God himself teaches us the importance of dedicating a time to contemplate and enjoy what was well done in work. I speak of work, of course, not only in the sense of a job or profession, but in the wider sense: every action with which we men and women can collaborate in the creati...

Always Respond To Those Who Ask For Help Never refuse any who ask you for help; if your pockets are empty, give them hope. Your every action must be born of kindness, your every word spoken with love. Live as God would have you live, and others will be inspired to do the same. Immaculée Ilibagiza

Overcoming Rash Judgments We must apply remedies against rash judgments, according to their different causes. There are some hearts naturally so sour, bitter, and harsh, as to make everything bitter and sour that comes into them: “turning judgment,” as the prophet Amos says, into wormwood, by never judging their neighbor but with rigor and harshness. Such have great need to fall into the hands of a good spiritual physician; for this bitterness of heart being natural to them, it is hard to overcome it, and though it be not in itself a sin, but an imperfection, yet it is dangerous, because it introduces and causes rash judgment and detraction to remain in the soul. Some judge rashly, not through harshness, but through pride, imagining that in the same proportion as they lower the honor of other men they raise their own. Arrogant and presumptuous spirits, who admire themselves so much and place themselves so high in their own esteem, look on all the rest of mankind as mean and abject....

Pray To The Holy Spirit Pray to the Holy Spirit that you may know Christ in the fullness of His gospel and the love of the Father that you may understand He is the source of power, the Holy Spirit. Our Lord said, “I will send you power from on high.”. Every day of my priestly life I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. The power that is not human, not physical, not intellectual; rather a power coming solely from living the Christ life, the power to influence people, the power to impress you with the divinity of the Holy Spirit.  We tell ourselves that we are not meant to be saints, yet we know we are. Pray for us.  Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

The Struggle for Holiness & the "Perfect Church" I must admit that to me this unholy holiness of the Church has in itself something infinitely comforting about it. Would one not be bound to despair in face of a holiness that was spotless and could only operate on us by judging us and consuming us by fire? Who would dare to assert of himself that he did not need to be tolerated by others, indeed borne up by them? And how can someone who lives on the forbearance of others himself renounce forbearing? Is it not the only gift he can offer in return, the only comfort remaining to him, that he endures just as he, too, is endured? Holiness in the Church begins with forbearance and leads to bearing up; where there is no more forbearing, there is no more bearing up either, and existence, lacking support, can only sink into the void. People may well say that such words express a sickly existence—but it is part of being a Christian to accept the impossibility of autonomy and the...

Our Greatest Cross “Our greatest Cross is the fear of crosses” St. John Vianney

Friendship with God If you were to read this quote on its own and tried to guess who said it, chances are you wouldn’t think it was Moses. He was a holy hero of the Old Testament; he received the Ten Commandments and saw God face-to-face. He would never dare to speak so disrespectfully to the Lord! But don’t forget, Moses was called a “friend” of God (Exodus 33:11). And with friends, you feel free to speak your mind. Moses showed no pretense. He didn’t put on an act. So when the people were complaining and Moses was at the end of his rope, he told God so. He understood God knew him inside and out, so what was the point of putting on a façade? Moses knew he couldn’t handle the people’s problems himself. So he confidently poured out his feelings to God, as he would to any friend. And because he spoke so freely, God was able to help him. Now, that doesn’t mean we should spend all of our prayer time complaining or rehashing the negative! One good way to find that “sweet spot” betwe...