Daily Thought

A New Creation In Christ Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God. St. Leo The Great

A Grateful Heart NOW again I will speak, Lord, and will not be silent. I will speak to the hearing of my God, my Lord, and my King Who is in heaven. How great, O Lord, is the multitude of Your mercies which You have stored up for those who love You. But what are You to those who love You? What are You to those who serve You with their whole heart? Truly beyond the power of words is the sweetness of contemplation You give to those who love You. To me You have shown the sweetness of Your charity, especially in having made me when I did not exist, in having brought me back to serve You when I had gone far astray from You, in having commanded me to love You. O Fountain of unceasing love, what shall I say of You? How can I forget You, Who have been pleased to remember me even after I had wasted away and perished? You have shown mercy to Your servant beyond all hope, and have exhibited grace and friendship beyond his deserving. What return shall I make to You for this grace? For it ...

The Most Powerful Weapon Against The Devil The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it. St. Vincent de Paul

Faith Is The Answer To Fear Faith is the answer to fear. Deep down we are all afraid: of suffering, or of dying, or of God’s judgment, or of the unknown, or of weakness, or of our lives slipping out of our control, or of not being understood and loved. We sin because we fear. We bully because we are cowards. Faith casts out fear as light casts out darkness. God has shone his light into our world, and it is stronger than darkness (Jn 1:5). That light is Jesus Christ.” Peter Kreeft

Confidence My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.  Pope St. Pius X

Letting People Be Themselves The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. Thomas Merton

Living In The Present Moment If it’s a mistake to add the burden of the past to the weight of the present, it’s a still worse mistake to burden the present with the future. […] We are obliged to plan for the future and take thought for tomorrow. But we should do it without worrying, without the care that gnaws at the heart but doesn’t solve anything—and often prevents us from putting our hearts into what we have to do here and now. Hearts anxious about tomorrow can’t be open to the grace of the present moment. from Interior Freedom , by Fr. Jacques Philippe p.87

Fraternal Correction Saint Style When we have to reply to some one who speaks harshly to us, we must always do it with gentleness. If we are angry, it is better to keep silence. St. Alphonsus Liguori

Strengthen Your Confidence If you wish to strengthen your confidence in God still more, often recall the loving way in which He has acted toward you, and how mercifully He has tried to bring you out of your sinful life, to break your attachment to the things of earth and draw you to His love. St. Alphonsus Liguori

Seek Joy Today No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened. C.S. Lewis

Redemptive Suffering Makes Us More Compassionate & Generous What really hurts is not so much suffering itself as the fear of suffering. If welcomed trustingly and peacefully, suffering makes us grow. It matures and trains us, purifies us, teaches us to love unselfishly, makes us poor in heart, humble, gentle, and compassionate toward our neighbor. Fear of suffering, on the other hand, hardens us in self-protective, defensive attitudes, and often leads us to make irrational choices with disastrous consequences. from Interior Freedom  by Fr. Jacques Philippe p.47

The Cross Is A Plus! The spiritual life would be unlivable if negation and repression were the only legitimate responses to our desires. But the spiritual path is not a way of negation but an education of desire: progressively learning to leave superficial desires behind in order to let the deepest desire emerge, the one that carries the call addressed to us by God. from Called to Life by Fr. Jacques Philippe p.100

Everyone Serves A Purpose Some people come in our life as blessings. Others come in our life as lessons. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Empowerment Through Gratitude If you want to personally kick some demon booty, I have a fast acting tactic that will work instantly. Entitlement is our society's opium. It is what demons spoon feed us to keep us addicted to the pursuit of worldly pleasures. Feeling that you have a "right" to something, in essence means you are demanding that whatever that "something" is, it be handed o ver to you NOW. Break that habit! Practice the virtue of gratitude. Be grateful for what you already have without the expectation of more. It will help you see that life is a gift from God and not an expectation. Heed the words in C olossians 2:6-7 (NIV), "So then, just as you received Christ  Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (gratitude)." By adopting an attitude of gratitude, I guarantee that your outlook on the meaning of life, and your purpose on eart...

The Gift of Consolation Dear brothers and sisters, our life and our journey are frequently marked by difficulty, misunderstanding and suffering. We all know it. In a faithful relationship with the Lord, in constant, daily prayer, we too can feel tangibly the consolation that comes from God. And this strengthens our faith, because it enables us to have an actual experience of God’s “yes” to man, to us, to me, in Christ. It makes us feel the fidelity of his love which even extended to the gift of his Son on the Cross. St Paul says, “for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God” (2 Cor 1:19–20). The “yes” of God is not halved, it is not somewhere between “yes” and “no”, but is a sound and simple “yes”. And we respond to this “yes” with our own “yes”, with our “amen”, and so we ar...

Adversity I AM NOT A CARELESS GOD. However, when I allow difficulties to come into your life—events that you know I could have prevented—you may feel as if I am being careless with you. In those times, remember that I have fully equipped you to handle whatever comes your way. What you need is: help in using the equipment.  My Word and My Spirit are freely available to help you. The Bible imparts to you essential wisdom: My promises to be near you and take care of you, exhortations that help you avoid sinful snares, offers of forgiveness when you "miss the mark," and much more.  It is important not to be surprised or alarmed by the many trials that enter your life. Until you reach your ultimate home in heaven, you will be at war. Adopting a wartime mentality makes it easier to handle difficulties as they arise. You don't waste time and energy bemoaning your circumstances, and you avoid the trap of feeling singled out for hardship.  I do indeed equip you to handl...

Three Things To Strengthen Our Souls Patience, prayer and silence – these are what give strength to the soul. St. Faustina

Prayer To Radiate Christ Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go; Flood my soul with your spirit and life; Penetrate and possess my whole being so completely That all my life may be only a radiance of yours; Shine through me and be so in me That everyone with whom I come into contact May feel your presence within me. Let them look up and see no longer me—but only Jesus. Amen. Blessed John Henry Newman

Barabbas or Jesus? But let us return to the temptation. Its real contents become apparent when we realize that over the course of history it keeps taking on new forms. The Christian emperors after Constantine immediately tried to make the faith a political factor that would be conducive to the unity of the empire. The kingdom of Christ was now expected to assume the form of a political kingdom with its splendor. The impotence of the faith, the earthly powerlessness of Jesus Christ, was now supposedly compensated for by political and military might. In every century, in many forms, this temptation to secure the faith with power has arisen again and again, and over and over the faith has come close to being suffocated in the embrace of power. The battle for the freedom of the Church, the battle over the fact that Jesus’ kingdom cannot be identical to any political construct, must be fought in every century. For the price to be paid for fusing faith and political power, in the final a...

On The Value of Friendship No medicine is more valuable , none more efficacious, none better suited to the cure of our temporal ills than a friend to whom we may turn for consolation in time of trouble, and with whom we may share happiness in time of joy. St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Faith & The True Self Faith is an orientation of our existence as a whole. It is a fundamental option that affects every domain of our existence. Nor can it be realized unless all the energies of our existence go into maintaining it. Faith is not a merely intellectual, or merely volitional, or merely emotional activity — it is all of these things together. It is an act of the whole self, of the whole person in his concentrated unity. The Bible describes faith in this sense as an act of the "heart" (Rom 10: 9). Faith is a supremely personal act ... It transcends the self, the limits of the individual. Augustine remarks that nothing is so little ours as our self. Where man as a whole comes into play, he transcends himself; an act of' the whole self is at the same time always an opening to  others, hence, an act of being together with others. What is more, we cannot perform this act without touching our deepest ground, the living God who is present in the depths of o...

Great Reflection On Baptism From Pope Francis The Gospel presents Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River, in the midst of a marvelous, divine revelation. St. Luke writes: "After all the people had been baptized  and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”' (Lk 3: 21-22). In this way, Jesus is consecrated and manifested by the Father as Messiah, Savior, and liberator. In this event - attested to by all four Gospels - the transition from the baptism of John the Baptist, based on the symbol of water, to the baptism of Jesus happens "in the Holy Spirit and fire" (Lk 3:16). The Holy Spirit, in fact, in the Christian Baptism is the principal architect: it is He who burns and destroys Original Sin, restoring to the baptized the beauty of divine grace; It is He who delivers us from the dominio...

From Glory To Glory He saw clearly that humankind has been lifted to a new plane through the miracle of the holy night and the encounter with Christ; that human beings now had new strength and the new responsibility of bearing witness. What had been enough before was enough no longer…. This is his message and his judgment. He challenges us to get out of our rut. As we draw near to God the old and familiar become useless. God will transform us into faithful witnesses if we earnestly and with complete surrender turn to him for help. Alfred Delp, S.J. Reflecting on the Martyrdom of St. Stephen 

A Painful But Transforming Truth Every good man resists others in those points in which he resists himself. St. Augustine

Great Advice On Friendship With Jesus When Pope Met With Young People Question: Your Holiness, I am Vittorio, I am from the Parish of St John Bosco in Cinecittà. I am 20 years old and am studying educational sciences at the University of Tor Vergata.  Once again, in your Message you invite us not to be afraid to respond to the Lord with generosity, especially when he suggests following him in the consecrated or priestly life. You tell us that if we are not afraid, if we trust in him, then we will not be deceived.  I am convinced that many of us, here or among those at home who are watching us this evening on television, are thinking of following Jesus in a life of special consecration, but it is not always easy to understand if this is the right path. Can you tell us how you yourself came to understand your vocation? Can you give us some advice so that we can really understand whether the Lord is calling us to follow him in the consecrated or priestly life? Thank you....

We Are The Church Church grows from the inside to the outside, not in reverse order. She signifies, above all, an interior union with Christ; she forms herself in the life of prayer, in the life of the sacraments; on the fundamental dispositions of faith, hope, and love. Therefore, when someone asks: What must I do so that Church will come into existence and continue to grow? the answer must be: You must strive above all to ensure that there is faith, that hope and love are actively present. Prayer builds the Church and the community of the sacraments in which she raises her prayer for us. This summer I met a priest who told me that what struck him most forcibly when he accepted the post as pastor was that, for decades, his parish had produced no vocations to the priesthood. But what was he to do? No one can make vocations; only the Lord can give them. Does that mean, however, that we must fold our hands and do nothing? He made up his mind to make on foot each year for this intent...

Education Is Aimed At Service To God & Community “Since every man of whatever race is endowed with the dignity of a person, he has an inalienable right to an education corresponding to his proper destiny and suited to his native talents, his cultural background, and his ancestral heritage. At the same time, this education should pave the way to brotherly association with other peoples, so that genuine unity and peace on earth may be promoted. For a true education aims at the formation of the human person with respect to the good of those societies of which, as a man, he is a member, and in whose responsibilities, as an adult, he will share.” St. John Neumann

God's Justice & Mercy GOD'S JUSTICE REQUIRES that he give the creatures whose nature he himself endowed with intelligence all that is needed by them to fulfill  the God-imposed demands, and to achieve the God-assigned aims. Also, his justice requires that, in case they fulfill those demands, a proper reward be given and, in the event of their slighting and setting aside God's de mands, a proper punishment be meted out to them.   However, God is not only the Maker and Lord  but he is also man's Father and best friend. Therefore, between God and ourselves there exist not only relations that are based on justice, but also those relations which are proper to God's fatherhood and friendship towards man; they reach much deeper because they are based on love. Love as the bond of family life ... regulates sharing [all goods] not according to the measure of strict justice but according to the measure of mutual love of parents and children.  We should apply those ...

Joy      Rejoice in this day of life, being willing to follow Me wholeheartedly—wherever I lead. Anticipate blessings as we journey together. Since I created this day of life and presented it to you free of charge, I want you receive it gratefully. Your natural tendency when you awaken is to assess the day before you, trying to discern how good (or bad) it will be. You do this almost unconsciously, often basing your conclusions on something as trivial as the weather. I urge you to break free from this habit so you can be more receptive to Me and My blessings.       A thankful attitude is immensely helpful. If you awaken to find a dark, rainy day, you can thank Me for the rain. Having done so, you will be much less likely to grumble about the weather. Also, remember that I have arranged the conditions of your day. So you can assume there is much good to be found in it.       Rejoicing will help you find many blessings in this d...

Being Church — Leaven For Humanity Being Church means being God’s people, in accordance with the great plan of his fatherly love. This means that we are to be God’s leaven in the midst of humanity. It means proclaiming and bringing God’s salvation into our world, which often goes astray and needs to be encouraged, given hope and strengthened on the way. The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel. Pope Francis The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium) #114

Join Mary in Recalling God's Faithfulness The Lord bless you and keep you! (Numbers 6:24) How many New Year’s resolutions have you come up with? How many do you think you’ll forget by the end of January? Every new year is filled with great promise, but it also has a fair bit of uncertainty. Who knows what the future holds? As Mary prepared to have her baby circumcised, she probably felt a similar mixture of anticipation and apprehension. “The angel didn’t give me too much detail. What will our future be like? Will my child be accepted? Or rejected?” But Mary answered her fears in the best way possible: she recalled God’s faithfulness in the past and held onto the promise that God had made his own “resolution” to bless and keep his people. She recalled how God reassured Joseph that she had not been unfaithful. She recounted the way God had opened doors for her in Bethlehem so that she had a safe place to give birth. She remembered the shepherds and their stories of angelic...