Daily Thought

Pray Without Ceasing             The children of God express their love in their trusting and persevering prayer. If God seems at times to be slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. We well know that the long-awaited gift is all the more precious for the delay in its being granted. . . Ask, seek, insist. Through this asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God’s gift when it comes. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for his greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart. We must never become discouraged in our petitions to God. My God, teach me how to love. My God, teach me how to pray. Love and prayer are inseparably connected.   from  In Conversation with God  by Francis Fernandez p. 464

The Parable of the Sower Lectio Matthew 13:18–23 Meditatio “… the seed sown …” In today’s reading Jesus explains the parable of the sower, found in all three Synoptic Gospels. Speaking to people who till the soil, Jesus uses images familiar to his hearers. A sower goes out to plant seeds and some of them yield a good crop, but others do not. It all depends on the type of soil where the seeds fall. Biblical scholars explain that in this parable the sower represents Christ, and the seed is the word of God, or the preaching of the kingdom. The evil one is Satan. The soil symbolizes the heart of each person with its receptivity to the word. Some hearts will accept it, while others will suffocate or even reject the word. Which kind of soil am I? Some people do not respond to the preaching of the word. They make no effort to understand and practice what they hear. The seed is plucked away and does not yield any fruit. Am I this shallow soil? Other individuals are easily w...

Open Wide The Window of Your Soul!  Keep your soul in peace. Let God work in you. Welcome thoughts that raise your heart to God. Open wide the window of your soul. St. Ignatius of Loyola

Welcoming Others To God’s Mercy     “He became angry.” (Luke 15:28)        The prodigal has returned to a red-carpet welcome, and the older son is fuming. But what would he rather have happened to his younger brother?      Did he want to see the scoundrel suffer? To have the door slammed shut in his face? Maybe he hoped to see him humiliated in front of the whole village. Or might he have preferred to hear that his brother had starved to death in a foreign land?      Such mean-spiritedness seems pretty extreme, doesn’t it? But haven’t we all felt twinges of pleasure over someone else’s misfortune? When a celebrity gains fifty pounds or is caught doing something disgraceful, don’t we sometimes enjoy the news? When friends with the “perfect” family have trouble with their kids, don’t we feel even a little satisfaction?      Something in the human heart inclines to this perverse, gleeful gloa...

Salvation - God's Relentless Search For Us   Psychologists tell us that a true friend is someone who has seen us at our worst and still loves us. If you have encountered me only on my best days, when all is going well and I am in top form, and you like me, I have no guarantee that you are my friend. But when you have dealt with me when I am most obnoxious, most self-absorbed, most afraid and unpleasant, and you still love me, then I am sure that you are my friend. The old Gospel song says, "what a friend we have in Jesus!" This is not pious sentimentalism; it is the heart of the matter. What the first Christians saw in the dying and rising of Jesus is that we killed God, and God returned in forgiving love. We murdered the Lord of Life, and he answered us, not with hatred, but with compassion. He saw us at our very worst, and loved us anyway. Thus they saw confirmed in flesh and blood what Jesus had said the night before he died: "I do not call you servants...

Being Content May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.   St. Teresa of Avila

Peace, the Road to Perfection Experience shows us that peace, which sows charity, the love of God and love of neighbor in your soul, is the road that leads straight to eternal life.  Take care to never let your heart be troubled, saddened, agitated or involved in that which can cause it to lose its peace. Rather work always to remain tranquil because the Lord says: "Happy are those who are at peace." Do this and the Lord will build in your soul the City of Peace and He will make of you a House of Delight. That which He wants of you is that, whenever you are troubled, you would recover your calm, your peace, on your own - in your work, in your thoughts and in all your activities without exception.  Just as a city is not built in a day, do not think that you can achieve, in a day, this peace, this interior calm, because it is within you that a home must be built for God, while you yourself, become His temple. And it is the Lord Himself Who must handle the construction. ...

Suffering Illumined by the Cross Christian love gives value and meaning to our existence even when infirmity and illness have compromised the integrity of the body. There is a life in us not conditioned by our physical state, but by the love we give. "You who are sick, you are strong like Jesus on the cross," exclaimed John Paul II one day. Yes, because our strength is in Christ, in Christ crucified and abandoned! It is when we are weak that we are strong.  I touched this reality in prison. When I lived through times of extreme physical and moral suffering, I thought of Jesus crucified. To the human eye, his life was a defeat, a disappointment, and a failure. Reduced to the most absolute immobility on the cross, he was no longer able to encounter people, to cure the sick, to teach .... However, in the eyes of God, that was the most important moment of his life, because it was then that he poured out his blood for the salvation of humanity.    "Everyone is in...

A Little Mercy Goes A Long Way A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.     Pope Francis

Confronting Fear   No one can take them out of my hand. (John 10:28)   When do you feel vulnerable? Maybe flying in an airplane, or being in a boat surrounded by large waves? Or is your fear most exposed in relationships, where you worry about being hurt or let down? Whatever triggers it for you, everyone has times of wondering if catastrophe is just around the corner.   Here’s another question: do you ever feel vulnerable in your relationship with God? It’s easy to worry that if we do or say the wrong thing, we may get ourselves into too much trouble. Perhaps you feel you have already alienated God so much that he has given up on you, and you wonder if you will ever make it to heaven.   In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus confronts these fears head-on. Speaking about those who believe, he says, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand” (John 10:28). What comforting...

The Lilly of the Mohawks Bl. Kateri, the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother, who had been taken captive by the Mohawk Indians, and of a pagan Mohawk father, was born at Ossernenon (today’s Auriesville, New York) in April 1656. Because she was born at sunrise, she was given the name Ioragade (“Sunshine”). As a result of a smallpox epidemic (1659), she lost her parents, and she was subsequently brought up by an aunt. Because Kateri’s vision had been weakened by the disease, and because she walked with her hands extended in front of her, her uncle gave her the name Tekakwitha (“who stretches out her hands”). Kateri remembered the rudiments of the Catholic faith that her mother had instilled in her, and when Jesuit missionaries visited the camp in 1667, she hesitated, in her shyness, to ask about the God whom her mother had worshiped. It was only in 1675 that she asked the missionary, who then resided at the camp, about becoming a Christian. She was baptized on Easter Sunday, Ap...

Everyone Is Called By Name and Empowered By The Holy Spirit        In fact, from eternity God has thought of us and has loved us as unique individuals. Every one of us he called by name, as the Good Shepherd "calls his sheep by name" (Jn 10:3). However, only in the unfolding of the history of our lives and its events is the eternal plan of God revealed to each of us. Therefore, it is a gradual process; in a certain sense, one that happens day by day.     To be able to discover the actual will of the Lord in our lives always involves the following: a receptive listening to the Word of God and the Church, fervent and constant prayer, recourse to a wise and loving spiritual guide, and a faithful discernment of the gifts and talents given by God, as well as the diverse social and historic situations in which one lives.      Therefore, in the life of each member of the lay faithful there are particularly significant and decisive moments f...

I Attended World Youth Day in Rome In 2000 And This Is Totally True! Finally, I would like to speak of one last feature, not to be overlooked, of the spirituality of World Youth Days, namely joy. Where does it come from? How is it to be explained? Certainly, there are many factors at work here. But in my view, the crucial one is this certainty, based on faith: I am wanted; I have a task in history; I am accepted, I am loved. Josef Pieper, in his book on love, has shown that man can only accept himself if he is accepted by another. He needs the other’s presence, saying to him, with more than words: it is good that you exist. Only from the You can the I come into itself. Only if it is accepted, can it accept itself. Those who are unloved cannot even love themselves. This sense of being accepted comes in the first instance from other human beings. But all human acceptance is fragile. Ultimately we need a sense of being accepted unconditionally. Only if God accepts me, and I become co...

Chant His Praises!          My heart is steadfast, God,           my heart is steadfast.           I will sing and chant praise .          Awake, my soul;           awake, lyre and harp!           I will wake the dawn.           I will praise you among the peoples, Lord;           I will chant your praise among the nations.           For your mercy towers to the heavens;           your faithfulness reaches to the skies.           Exalt yourself over the heavens, God;           may your glory appear above all the earth. Psalm 57:8–12

Judging Others Or Constructive Criticism   What's the difference between judging others and constructive criticism?    GOD'S RESPONSE   Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?  Matthew 7:1-3 (NLT-2)    Don't speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning God's law.  James 4:11    † One coach berates a player publicly for making a mistake in a game. Another coach waits until the game is over and tells the player privately how to avoid making the same mistake again. Though no one likes criticism----even when it is constructive-we sometimes need it. But it is much easier to receive cri...

We Are All Links In A Great Chain   I encourage you to think of the gifts you have received from God so that you can pass them on to others in turn. Learn to reread your personal history. Be conscious of the wonderful legacy passed down to you from previous generations. So many faith-filled people have been courageous in handing down the faith in the face of trials and incomprehension. Let us never forget that we are links in a great chain of men and women who have transmitted the truth of the faith and who depend on us to pass it on to others. Being a missionary presupposes knowledge of this legacy, which is the faith of the Church. It is necessary to know what you believe in, so that you can proclaim it. As I wrote in the introduction to the YouCat, the catechism for young people that I gave you at World Youth Day in Madrid, “you need to know your faith with that same precision with which an IT specialist knows the inner ...

Learning To Be Joyful In All Circumstances     BEWARE OF FEELING ENTITLED TO My GOOD gifts. Receive blessings from Me thankfully, yet be willing to release them back to Me—without growing resentful.    When you have lost something precious (your job, your house, your health, a loved one), you may think it is irrational to be joyful. But this is a worldly way of thinking. Major losses are very painful, and they do need to be grieved. Nonetheless, with time and effort you can learn to focus on the good things that remain—and find Joy in the One who will never leave you.    Remember that it is possible to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. The apostle Paul learned the secret of being joyful in all situations through his experiences of multiple hardships. The Holy Spirit empowered Paul to find Joy in the midst of adversity, and He can do the same for you. You must be willing, though, to let go of anything I take from you—no matter how painful th...

Turn It Back To God To Regain Your Peace Several times during the day, but especially in the morning and evening, ask yourself for a moment if you have your soul in your hands or if some passion or fit of anxiety has robbed you of it. Consider whether you have command of your heart or whether it has slipped into some disorderly passion of love, hatred, envy, covetousness, fear, uneasiness or joy. If you have gone astray, quietly bring your soul back to the presence of God, subjecting all your affections and desires to the obedience and direction of His Divine Will. Just as men who are afraid of losing a precious pearl hold it firmly in their hands, so we must keep a close watch on the precious pearl of our soul.  Saint Francis de Sales

God & The Work For God   Because of your infinite love for me, Lord, you called me to follow you,  to be your child and your disciple.  Then you entrusted me with a unique mission  that has the same requirements as every mission: that I be your apostle and witness.  Still, my experience has taught me that I confuse these two realities:  God and God's work.  God gave me the responsibility to carry out certain works-  some sublime and others more modest; some noble and others more common.  And so, with a commitment to pastoral work in parishes and with young people in schools, with artists and laborers,  in the world of the press, radio, and television, I gave my entire energy to everything  and poured out all my abilities.  I did not spare anything,  not even my life.  But, while I was so passionately immersed in action,  I met the defeat of ingratitude, the refusal to collaborat...

Christian Joy     Christian joy is interior. It doesn’t come from without but from within – like certain alpine lakes which are fed not from a river that flows from outside, but from a spring of water welling up from their very foundations. It comes from God’s mysterious and present action in the human heart through grace. It can cause us to abound with joy in our sufferings (cf. 2 Cor 7: 4). It is the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5: 22, Rom 14:17) and is expressed in peace of heart, fullness of meaning, the ability to love and to be loved, and above all in hope, without which there can be no joy.   Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa

Eternal Love       In the evening, Jesus gave me the subject for meditation. At the first moment, my heart was filled with fear and joy. Then I pressed myself close to His Heart, and the fear vanished; only joy remained. I felt entirely like a child of God, and the Lord said ..Fear nothing...Before I made the world, I loved you with the love your heart is experiencing today and, throughout the centuries, My love will never change.   St. Faustina Kowalksa