Posts

Showing posts from 2020

Daily Thought For December 31, 2020

  Refreshing Prayer Prayer can truly change your life. For it turns your attention away from yourself and directs your mind and your heart toward the Lord. If we look only at ourselves, with our own limitations and sins, we quickly give way to sadness and discouragement. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, then our hearts are filled with hope, our minds are washed in the light of truth, and we come to know the fullness of the Gospel with all its promise and life. St. John Paul II

Daily Thought For December 30, 2020

  Christmas - Sharing In The Richness of God's Goodness! But in order that the sweetness of his mercy might be adorned with the beauty of his justice, he determined to save man by way of a rigorous redemption. And as this could not properly be done but by his Son, he settled that he should redeem man not only by one of his amorous actions, which would have been perfectly sufficient to ransom a million million of worlds: but also by all the innumerable amorous actions and dolorous passions which he would perform or suffer till death, and the death of the cross, to which he destined him. He willed that thus he should make himself the companion of our miseries to make us afterwards companions of his glory, showing thereby the riches of his goodness, by this copious, abundant, superabundant, magnificent and excessive redemption, which has gained for us, and as it were reconquered for us, all the means necessary to attain glory, so that no man can ever complain as though the divine merc...

Daily Thought For December 28, 2020

  Beautiful Christmas Message From Archbishop Gómez My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas. This has been a long and challenging you for all of us. But in this season of joy and hope we know that our Redeemer lives. Every Christmas is a new beginning for our lives, and for the whole world. When we see the Child in the manger, we know how much God loves us. This Child is born for you and for me and for every person. This is so amazing, isn't it? To think that our God loves us so much that He comes into the world just as we do, as a tiny baby in His mother's arms. God created you out of love. This is why you were born: because God loves you. He wants you to know His love. He wants you to share His love with everyone around you. He wants to spread His love in everything you do in your life. This is a beautiful new beginning that we have at Christmas. Let Christ enter in This holy season, when our God comes to be with ...

Daily Thought For December 26, 2020

  Cast Off Gloom The Lord is with us: be not sad. Put on, you chosen ones of God, the garments of gladness and joy; cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: as in the open day, so let us watch this sacred night. Let us rejoice and exult. Let us sing canticles and hymns. Let us praise the God our Savior. Let us offer Him our vows. Let us present Him the service of our mouth. Thomas À Kempis Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2013). 300 Quotations and Prayers for Christmas. Lexham Press.

Daily Thought For December 24, 2020

  The Dawn From On High Shall Break Upon Us Lectio Luke 1:67–79 Meditatio   “… the daybreak from on high will visit us.…” This promised daybreak is the One whose birth we celebrate tomorrow. More than two thousand years ago he came to shine on those who lived in darkness. He brought hope and healing and forgiveness of sins. He died out of love for us, and he destroyed the finality of death by his resurrection. He sent his followers to continue his mission, and he said he would be with them until the end of the world. So … why do we still dwell “in the shadow of death”? Why are we not on the “way of peace,” but instead are on the way of war, confusion, and hatred? Why have we not yet been set free of all this? Yes, the dawn has broken, but we do not yet enjoy the full light of day. The Incarnation ended the night, but the complete fulfillment of the promise will occur only when Jesus comes again at the end of the world. (The name of the liturgical season that ends today—Advent—...

Daily Thought For December 23, 2020

  Advent & Christmas Customs Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is to look at the inner meaning of our Advent customs. Almost all of these are rooted in passages of Scripture that the Church employs in this time as words of her prayer. Here, the faithful people have, as it were, translated Scripture into visible signs. For example, we read in Psalm 96: “Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes.” The liturgy has expanded this, drawing on other texts in the Psalms, to form the following affirmation: “The mountains and hills will sing praise before God, and all the trees of the wood will clap their hands, for the Lord, the ruler, is coming to rule for ever.” The Christmas trees we decorate are simply an attempt to make these words visible. The Lord is here—our ancestors believed this and knew this, and so the trees had to go out to meet him, they had to bow down before him, the trees themselves had to become a song of praise to their ...

Daily Thought For December 22, 2020

  In Preparation for Christmas The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God , who “loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins”: “the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world,” and “he was revealed to take away sins”: ( 607; 385 ) Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state? The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God’s love : “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his onl...

Daily Thought For December 20, 2020

  God's Promises Lectio Luke 1:26–38 Meditatio “… the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,  and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,  and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Sometimes it seems God’s promises lay dormant for a long time! Who has not waited for good things to happen to our loved ones after months or years of prayer? The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is a much-cherished story of how God fulfills his promises in ways and at times that exceed what we could ever imagine! The Father always manifests himself and acts through his Son and the Holy Spirit. It took almost a thousand years for God’s promises to David to find their fulfillment in Jesus. No one could have predicted the marvelous way God’s providential plan would reveal itself! Instead of an earthly king, the Father sends his Son through the “yes” of a modest virgin living in an insignificant town of a conquered people. God sends a King far beyond anyone’s expectations or d...

Daily Thought For December 19 ,2020

  Mary's Humility Humility is ever the close companion of Divine grace, for “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” She answers humbly, therefore, that the throne of grace may be prepared. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” She is the chosen Mother of God, and she calls herself His handmaid. Truly, it is no small sign of humility to preserve even the remembrance of the virtue in presence of so great glory. It is no great perfection to be humble when we are despised; but it is a great and rare virtue to preserve humility in the midst of honours. If, deceived by my apparent virtue, the Church has raised me, an insignificant man, to some small dignity, God permitting it, either because of my own sins, or those of my subjects, do I not immediately, forgetting my past deficiencies, imagine myself to be that which men, who see not the heart, have reputed me to be? I hearken to fame, and attend not to conscience. I forget that honour is rendered to virtue, and take the ...

Daily Thought For December 17, 2020

  The Jubilee Generation Lectio Matthew 1:1–17 Meditatio   “Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.” At first, these verses may simply seem to be a collection of names and therefore incapable of producing meaning. However, these verses, like Mary, are pregnant with hidden treasure. The list of names produces a pattern that creates an expectation. It becomes predictable. One man fathers another; one generation follows another; after every fourteen generations an event important to the history of the Chosen People takes place. This pattern is randomly broken with the inclusion of several women whose marital status or ethnicity is outside of the norm. They are the key that unlocks the passage’s meaning. The Chosen People’s expectation is shattered. The Messiah, the Son of David, is not fathered. Rather, his sole human origin lies in a woman. Whose son is he? Whose name does he bear? Whose inheritance can he claim? And what about the fourteen generations? Each set of four...

Daily Thought For December 16, 2020

  Advent & Illness Just like a great joy, so too illness and suffering can be a very personal Advent of one’s own—a visit by the God who enters my life and wants to encounter me personally. Even when it is difficult for us, we should at least try to understand the days of our illness in this way: The Lord has interrupted my activity for a time in order to let me be still. In my daily living, I have little time for him and little time for myself. I am completely involved from morning to evening in all the things I have to do, and I even succeed in eluding my own grasp, because I do not know how to be alone with myself. My job possesses me; the society in which I live possesses me; entertainment of various kinds possesses me; but I do not possess myself. And this means that I gradually go to seed like an overgrown garden, first in my external activities and, then, in my inner life, too. I am propelled along by my activities, for I am merely a cog in their great machinery. But now...

Daily Thought For December 15, 2020

  No Can Change To Yes Ponder SOMEONE ONCE LOOKED ME STRAIGHT in the eye and calmly said, “Do you realize your first response to my every question is no? Even reverse psychology doesn’t work with you!” In the Gospel chosen for today, Jesus poses a question about two sons. One is asked to do something, says he won’t, but he thinks about it and does it. The other son says he will do it, but he doesn’t. Which one did the Father’s will? His listeners give Jesus the right answer. Jesus then shocks us by telling us that those who apparently commit the worst sins are getting into heaven before we do. They ultimately listen to the Gospel challenges and turn themselves around. They know their need. They work with grace. We might be saying, yes, yes, Lord, but in reality do we let God-given opportunities slip away? Mary, the wedding at Cana could so easily have been a place to let things slide. It wasn’t your job; you were a guest. When you told them to do Jesus’ bidding, what if the waiters...

Daily Thought For December 14, 2020

  Faith Is Strengthened Through Adversity We need people who are moved by the horrific calamities and emerge from them with the knowledge that those who look to the Lord will be preserved by him, even if they are hounded from the earth. Alfred Delp, S.J.

Daily Thought For December 12, 2020

  Gaudate Sunday Ponder THREE CANDLES ARE SUPPOSED to be glowing on the wreath, but where I worshipped this year the altar server couldn’t light the third one. She quit trying, and in her rush to get to the procession on time, she tripped. We tried hard to contain our laughter. That’s what this Sunday is all about. Since the Vatican II reforms, the entire season of Advent now focuses on joy in anticipation of Jesus’ coming. Long tradition, however, emphasized this Sunday as a special day of Christian joy. That is why, in some countries, a different-colored candle burns today. Our liturgy’s entrance antiphon (usually omitted because we sing an opening hymn), is the text that gives rise to this Sunday’s name, Gaudete, rejoice. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil 4:4). In an Angelus reflection, Pope John Paul II gives the reason for our joy:   To know that God is not distant but close, not indifferent but compassionate, not aloof but a merciful Father wh...

Daily Thought For December 11, 2020

  Wisdom Is Vindicated By Her Works Lectio Matthew 11:16–19 Meditatio   “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said …” When my siblings and I were little we would sometimes get in a contrary mood that my mom called “try-an’-please-me.” No matter what my mother suggested or offered us—things to play with, snacks, or drinks—we were never satisfied. Usually Jesus speaks of children as models of what Christians should be like (because of their simplicity and trust), but this passage evokes the idea of the contrariness of children. The crowd who were listening to Jesus had not been fully converted by the preaching of John—they said he must have been crazy or possessed to have adopted such an extreme lifestyle in the desert, “neither eating nor drinking.” But Jesus didn’t live that kind of hermit- or prophet-like existence. He lived among the people, and he ate and drank with them when they invited him to their homes. So they now accuse him of lack of moderation. “Look, h...

Daily Thought For December 10, 2020

The Shaking Reality of Advent There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Where life is firm we need to sense its firmness; and where it is unstable and uncertain and has no basis, we need to know this, too, and endure it. We may ask why God sends whirlwinds over the earth, why the chaos where all appears hopeless and dark, and why there seems to be no end to human suffering. Perhaps it is because we have been living on earth in an utterly false and counterfeit security. and now God strikes the earth till it resounds, now he shakes and shatters: not to pound us with fear, but to teach us one thing – the spirit’s innermost longing. Many of the things that are happening today would never have happened if we had been living in that longing, that disquiet of heart which comes when we are faced with God, and when we look clearly at things as they really are. If we had done this, God would have withheld his hand from many of the things that now shake a...

Daily Thought For December 9, 2020

  Pray For Parents To Communicate The Joy of the Faith to their Little Ones The Year of Faith is an opportunity for us to discover, our imaginations fired by the Holy Spirit, new paths to take on a personal and community level so that the power of the Gospel may become wisdom of life and an orientation for existence everywhere. In our time too, the family, the first school for communicating the faith to the new generations, is a privileged place in which to talk about God. The Second Vatican Council speaks of parents as the first messengers of God (cf. Dogmatic Constitution, Decree Lumen Gentium, n. 11; Apostolicam Actuositatem, n. 11). Parents are called to rediscover their mission, assuming responsibility in educating, in opening the consciences of their little ones to love of God as a fundamental service to their life and in being the first catechists and teachers of the faith for their children. And in this task watchfulness is of the utmost importance. It means being able to t...

Daily Thought For December 8, 2020

  Fr. Cantalamessa's Reflection on the Immaculate Conception So that we see how the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is not simply a celebration of the privileges of Mary but touches us and involves us in a profound way, we have to understand it in the light of the words of Paul in the second reading: "God the Father chose us in Jesus Christ before the creation of the world, to be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity.” We are all, therefore, called to be holy and immaculate; it is our truest destiny; God's project for us. A little later, in the same Letter to the Ephesians, Paul contemplates this plan of God, no longer regarding it as applicable to men taken individually, everyone for himself, but as applicable to the universal Church, Bride of Christ: "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to sanctify her, purifying her with baptism and the word, because he wanted her to appear in splendor, without blemish or wrinkle but holy and immaculate...

Daily Thought For December 7, 2020

  Rivers of Joy  There is also a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent. There is also a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace and makes for peace. Whoever has received from the fullness of this river, like John the Evangelist, like Peter and Paul, lifts up his voice. Just as the apostles lifted up their voices and preached the Gospel throughout the world, so those who drink these waters begin to preach the good news of the Lord Jesus.   Drink, then, from Christ, so that your voice may also be heard. Store up in your mind the water that is Christ, the water that praises the Lord. Store up water from many sources, the water that rains down from the clouds of prophecy.   Whoever gathers water from the mountains and leads it to himself or draws it from springs, is himself a source of dew like the clouds. Fill your soul, then, with this water, so that your land may not be dry, but watered by your own springs.   He who reads much and ...

Daily Thought For December 5, 2020

  Seeing The World As God See It There are ten thousand ways of looking at this world, but only one right way. The man of pleasure has his way, the man of gain his, and the man of intellect his. Poor men and rich men, governors and governed, prosperous and discontented, learned and unlearned, each has his own way of looking at the things which come before him, and each has a wrong way. There is but one right way; it is the way in which God looks at the world. Aim at looking at it in God’s way. Aim at seeing things as God sees them. Aim at forming judgments about persons, events, ranks, fortunes, changes, objects, such as God forms. Aim at looking at this life as God looks at it. Aim at looking at the life to come, and the world unseen, as God does. Aim at “seeing the King in his beauty.” All things that we see are but shadows to us and delusions, unless we enter into what they really mean. It is not an easy thing to learn that new language which Christ has brought us. He has interp...

Daily Thought For December 4, 2020

  Open The "Garden" of Scripture All who ask receive, those who seek find, and to those who knock it shall be opened. Therefore, let us knock at the beautiful garden of Scripture. It is fragrant, sweet, and blooming with various sounds of spiritual and divinely inspired birds. They sing all around our ears, capture our hearts, comfort the mourners, pacify the angry, and fill us with everlasting joy. St. John Damascene

Daily Thought For December 3, 2020

 Little By Little We Grow in Charity It is not possible to gain control over your soul all at once and have it immediately in your power. Be satisfied, therefore, with gaining control of it little by little, and so learn how to conquer your dominant passion. If you have to put up with others, begin by putting up with yourself. Be patient at finding that you are not perfect. Do you want to enjoy interior peace without having to suffer the day-to-day contradictions and setbacks? Every morning prepare your soul to face the day without getting upset, and throughout the day be careful to return to this resolution. St. Francis de Sales

Daily Thought For December 2, 2020

  His Heart Was Moved With Pity Lectio Matthew 15:29–37 Meditatio “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd.” Today’s Gospel visibly demonstrates Jesus’ compassion in word and action. After days of following the Master, the crowd longs for his presence, his words, and his saving deeds. Jesus also knows the people are hungry! “My heart is moved with pity.…” As the Teacher climbs the mountain and sits before the crowd, the suffering of the sick and the needs of the people stirred his heart with pity. His saving touch heals the physically challenged and those who suffered many kinds of sickness. With seven loaves and a few fish, Jesus multiplies the food so the people will not “collapse on the way.” The healing of the sick and the feeding of the four thousand show clearly how profoundly God embraces our human condition in Jesus Christ. The heart of God understands the physical suffering, pain, and weakness we experience! He is not only a God who is “for” us in our need, but who exper...

Daily Thought For December 1, 2020

  Dare to Step Forward toward God’s Mysterious Presence From early times the Church’s liturgy has set words from one of the psalms at the beginning of Advent, words in which Israel’s Advent, the boundless waiting of that people, has found concentrated expression: “To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul; O my God, in thee I trust …” (Ps 24:1). Such words may seem hackneyed to us, for we no longer attempt the adventures that lead man to his own inner self. While our maps of the earth have become more and more complete, man’s inner self has become increasingly a terra incognita, an alien region, in spite of the fact that there are greater discoveries to be made there than in the visible universe. To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul: recently I came to a new awareness of the dramatic meaning behind this verse when reading an account that the French writer Julien Green recently published concerning his path to conversion to the Catholic Church. He tells how, in his youth, he was in bondage t...

Daily Thought For November 30, 2020

 The Need for Patience What I have noticed with doves is that they mourn in the same way that they rejoice, and that they sing always the same note, both in their songs of joy as in the songs in which they lament and express their complaints and sorrow. Whether they be joyous or sad, they never change their tune. Their cooing is ever the same. It is this holy evenness of spirit which we ought to have. I do not say evenness of humor or of inclination, but of spirit, for we ought to make no account of the fretting of the inferior part of the soul. It is the inferior part of the soul which causes disquietude and caprice when the superior part doesn’t do its duty by rendering itself supreme, and doesn’t keep a vigilant watch to discern its enemies and be aware of the tumults and assaults raised against it by the inferior part. These tumults spring from our senses and our inclinations and passions to make war upon the reason and to subject reason to their laws. I say, moreover, that we ...

Daily Thought For November 28, 2020

  Advent Is A Time To Awaken Hope Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to run through her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope. All the feasts in the Church’s calendar are events of remembrance and hence events of hope. These events, of such great significance for mankind, which are preserved and opened up by faith’s calendar, are intended to become personal memories of our own life history through the celebration of holy seasons by means of liturgy and custom. Our personal memories are nourished by mankind’s great memories; in turn, it is only by translating them into personal terms that these great memories are kept alive. Man’s ability to believe always depends in part on faith having become dear on the path of life, on the humanity ...

Daily Thought For November 27, 2020

  Know That The Kingdom Of God Is Near Lectio Luke 21:29–33 Meditatio “… know that the Kingdom of God is near.…” This passage has always been a bit difficult for me to grasp, perhaps because of its cryptic language. It follows several descriptions of the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem. The scenes painted in the preceding passage are horrific. It ends with signs to help readers know when they can expect the prophecy to be fulfilled, along with a word of encouragement. Those who would have heard this language had probably also heard the stories passed down for several generations about the destruction of Jerusalem, which had occurred 600 years previously. If I had been one of the persons hearing this, I would have been terrified. Yet, the metaphor Jesus uses in today’s Gospel is beautiful and hopeful. He could have used a different metaphor: “Consider the cedar of Lebanon and all the other trees. When their limbs begin to bow under the wind, know that a hurricane i...

Daily Thought For November 26, 2020

  Giving Thanks! Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our prayers are very often requests for help in a time of need. Moreover, this is normal for men and women because we need help, we need others, we need God. Thus it is normal for us to ask God something, to seek help from him; and we must bear in mind that the prayer the Lord taught us, the “Our Father”, is a prayer of petition. With this prayer the Lord teaches us the priorities of our prayer and cleanses and purifies our desires and in this way he cleanses and purifies our hearts. Therefore even though it is in itself normal that we should ask for something in prayer, it should not be exclusively so. There is also cause for thanksgiving and if we pay a little attention we see that we receive very many good things from God. He is so good to us that it is right and necessary to say “thank you”. And our prayer should also be a prayer of praise: if our hearts are open in spite of all the problems we also see the beauty of his creation, the...

Daily Thought For November 25, 2020

Let Us Have This Faith Which Banishes All Fear   Let us have this faith which banishes all fear. We have besides us, facing us, in us, our Jesus, our God who loves us infinitely, is all-powerful, knows what is best for us, tells us to seek the kingdom and that the rest will be given to us. Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Daily Thought For November 24, 2020

  Feasting At The Table of Grace Enrich your soul in the great goodness of God: The Father is your table, the Son is your food, and the Holy Spirit waits on you and then makes His dwelling in you. St. Catherine of Siena

Daily Thought For November 22, 2020

  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 so 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 more joyful about your unpredictable journey with Me.  There is actually much merit in expecting surprises. This helps you view an unforeseen even...

Daily Thought For November 21, 2020

  Our Sufferings Can Encourage Others Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement,  who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.  For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.  Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement.  2 Corinthians 1:3–7

Daily Thought For November 20, 2020

  The Miracle of Cigarettes  If you believe that God exists, then you must also believe that miracles are possible. Christians live by faith, but sometimes, God sends a message to remind us that he exists and has not abandoned us. Drinking tea in the lobby of a Moscow hotel, Alexander Ogorodnikov tells a story about an extremely improbable thing that happened to him upon entering a Soviet prison—something that signaled to him that God led him to that vault of human misery for a higher purpose.       “When they put me in the cell with the other inmates, I said, ‘Peace be with you!’”      Ogorodnikov remembers. “One of the prisoners asked if I was a Christian. I said yes. He told me to prove it. Another inmate said, ‘We are the scum of the earth. We don’t even have cigarettes. If your God will give us cigarettes, we’ll all believe in him.’”       Ogorodnikov told his fellow prisoners that the body is the temple of the H...

Daily Thought For November 19, 2020

Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem It’s clear why Jesus is weeping: he knows what will happen to Jerusalem in the near future. In AD 70, the Roman general Titus and his legions will besiege the city. In the horrific days that follow, many of its citizens will starve to death. Then the Romans will kill nearly everyone else and destroy the Jewish Temple. Knowing Jerusalem’s fate must have broken Jesus’ heart! And yet the very fact that Jesus is weeping should give us some comfort because his tears are a sign of his compassion. He’s not condemning Jerusalem; he’s lamenting over it. He sees that this destruction will be the result of the people’s sin and their rejection of him and the prophets God had sent. He knows it will happen, but he still decides to go to the cross and offer his life for his people. He refuses to abandon them. Despite their sin, he still wants to save them—and the whole world besides. Jesus never abandons us either. But he certainly weeps for our sins because he sees the nee...

Daily Thought For November 18, 2020

  God's Plan For The Renewal of Society Each day you must decrease in self-centeredness and increase in love of neighbor.  Each day, decrease in self-reliance and instead increase your trust in God. Venerable Servant of God Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan

Daily Thought For November 16, 2020

  The Secret of Happiness The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what He is sending us every day in His goodness. St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Daily Thought For November 15, 2020

  A Prayer to Combat the Coronavirus Pandemic Most merciful and Triune God, We come to you in our weakness. We come to you in our fear. We come to you with trust. For you alone are our hope. We place before you the disease present in our world. We turn to you in our time of need. Bring wisdom to doctors. Give understanding to scientists. Endow caregivers with compassion and generosity. Bring healing to those who are ill. Protect those who are most at risk. Give comfort to those who have lost a loved one. Welcome those who have died into your eternal home. Stabilize our communities. Unite us in our compassion. Remove all fear from our hearts. Fill us with confidence in your care. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Amen. — The author of this beautiful prayer is unknown, except to the Lord. If you know who the author is, please let us know so we can give proper acknowledgement. If a temporary attribution is needed, you are welcome to say: “Author unkn...

Daily Thought For November 14, 2020

  A Prayer For Sincere Vocation Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience. St. Teresa of Calcutta

Daily Thought For November 13, 2020

  "How Do I Receive The Grace of God?" “How do I receive the grace of God?” The fact that this question was the driving force of his [Martin Luther] whole life never ceases to make a deep impression on me. For who is actually concerned about this today – even among Christians? What does the question of God mean in our lives? In our preaching? Most people today, even Christians, set out from the presupposition that God is not fundamentally interested in our sins and virtues. He knows that we are all mere flesh. And insofar as people believe in an afterlife and a divine judgement at all, nearly everyone presumes for all practical purposes that God is bound to be magnanimous and that ultimately he mercifully overlooks our small failings. The question no longer troubles us. But are they really so small, our failings? Is not the world laid waste through the corruption of the great, but also of the small, who think only of their own advantage? Is it not laid waste through the power...

Daily Thought For November 11, 2020

 " Do Whatever He Tells You" My children, do you want to be holy? Do the Will of my Son. If you do not refuse what He tells you, you will possess his likeness and sanctity. Do you wish to conquer all evils? Do whatever my Son tells you. Do you wish to obtain a grace, even one that is difficult to obtain? Do whatever My Son tells you and desires of you. Do you wish to have also the very basic things that are necessary in life? Do whatever my Son tells you and desires of you. Indeed, my Son’s words enclose such power that, as He speaks, His word, which contains whatever it is you ask, makes the graces you seek arise within your souls. There are so many souls that find themselves filled with passions, weak, afflicted, unfortunate and wretched. And although they pray and pray, they obtain nothing because they do not do what my Son asks of them – heaven, it seems, is irresponsive to their prayers… My child, listen closely. If you wish to exercise dominion over all things, and give...

Daily Thought For November 10, 2020

  The Gift of Peace Peace is the first thing the angels sang. Peace is the mark of the children of God. Peace is the nurse of love. Peace is the mother of unity. Peace is the rest of the blessed souls. Peace is the dwelling place of eternity. St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Daily Thought For November 9, 2020

  The Beauty of Jesus  “It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.” St. John Paul II

Daily Thought For November 8, 2020

  On The Birthday of Servant of God Dorothy Day Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other's faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much. Servant of God Dorothy Day

Daily Thought For November 7, 2020

  Christian Perfection Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically. St. Anthony Mary Claret

Daily Thought For November 6, 2020

  Remember This Today The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being. St. John Paul II

Daily Thought For November 5, 2020

Grace Is Provided As we have seen, there is sometimes a big difference between what God is actually asking of us, and what we imagine He is asking. We won’t have the grace to do what God is not asking of us. But for what He is asking, He has promised us His grace: God grants what He commands. When God inspires us to do something (if it really is God who is the source of the inspiration), at the same time He supplies the ability to do it, even if it is beyond our capacity or scares us at the start. Every motion that comes from God brings both the light to understand what God intends, and the strength to accomplish it: light that illuminates the mind, and strength that gives power to the will.  Fr. Jacques Philippe

Daily Thought For November 4, 2020

  Depending On Him I WANT YOU TO BE ALL MINE. Your security rests in Me alone: not in other people, not in circumstances. However, you are not yet weaned from other dependencies: You want to depend on helpful people and favorable circumstances, as well as Me.  I am not asking you to become a hermit or otherwise isolate yourself from other people. On the contrary, I want My children to help and love one another. One of the main ways I bless people is through the loving acts of others. However, you need to remember that every good and perfect gift is ultimately from Me, even if it comes to you through human hands.  The main danger of misplaced dependence is that it can border on idolatry. If you let your basic well-being depend on another person’s behavior, you elevate that person to a position that only I should occupy. This is not only displeasing to Me, it is destructive. Because people are imperfect and unpredictable, your life may come to resemble a roller-coaster ride...