Daily Thought

A Prayer For Healing Lord, You invite all who are burdened to come to you. Allow Your healing Hand to heal me. Touch my soul with Your compassion for others; touch my heart with Your courage and infinite Love for all; touch my mind with Your Wisdom, and may my mouth always proclaim Your praise. Teach me to reach out to You in all my needs, and help me to lead others to You by my example. Most loving Heart of Jesus, bring me health in body and spirit that I may serve You with all my strength. Touch gently this life which you have created, now and forever. Amen. from Our Lady of Lourdes website

Through Suffering Today the Lord Jesus is giving me an awareness of Himself and of His most tender love and care for me. He is bringing me to understand deeply how everything depends on His will, and  how He allows certain difficulties precisely for our merit, so that our fidelity might be clearly manifest. And through this, I have been given strength for suffering and self-denial. (Diary, 1409)  Reflection No, Jesus isn't giving us some kind of test. He's offering us a way to grow stronger in our love and faith. To be better able to offer deeper sympathy, and sometimes even empathy, to those who suffer.  Prayer  Dear Lord, I know that everything You give me is good. But, sometimes, it's so hard.  Jesus, I trust in You.  from Day by Day with Saint Faustina 365 Reflections  by Susan Tassone p.211

Pope Francis Strengthens & Encourages Us “When evening had come” (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but ...

Security I am where God wills me to be, and so I have found rest and security. His wisdom governs me, His power defends me, His grace sanctifies me, His mercy encompasses me, His joy sustains me and all will go well with me. St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

Walking By Faith & Not By Sight Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters 

Great Reminder As We Celebrate The Annunciation Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the doing you have to worry about. St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Avoiding A "Victim" Spirit and Being Confident in Christ In the Bible, we see people who are suffering from all sorts of ailments and diseases and are seeking out Jesus for healing. But where are the people asking Jesus to heal them of their sins? Yes, our physical problems can loom large, but Jesus is just as concerned with our spiritual illnesses—our attachments to sin and our avoidance of his ways. Today’s Gospel shows us several people who need to start down the path of spiritual healing. First, there is the man who has been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus asks him if he wants to be well, he doesn’t answer directly and instead complains about his situation. After healing him, Jesus tells him not to sin anymore, “so that nothing worse may happen to you” (John 5:14). These brief interactions give us clues that this man probably had more problems than just physical ones. Maybe he was even reluctant to be healed, incredible as it seems. He was used to living wi...

Everything Counts We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. St. Teresa of Calcutta

All For The Glory of God I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or have forgotten Him. St. Francis Xavier Cabrini

Make More Time For God COME AWAY WITH ME for a while. The world, with its nonstop demands, can be put on hold. Most people put Me on hold, rationalizing that someday they will find time to focus on Me. But the longer people push Me into the background of their lives, the harder it is for  them to find Me.  You live among people who glorify busyness; they have made time  a tyrant that controls their lives. Even those who know Me as Savior tend to march to the tempo of the world. They have bought into the illusion that more is always better: more meetings, more programs,  more activity. I have called you to follow Me on a solitary path, making time  alone with Me your highest priority and deepest Joy, It is a pathway largely unappreciated and often despised. However, you have chosen the better thing, which will never be taken away from you. Moreover, as you walk close to Me, 1 can bless others through you. "The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossomi...

On The Solemnity of St. Joseph This just man, who bore within himself the entire heritage of the Old Covenant, was also brought into the "beginning" of the New and Eternal Covenant in Jesus Christ. May he show us the paths of this saving Covenant as we stand at the threshold of the next millennium, in which there must be a continuation and further development of the "fullness of time" that belongs the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of the Word. St. John Paul II Redemptoris Custos #32

Overcoming Worry Worry is a weakness from which very few of us are entirely free. We must be on guard against this most insidious enemy of our peace of soul. Instead, let us foster confidence in God, and thank Him ahead of time for whatever He chooses to send us. Blessed Solanus Casey

Be Not Afraid Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence. St. John Paul II

All Glory To God All that is good in me I owe to God alone, whose fatherly action is continuous and is so plainly visible in my life that, in spite of great trials and this recent sorrow — the greatest of all — I can still offer Him fervent thanks and must try in future to transform my soul and life to His service. Servant of God Elizabeth Leseur

Keeping Our Inner Peace Don’t worry to the point of losing your inner peace.  Pray with perseverance, with faith, with calmness, and serenity.  St. Pio of Pietrelcina

The Gift of Peace The more a person loves God, the more reason he has to hope in Him. This hope produces in the Saints an unutterable peace, which they preserve even in adversity, because as they love God, and know how beautiful He is to those who love Him, they place all their confidence and find all their repose in Him alone. St. Alphonsus Liguori

In These Times Trust Is Needed I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls. St. Faustina Divine Mercy In My Soul (1074)

The Importance of Humor Lord, give me a sense of humor so that I may take some happiness from this life and share it with others. St. Thomas More

Speak To God With Confidence Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends. Speak to Him often of your business, your plans, your troubles, your fears - of everything that concerns you. Converse with Him confidently and frankly; for God is not wont to speak to a soul that does not speak to Him. St. Alphonsus Liguori

Grace & Mercy The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy—the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer—and when she brings people close to the sources of the Savior’s mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser. Of great significance in this area is constant meditation on the Word of God, and above all conscious and mature participation in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. The Eucharist brings us ever nearer to that love which is more powerful than death: “For as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup,” we proclaim not only the death of the Redeemer but also His resurrection, “until he comes” in glory. The same Eucharistic rite, celebrated in memory of Him who in His messianic mission revealed the Father to us by means of His words and His cross, attests to the inexhaustible love by virtue of which He desires always to be united with us and present in our midst, coming to meet every h...

The Gift of Faith Today, together with so many signs of goodness a certain spiritual desert is also developing around us. At times we get sort of feeling, from certain events we have news of every day, that the world is not moving towards the building of a more brotherly and peaceful community; the very ideas of progress and wellbeing have shadows too. Despite the greatness of scientific discoveries and technological triumphs, human beings today do not seem to have become truly any freer or more human; so many forms of exploitation, manipulation, violence, abuse and injustice endure.… A certain kind of culture, moreover, has taught people to move solely within the horizon of things, of the feasible, to believe only in what they can see and touch with their own hands. Yet the number of those who feel bewildered is also growing, and search to go beyond a merely horizontal view of reality they are prepared to believe in everything and nothing. In this context certain fundamental ques...

Jesus Says, "Come to Me"       What is most burdensome in life . . . is a lack of love. It weighs upon us never to receive a smile, not to be welcomed. Certain silences are oppressive, even at times within families, between husbands and wives, between parents and children, among siblings. Without love, the burden becomes even heavier, intolerable. I think of elderly people living alone, and families who receive no help in caring for someone at home with special needs. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden," Jesus says (Matthew 11:28).      Dear families, the Lord knows our struggles; he knows them. He knows the burden we have in our lives. But the Lord also knows our great desire to find joy and rest! Do you remember? Jesus said, ". . .that your joy may be complete" (cf. John 15:11). Jesus wants our joy to be complete! He said this to the apostles, and today he says it to us. Here, then, is the first thing I would like to share with you...

Seeing Through God's Eyes Above all, always see Jesus in every person, and consequently treat each one not only as an equal and as a brother or sister, but also with great humility, respect and selfless generosity. Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Encourage Someone Today Anxiety weighs down the human heart,  but a good word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25

Opportunities Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily. St. Francis de Sales

Joyful Service If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our hearts. It is joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing. St. Katharine Drexel

How Can I Keep From Singing The soul of the one who serves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for singing. St. John of the Cross

Thinking Of This As I Prepare For Mass Any kind of difficult situation is a trial of faith. I may feel alone and helpless in the face of such trials. Yet the truth is really quite different, paradoxically different. In these highly difficult moments, God is actually closest to me. In times of huge sexual temptations, Christ says to Saint Catherine of Siena: ‘I have never been so close to you as in this moment.’ In such moments, God is simply just waiting for me. He is waiting for me to discover the value and treasure of the Eucharist. In every temptation, crisis, fear, or moment of despair, he wants to embrace and transform me by this redeeming sacrament. Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer, The Mystery of Faith: Meditations on the Eucharist