Daily Thought

 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 ...

  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 ...

  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...

  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...

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

  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

  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...

  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

  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...

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...

  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

  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

  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...

  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

  "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...

 " 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...

  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

  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

  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

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

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

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

  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...

  Prayer St. John Paul II's Father Taught Him Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and Your divine perfections, for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy faith, for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this faith, for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You,  for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You, for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love, for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends You, O my God.

  Prayer For All Souls Merciful Father, On this day, we are called to remember those who have died, Particularly those who have died in the past year, And pray for their joyful reunion with you, their loving creator. As your son taught us to call the stranger  neighbor, our fallen are many— Names we will never know, Voices we have never heard, In lands we may never visit, Yet brothers and sisters all. And so we pray. For victims of war, caught in the crossfires of conflicts we could not quell, for soldiers and civilians, adults and children, we pray … Grant eternal rest, O Lord. For those migrants who have died seeking a haven where they hoped to find safety and opportunity for themselves and for their families, we pray … Grant eternal rest, O Lord. For victims of hunger, denied their share in the bounty you have placed before us, we pray … Grant eternal rest, O Lord. For victims of AIDS, Malaria, Ebola, and other infectious diseases, who died before adequate care could reach ...

  Stay Focused! Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world. Pope Benedict XVI