Daily Thought

  His Love I TAKE GREAT DELIGHT IN YOU, I REJOICE OVER YOU WITH SINGING. Sometimes you feel unworthy of this amazing Love. No one could ever be good enough or work hard enough to deserve My Love, but I have chosen to relate to you mercifully. My death on the cross completely satisfied justice, opening the way for Me to show you mercy. As your resurrected Savior, I am free to bestow eternal Life and Love on all who believe in Me. I beautify the humble with salvation, and I unashamedly take pleasure in My people.  I love you passionately, but I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by the force of My Love. Be assured that I restrain Myself from “crushing” anyone with My mighty ardor. I know precisely what each of My children can handle. However, it is possible to increase your capax Dei: your capacity for Me. One of the best ways is to delight yourself in Me—taking pleasure in Me above all else. Ask My Spirit to help you in this endeavor. Your growing enjoyment of Me will strengthe...

  Walk In Confidence Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Don’t look at your weaknesses. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything. St. Catherine of Siena

 For God So Loved The World Many souls cannot believe that they are so loved by God. They think they are unworthy of his divine love because they are so poor. They do not consider that God in his goodness loves and does good to all without distinction and without seeing whether they merit it. If he were to look at this, few or none would find him. I wish that all could see what my eyes see. Then I am sure that no one would ever be disheartened or would doubt the love of God. Let us never be guilty of this great ingratitude. Ask him for greater love and fidelity, because you have great need of it in order to correspond to the great love that God has for you, [which is] more than sufficient for us to become saints. The greatest and most delicate secrets of divine love are those which the Lord works in the interior of souls, those whom he enables to understand these mysteries. In his goodness he does this with us. All good is from God, and it comes only from God. His also is the light...

  Proclaim To All The Nations First Reading: Acts 3:11–26 Responsorial Psalm: Ps 8:2ab and 5, 6–7, 8–9 Gospel: Lk 24:35–48 In today’s first reading, Peter and John act on the commission that Jesus gave them in today’s Gospel. “Repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his [Christ’s] name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47). So Peter preaches to his fellow Israelites in Solomon’s Portico. His sermon is thoroughly “Jewish.” He says that the God who raised Jesus is “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers” (Acts 3:13). He further claims that the suffering of the Messiah was “announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets” (v. 18). Jesus is the “prophet like Moses” (v. 22) to whom Moses himself bore witness. But by citing the promise God made to Abraham—“In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 25; see Gn 12:3)—Peter hints that the good news is meant for all the ...

The Risen Christ Brings Great Joy!     “Christianity is not that complex of oppressive factors … but it is peace, it is joy, it is love, it is life that is always renewed, like the secret pulsing of nature at the beginning of spring. The source of this joy is in the Risen Christ, who frees men from the slavery of sin, and invites them to be with him a new creature, waiting for blessed eternity.”    St. John XXIII

The Appointment Time Draws Near Lectio Matthew 26:14–25 Meditatio “My appointed time draws near.” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus shows us that fidelity to one’s vocation is lived one minute at a time. Jesus’ fidelity is a lived out in a continuous stream of “now” moments: announcing the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, forgiving the sinful, all leading up to the appointed hour. The Passover is beginning. Pilgrims are streaming into Jerusalem, including Jesus and his closest disciples. Jesus knows what is coming. “My appointed time draws near.” Already in chapter 26 of Matthew he has foretold his crucifixion during the Passover (v. 2). He has declared the anointing at Bethany a preparation for his burial (v. 12). He knows, too, that one of his own disciples will betray him—an inside job. In the face of betrayal, torture, and death, what does Jesus do? He goes on with his vocation of revealing the faithful love of God for his people. At this precise moment it means preparing and celebrat...

  We Have Faith & Possess Life Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering. At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated. You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense. You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised. “For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay. But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him.” We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life. Hebrews 10:32-39

  Come & Rest   “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 God is never far away, and he always desires a relationship with you. God continuously breathes life into you, keeping you in existence. God understands how hard it is for you. How do you feel about your relationship with God? If you can’t feel any connection with God right now, what would be the sign that would convince you, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that you are loved by God? Can you find even a little bit of that evidence of God’s love right now in your life? What do you imagine would be the most wonderful thing God could want from you? For you Prayer:      Lord, take my burdens and give me rest. Kathryn J. Hermes, Minute Meditations for Lent, ed. Christine S. Setticase (Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media, 2009), 48.

  Counting Our Blessings       When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,          the moon and the stars that you have established;       what are human beings that you are mindful of them,          mortals that you care for them? Psalm 8:3–4 You are something beautiful that God is creating at every moment. God can hate nothing he has made. God’s love for his creation is stronger than a mother’s love, more faithful than a father’s love, more enduring than the seasons, and more gentle than the softest rain coaxing new life from the earth. What are some signs of God’s love for you? Can you count your blessings in the past day—even seemingly small blessings, such as a friend calling, or the sun pouring in your window, or waking up on time? What is the most wonderful thing God has done for you? Prayer: Lord, open my eyes so I can see all your blessings. Kathryn J. Hermes, Minute Meditations for...

  Victorious Living RECEIVE MY GLORY-STRENGTH. When ongoing problems require you to stick it out over the long haul, your faith sometimes falters. That’s when you resort to grimly gritting your teeth—simply passing time in a negative frame of mind. This is not the way I want you to deal with difficulties. I am sovereign over the circumstances of your life, so there are always opportunities to be found in them. Sometimes those opportunities are so obvious you can’t miss seeing them. At other times—especially when the journey is hard and seems endless—you have to search for hidden treasure. Do not be like the man who hid his master’s talent in the ground because he was disgruntled with his circumstances. He gave up and took the easy way out: blaming his hard situation rather than making the most of his opportunity. The truth is, the more difficult your situation, the more treasure there is for you to discover in it. I gladly give you Glory-strength; it is limitless and freely availab...

  Comforting Words from In Sine Jesu Here I asked Our Lord about my daily routine. So often I am tired and need to rest. I feel guilty about not being able to keep up what I would see as a more normal daily round of prayer and activities. Sometimes I cannot say all of the Office. This weighs on me. So I asked Our Lord what I should be doing.  For now, your daily routine is what you can do. I will help you and My Mother will help you, gently and little by little, to make the changes that are necessary. Do not give in to the feelings of guilt that assail you because you are not living up to the ideal you have set for yourself. I do not ask you to be faithful to an ideal. I ask you only to be My friend and to live at every moment in the grace of My divine friendship. All the rest follows. Perfection is the fruit of friendship with Me, not a precondition for it. You, and many souls like you, are confused about this. My friendship is not earned, it is not something acquired by meas...

  Paul Spent Everything On Proclaiming Christ From Miletus he had the presbyters of the church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews,  and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes.  I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know,  except that in one city after another the holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel ...