Daily Thought

Practicing Freedom As Children of God In answer to your seventh point, about the spirit of liberty, I shall tell you what I think it is. Every good person is free of committing mortal sins and has no willing attachment to them. Such freedom is necessary for salvation, but that's not what I'm talking about here. The freedom I'm referring to is the "freedom of the children of God" who know they are loved. And what is that? It's the detachment of a Christian heart from all things so that it is free to follow the known will of God. You will readily understand what I'm trying to say if God gives me the grace to explain to you the characteristics and effects of this freedom, and the occasions when it is practiced.  We pray to God above all, that His name may be hallowed, that His kingdom come, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. All this is nothing other than the spirit of freedom; for, provided that the name of God is hallowed, that His kin...

Suffering In The Light of Eternity YOUR LIGHT AND MOMENTARY TROUBLES ARE achieving for you an eternal Glory that far outweighs them all. The Greek word the apostle Paul used for light means "a weightless trifle." Yet he had endured tremendous affliction: He had been imprisoned, beaten, and stoned—received thirty-nine lashes five times, was beaten with rods three times. He had been shipwrecked three times and spent a day and a night adrift at sea. He had often been hungry, thirsty, and cold. Yet Paul considered his massive troubles a weightless trifle because he was comparing them with eternal Glory. I am training you to view your problems this way too — from an eternal perspective.  I don't waste anything in your life, including your suffering. I use it to teach you important lessons here and now. But there is more. Your troubles are also accomplishing something in heavenly realms. They are achieving eternal Glory — contributing to the reward you will receive in heav...

Doing God's Will—Today! Needing to feel secure, we would like always to be sure of doing God's will. This desire to know God's will, so that we can conform ourselves to it, is normal. And usually, if we seek God's will with a sincere heart, we will receive the light to understand it. But not always. Even if we do all we can to find out God's will in this or that situation by prayer, reflection, and spiritual guidance, we will not always get a very clear answer, at least not right away.  There are two reasons for this: first, God treats us as adults, and in many situations he wants us to decide for ourselves. The second reason is purification. If we were always sure we were doing God's will and walking in the truth, we would soon become dangerously presumptuous and at risk of spiritual pride. Not always being absolutely sure we are doing God's will is humbling and painful, but it protects us. It preserves us in an attitude of constant  seeking and preven...

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 the loss. Then direc...

The Challenge of Staying On Track At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time. For example, it has become very difficult today to find trained parish catechists willing to persevere in this work for some years. Something similar is also happening with priests who are obsessed with protecting their free time. This is frequently due to the fact that people feel an overbearing need to guard their personal freedom, as though the task of evangelization was a dangerous poison rather than a joyful response to God’s love which summons us to mission and makes us fulfilled and productive. Some resist giving themselves over completely to mission and thus end up in a state of paralysis and acedia. The problem is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, w...

Walk With A "Faith"Perspective The Lord continues to pass by in our life. He tells us of his presence by a variety of signs, but we often do not recognize him. Christ is present in sickness and tribulation which, if we accept God's Will, can serve to purify us. He exists in the people we work with, in those who need our help, in the members of our family, in the acquaintances of everyday life ... Jesus is behind that piece of good news. He is waiting for us to give him due thanks. He is ready to provide us with more blessings. Unfortunately, there are many occasions when we fail to thank him. What a shame that we should slight God because we are inordinately preoccupied with our own affairs!  What would our life be like if we really lived the presence of God? Wouldn't we find that much of our ill-humor and many of our personal problems would vanish into thin air? If only we could live with more trust in divine Providence, strong in faith, in the certainty of God...

Mary & The Gift of Grace There is something else, something even more important which Mary Immaculate tells us when we come here, and it is that the world’s salvation is not the work of human beings — of science, of technology, of an ideology — but it comes from Grace. What does this word mean? Grace means Love in its purity and beauty, it is God himself as he revealed himself in salvation history, recounted in the Bible and in its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Mary is called “full of grace” (Lk 1:28) and with her specific identity she reminds us of God’s primacy in our life and in the history of the world, she reminds us that the power of God’s love is stronger than evil, that it can fill the void that selfishness creates in the history of individuals, families, nations and the world. These forms of emptiness can become hells where human life is drawn downwards and towards nothingness, losing its meaning and its light. The world suggests filling this emptiness with false reme...