April 21

Daily Thought from the Saints

"Here is a rule for everyday life: Do not do anything which you cannot offer to God."

— St. Jean Marie Vianney

Daily Scripture Verse

"And Samuel said, 'Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.'"

1 Samuel 15:22

Daily Meditation

"There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action. It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognise His operation until it has ceased. If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful God would continually reveal Himself to us, and we should see His divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence we should exclaim: 'It is the Lord', and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and should discover easily that nothing was wanting to us, and that the constant providence of God disposed Him to bestow upon us at every moment whatever we required."

—Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Daily Catholic Wisdom

No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbor; nor has any man a right to be so immersed in active life as to neglect the contemplation of God.

—St. Augustine of Hippo
quoted in the book, “Desire and Unity”

A Prayer from Notre Dame University

Rev. Chase Pepper, C.S.C.

Father, thank you for the Easter joy with which you have blessed us. Drive this joy ever-deeper in our hearts, that our fears may dissolve and that we may find strength to give witness to our encounters with the risen Christ. Amen.