Daily Thought from the Saints
"There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside."
— St. Basil the Great
Daily Scripture Verse
"What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us."
Romans 8:35-37
Daily Meditation
"A man must go through a long and great conflict in himself before he can learn fully to overcome himself, and to draw his whole affection towards God. When a man stands upon himself he is easily drawn aside after human comforts. But a true lover of Christ, and a diligent pursuer of virtue, does not hunt after comforts, nor seek such sensible sweetnesses, but is rather willing to bear strong trials and hard labors for Christ."
— Thomas a' Kempis
Daily Catholic Wisdom
There are only two kinds of people in the world: saints, who know they are sinners, and sinners who think they are saints. Your entrance card to Doctor Jesus’ office is your spiritual sickness; He treats only the needy. Do you qualify?
—Peter Kreeft
from his book “The Man Who Left His Mark: How Mark’s Gospel Answers Modern Questions”
Daily Journey with the Pope
“Discernment does not claim absolute certainty, it is not a chemically pure method, it does not claim absolute certainty, because it is about life, and life is not always logical, it has many aspects that cannot be enclosed in one category of thought. We would like to know precisely what should be done, yet even when it happens, we do not always act accordingly. How many times have we, too, had the experience described by the apostle Paul, who says: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want” (Rom. 7:19).”
Pope Francis
A Prayer
Members of the Holy Cross Novitiate
Lord Jesus, you showed your overwhelming mercy in the parable of the good Samaritan. May we also be granted this same generosity of spirit so that we can extend your grace to our brothers and sisters in need. We ask this in your most holy name. Amen.
The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina - Luke 10:25-27
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
Reading
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Meditation
We sometimes distort the teaching to love by reducing love to a feeling, to being nice, or to accepting, where “accepting” means never disagreeing with another about what is good for him. But love is wanting the other’s genuine good, even if the other wants to do what is not good for him. You cannot force the other to do what is good, but love can mean patiently disagreeing with the other and charitably offering a counterwitness.
Prayer
Help me to love as Christ loved, that is, even when it is difficult and disagreeable to do so. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Contemplation…