August 20, 2025

Memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Heavenly Father, St. Bernard was filled with zeal for your house and was a radiant light in your Church. By his prayers may we be filled with this spirit of zeal and walk always as children of light. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Daily Thought from the Saints

"We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves."

— St. Thomas Aquinas

Daily Scripture Verse

"Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account."

Hebrews 4:12-13

Daily Meditation

"Action relies upon contemplation for its fruitfulness; and contemplation, in its turn, as soon as it has reached a certain degree of intensity, pours out upon our active works some of its overflow. And it is by contemplation that the soul goes to draw directly upon the Heart of God for the graces which it is the duty of the active life to distribute. And so, in the soul of a saint, action and contemplation merge together in perfect harmony to give perfect unity to his life."

— Dom Jean-Baptist Chautard

Daily Catholic Wisdom

For man, to work should be to express the gifts that he has within him as a creature. Because all have that ability to create, to transform the material around them. Work is the possibility of self-expression.

—Madeleine Delbrêl
from her book, “The Dazzling Light of God: A Madeleine Delbrêl Reader”

A Prayer from Notre Dame University

Rev. Louis DelFra, C.S.C.

Christ our teacher, you call each of us to be free of the things that enslave us, and enter into the true freedom of the children of God. Open our hearts, that we may accept your invitation, “Come, follow me.” Give us the grace today to commit our whole selves more fully to you. Help us especially this day to overcome any attachments in our lives that prevent us from following you as energetically as we can. Amen.