January 6, 2024

Daily Thought from the Saints

"Let each of us accept the truth of the following statement and try to make it our most fundamental principle: Christ's teaching will never let us down, while worldly wisdom always will. Christ Himself said that this sort of wisdom was like a house with nothing but sand as its foundation, while His own was like a building with solid rock as its foundation."

— St. Vincent de Paul

Daily Scripture Verse

"No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear."

Ephesians 4:29

Daily Meditation

"Christians long ago concluded that each individual human being has his or her own particular guardian angel. Though the Church has never defined the teaching about individual guardian angels, the Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the matter this way, quoting St. Basil: ‘From infancy to death human life is surrounded by [the angels’] watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life’. In this light, we can turn to our guardian angels for help in spiritual warfare, especially to resist the temptations of the Enemy. Yet angels are more than guardians; they are also warriors."

— Paul Thigpen

Daily Catholic Wisdom

When you say the Our Father, God’s ear is next to your lips.

—Saint André Bessette

A Prayer from Notre Dame University

Rev. Andréw Gawrych, C.S.C.

Saint André Bessette, you knew what it was like to be rejected. Your own religious family of the Holy Cross did not accept you at first. You yourself said, “When I first arrived to the college, I was shown the door… and I remained there for forty years!” Yet even more painfully, when the Lord chose you to be God’s healing hand in others’ lives, you incurred the misunderstanding and rejection of those who failed to see God’s greatness through you. Intercede for us, Saint André, so that we may have the same strength in the face of ridicule. May we remain steadfast to the mission God has entrusted to us. Amen.

The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL

1 John 5:5-7

Reading

Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.

Meditation

That Jesus came through water and blood seems to mean that He is revealed especially through His baptism (water) and His crucifixion (blood). He is the one to lead us into the destroying waters, so that we die to sin, and out of the waters of rebirth, so that we gain new life. His passage through crucified death to resurrected life further shows this, and especially fulfills it. The Spirit prompts us within to accept this as true and thus to follow Jesus to salvation.

Prayer

Help me, Holy Spirit, to come back again and again, by repeated acts of faith, to Jesus as my Savior. In His Name I pray. Amen.

Contemplation…