January 3, 2924

Daily Thought from the Saints

"It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world!"

— St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Daily Scripture Verse

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

Psalm 19:14

Daily Meditation

"It is necessary to have an absolutely sure intention in all our actions, so that the generous fulfillment of our daily duties may be directed toward the highest supernatural ideal. Thus, our life, apart from moments of prayer, will be a prayerful life. It is clear that the habit of giving an upward glance to God at the moment of action is a great assistance in aiding us to behave always with a pure intention and in freeing us from our natural impulses and fancies, so, that, retaining our self-mastery, or rather, God becoming the sole Master, all our movements become dependent upon the Holy Spirit. We see in the Gospel that whenever our Lord was about to undertake some important step, He always paused for a moment to raise His eyes to Heaven, and only after this moment of recollection did He take up the work He had to do. 'He lifted up His eyes to Heaven' is a phrase that recurs with significant frequency. And doubtless, when there was no outward sign of this prayer, there was the inward offering. The ideal is the same for us. The constant subjection of self to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is made easier from the fact of His presence in the soul, where He is asked explicitly to preside over all our doings . . .  We shall not submit wholeheartedly to the invisible Guest unless He is kept in close proximity to us."

— Raoul Plus, S.J.

Daily Catholic Wisdom

Every evil is a sickness of soul, but virtue offers the cause of its health.

- St. Basil the Great -

A Prayer from Notre Dame University

Rev. Stephen Lacroix, C.S.C.

Almighty Father, John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him and recognized him as your Son. Open the eyes of our hearts, that we might see the face of Christ in our brothers and sisters, especially in the poor and lowly of the world. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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

1 John 3:1-3

Reading

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Meditation

In this world, we are caught in the middle. The life of God is within us, planted through the gift of faith in Christ. So, we are children of God. But that life hasn’t reached its full maturation, as it will when we see God “as He is.” So, we are on the way but not there yet. To reach God, we work on being pure in heart and in conduct. And as we do this, the world looks on us as strange. In its eyes, we are absurd and perhaps even threatening.

Prayer

Help me to work on being pure in Your eyes, regardless of what the world thinks. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Contemplation…