Daily Thought from the Saints
"He took what is mine in order that He might impart to me what is His. He took it not to overturn it but to fill it."
– St. Ambrose
Daily Scripture Verse
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Daily Meditation
"[Jesus] sees in children traits and attitudes that are essential in anyone if he is to gain heaven, and, even in this life, if he is to enter the kingdom of faith. A child is devoid of even the slightest feeling of self-sufficiency. It is in constant need of its parents, and knows it. A child is fundamentally a being in need, and this is what a Christian should be before his Father God, a being in total need. A child lives fully in the present and nothing more. The adult’s less admirable predisposition is to look restlessly to the future, ignoring the here and now, the present moment, which ought to be lived to the full."
—Fr. Francis Fernández Carvajal
Daily Catholic Wisdom
Today the people of God thirst for spiritual drink in a world that is ever more secularized and emptied of God. They want to find teachers of silence, of recollection, of prayer; and instead they find busy clerics and often religious who have gotten stuck in postconciliar confusions and antiauthoritarian disputes, endlessly struggling for their own identity.
—Hans Urs von Balthasar
from his book, “A Short Primer for Unsettled Laymen”
A Prayer
Rev. Matthew Kuczora, C.S.C.
Loving God, you came to call us, those who are not perfect, and you came as the physician of our souls. Heal us, loving Lord, and inspire us to join the crowd of the imperfect who follow you to perfection in eternal life. Amen.
The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
Luke 7:36
Reading
A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. (Luke 7:36)
Meditation
Jesus dined with the sinners and tax collectors. But He also dined with the Pharisees. Jesus wants us to save the Pharisees as well as sinners and tax collectors. The reason that He criticizes the Pharisees is not that He does not care about them, but that He does. And His criticism is harsh, because they have hardened their hearts in a way that is especially dangerous for their salvation and Jesus is trying to break through that hardness.
Prayer
Help me not to fall into seeing anyone as beyond salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Contemplation…