Daily Thought from the Saints
"The life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God."
– St. Anthony of Padua
Daily Scripture Verse
"He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8
Daily Meditation
"Francis [de Sales] insists that true devotion must touch every area of our life. True devotion is not just a matter of spiritual practices but of bringing all our life under the lordship of Christ. Francis is known for his slogan: ‘Live, Jesus! Live, Jesus!’ What he means by this is an invitation to Jesus to ‘live and reign in our hearts forever and ever’ . . . In other words, for Francis, to live the devout life is to reach the point in our love for God and neighbor that we eagerly (‘carefully, frequently, and promptly’) desire to do His will in all the various ways in which it is communicated to us: in the duties of our state in life, in the objective teaching of God’s Word, in opportunities and occasions presented to us, in response to our interior inspirations."
— Ralph Martin
Daily Catholic Wisdom
"If you have never before prayed to Mary, do so now. Can you not see that if Christ himself willed to be physically formed in her for nine months and then be spiritually formed by her for thirty years, it is to her that we must go to learn how to have Christ formed in us? Only she who raised Christ can raise a Christian."
—Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
A Prayer from Notre Dame University
Members of the Holy Cross Novitiate
Eternal God, as we await the coming of your Son in glory, raise up men and women to bring your message of hope to a waiting world. Instill in them an unshakable trust in your divine providence and a zeal for ministry to inspire your people to a deeper confidence in your saving power. 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 Samuel 26:8-9
Reading
Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need a second thrust!” But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
Meditation
God permits the situations that arise in one's life and there is a right way to deal with each situation. The right way leads one closer to God, while bad ways do not. So, every situation, even a difficult one, contains an opportunity. Abishai is right to see the situation before him and David as allowed by God. But he wrongly sees how to deal with it. David sees the right way to deal with the situation and, in this case, the right way is to show mercy.
Prayer
Lord, help me to see the right ways of dealing with the situations that arise in my life, so that by my actions I and others may come closer to You. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Contemplation…