Daily Thought from the Saints
"We are born to love, we live to love, and we will die to love still more."
— St. Joseph Cafasso
Daily Scripture Verse
"If I speak in human and angelic tongues* but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
Daily Meditation
"Knock. Persevere in knocking, even to the point of rudeness, if that were possible. There is a way of forcing God and wresting his graces from him, and that way is to ask continually with a firm faith. We must think, with the Gospel: 'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,' which he then repeats by saying, 'Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened' (Luke 11:9-10). We must, therefore, pray during the day, pray at night, and pray every time we rise. Even though God seems either not to hear us or even to reject us, we must continually knock, expecting all things from God but nevertheless also acting ourselves. We must not only ask as though God must do everything himself; we must also make our own effort to act according to his will and with the help of his grace, as all things are done with his support. We must never forget that it is always God who provides; to think thus is the very foundation of humility."
— Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
Daily Catholic Wisdom
Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great, creative immensity of the freedom of good.
—Pope Benedict XVI
from his book, “God Is Ever New”
A Prayer from Notre Dame University
Andrew Fritz, C.S.C.
Father in Heaven, we stand before you today and ask for the grace to do your will. We await the hour when you will call out to those in the tombs, and for the dead to hear your voice. Breathe new life into us, that we may hear your voice, and act in accordance with your will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
Isaiah 49:8-9
Reading
Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the lands and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: come out!
To those in darkness: show yourselves!
Meditation
The Lord brings us out of our prisons, which are sometimes self-imposed by means of our attachments. That is, we hold tightly to the wrong things and thus become bound by those things. To be sure, we should hold fast to some things, such as the truth, correct moral convictions, faith, and hope. Yet, we need the Lord to release us from other things, namely, those that constrain our souls from flourishing in the love of God and neighbor.
Prayer
Lord God of hosts, help me to see what I need to hold onto and what I need to let go, so that I may not be imprisoned by the latter, but may move freely and find peace in Your dwelling places. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Contemplation…