Daily Thought from the Saints
"Helping a person in need is good in itself. But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with which it is done. If you show resentment because you are helping the person out of a reluctant sense of duty, then the person may receive your help but may feel awkward and embarrassed. This is because he will feel beholden to you. If, on the other hand, you help the person in a spirit of joy, then the help will be received joyfully. The person will feel neither demeaned nor humiliated by your help, but rather will feel glad to have caused you pleasure by receiving your help. And joy is the appropriate attitude with which to help others because acts of generosity are a source of blessing to the giver as well as the receiver."
— St. John Chrysostom
Daily Scripture Verse
"He who pursues righteousness and kindness will find life[a] and honor. A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust."
Proverbs 21:21-22
Daily Meditation
"Teresa [of Avila] is as insistent as [St. John of the Cross] that there is no prayer development unless it be accompanied by purification from faults. Given what a love communion with utter Purity demands, one could not conceive the matter to be otherwise: only the pure can commune deeply with the all-pure One. Obvious as this is to the saint, the lesser of us have difficulty in understanding that we have many defects that need to be rooted out. ... In working actively at rooting out what is amiss, we are to be guided by the principles of revelation, not by a naturalistic common sense. There are people, says Teresa, who desire penance that they may serve God the better, but they are overly careful about not injuring their health. 'You need never fear that they will kill themselves . . . their love is not yet ardent enough to overwhelm their reason.' Going on 'at a snail's pace . . . we shall never get to the end of the road . . . So for the love of the Lord, let us make a real effort.'"
— Fr. Thomas Dubay
Daily Catholic Wisdom
Let us pray that we may be freed from fear and intimidation, but above all from the desire for revenge and violence.
—Bl. Jerzy Popieluszko
quoted in the book, “Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko: Truth versus Totalitarianism”
A Prayer from Notre Dame University
Rev. Andrew Gawrych, C.S.C.
Lord, like your first disciples, we wish to abandon all to follow you. Yet we have learned that we still have it within ourselves to hold back. We wish to be whole-hearted, yet we are hesitant. May the promise of your love and friendship continue to draw us along the paths of discipleship in this world to our eternal home in the world to come. Amen.
The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Reading
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Meditation
St. Paul says that the Corinthians ‘have been sanctified,’ that is, made holy. At the same time, they are ‘called to be holy.’ That suggests that, having been made holy, we are still to grow in holiness. Holiness is something in which we should continually make progress. In that way, we enter more deeply into God’s own life, for holiness is of God. And since holiness is of God, we call on the name of the Lord to grow in it.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I call on Your holy Name, in order to grow in holiness and to come closer to You. Amen.
Contemplation…