Daily Thought from the Saints
"No one can make excuses, because anyone can love God; and he does not ask the soul for more than to love him, because he loves the soul, and it is his love."
— Blessed Angela of Foligno
Daily Scripture Verse
"We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the evil one. We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."
1 John 5:19-20
Daily Meditation
"The vow of poverty is a generous renunciation and detachment from the heavy burden of temporal things. It is an alleviation of the spirit, it is a relief afforded to human infirmity, the liberty of a noble heart to strive after eternal and spiritual blessings. It is a satiety and abundance, in which the thirst after earthly treasures is allayed, and a sovereignty and ownership, in which a most noble enjoyment of all riches is established. All this, my daughter, and many other blessings are contained in voluntary poverty, and all this the sons of the world are ignorant and deprived of, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches and enemies of this holy and opulent poverty."
— Ven. Mary of Agreda
Daily Catholic Wisdom
When lovers are together, they spend hours and hours repeating the same thing: ‘I love you!’ What is missing in the people who think the rosary monotonous is Love; and everything that is not done for love is worthless.
—Sr. Lucia of Fatima
from “Calls from the Message of Fatima”
Daily Journey with the Pope
“For only the Lord can give us confirmation of what we are worth. He tells us this every day from the cross: he died for us, to show us how precious we are in his eyes. There is no obstacle or failure that can prevent his tender embrace. The examination of conscience helps a great deal, because in this way we see that our heart is not a road where everything passes without us knowing about it. No. To see: what passed by today? What happened? What made me react? What made me sad? What made me joyful? What was bad, and did I harm others? Seeing the route our feelings took, the attractions in my heart during the day.”
Pope Francis
A Prayer
Members of the Holy Cross Novitiate
Almighty and ever-loving Father, you know us better than we know ourselves. Too often, we place our trust in things of this world, failing to place our full trust in you. Your Son proclaimed to us that you know even the number of hairs on our heads. Help us to behold the great love you have for us, and all of our brothers and sisters, that we may more faithfully place our trust in you. We ask this through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Abbot’s Daily Lectio Divina - Matthew 10:26-27
Abbot Austin Murphy, O.S.B., St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
Reading
[Jesus instructed his apostles,] “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.“
Meditation
We can be afraid to bear witness to the truth, especially when it is not popular with the prevailing voices in our culture. But while these voices speak loudly and in the daylight, the Lord speaks the truth in the darkness as it were to our consciences. The Lord‘s voice whispers within. We are to proclaim the truth. All will be revealed, including the wrongness of those who resist the truth. God will have the last word forever.
Prayer
Lord, help me to see that voices that resist the truth, even if powerful in the present, will not prevail forever, but that Your voice will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Contemplation…