Where is your hope? Let’s lift our hearts to God in an act of hope today.
O Lord God, I hope by your grace for the pardon of all my sins and after life here to gain eternal happiness because you have promised it, who are infinitely powerful, faithful, kind, and merciful. In this hope I intend to live and die. Amen.
The love of God is linked with the love of neighbor. “Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness” (1 Jn 2:9). Christianity is not strictly a personal salvation story; such a faith can fall into self-centeredness and disdain for the world. We are called to be leaven in the world, to bring light to the darkness. Jesus wants us to be his arms and legs and voice in the world.
Am I content to say prayers and make weekly Mass―but do little else? Might God be asking me to get more involved in the parish? In school? In some kind of charity work? How can I get beyond myself today?
Lord, help me live according to the New Testament. Amen
How well do you sit still? Maybe you’re like me and busy yourself barely having a break. Or maybe you live alone and the silence is painful so you distract yourself with noise. We need silence in our life where we can be still and know God. Where we can sort out what it means to be human.
Prayer, leading to friendship with God, means walking with him, simply being in his presence, shutting everything else out of our minds. Prayer means embracing silence.
Lord, thank you for meeting me in the silence of my life so I can see you throughout my life. Amen
When we realize the power we have to build up another with our words and deeds, life can become far more exciting as we put this ability into practice. We are given the power to build the kingdom of love, let us always remember.
The glory and power are yours, Lord forever! I can help build your Kingdom through my praise. Building up others, reminding them who we are in you and the things we can do through you. Hope and healing reigns when we remember your promises. We need to hear your word through scripture and through the voice of others to discern your holy will.
Where there is no love, put love and you will find love. St John of the Cross.
We need to remember we are part of God’s story. As human beings, we cannot walk through life on our own. We need rescue, healing, and forgiveness. In short, we need God. We need the good news, the news of the King who has come, making lasting change possible.
This alone is our personal hope and the basis of our personal ministry to others.
Lord, please help me to see that my personal story is part of a much larger story that you are crafting and shaping into a beautiful grand narrative—the ultimate narrative. Thank you for inviting me in and including me in your grand story. Would you help me to keep your story front and center as I go about my life, and would you use me in any way you wish to bring glory to your name? In the name of my great Savior, Jesus. Amen
Do you live with a sense of Kingdom urgency, with confidence you have a soul to save and live life for the eternity that awaits us? With the tug of the world, we desperately need to keep an eternal perspective like Jesus.
This perspective was lightning focused on the mission that matters: bringing God’s love to the world, and being a conduit of grace. We live in a noisy world and as a result, we can no longer hear the voice of God in our lives. Through prayer we accept the gifts we have been given by God. Gifts like Faith. Hope. Love.
Prayer is talking to God and an elevation of our soul, offering homage and asking for God to grow us in holiness for His glory. The sanctification of the soul is the work of God. Our work is the intention and desire to transform our hearts through prayer and penance. Developing our awareness to eliminate anything that separates us from the love of God. When we begin to pray, we cease to sin. When we cease to pray, we begin to sin. Let’s keep an eternal perspective today!
God, give me an eternal perspective. Help my understanding of eternal life become bigger so that the cares of this world become smaller. Amen
Today we celebrate Memorial Day, a day where we pause, reflect and honor those who have given their lives to our country. These individuals, drawn outside themselves to a larger mission and purpose, served and protected our country’s liberties and freedom.
Yesterday in the Church, we celebrated the Holy Trinity, where we remembered and celebrated the fundamental mystery of our faith: One God in three persons, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This divine circle of love, of which we are a part, is our summons to mission and call to action. We are to draw people into the dynamics of divine life.
How deeply do you dive into this mystery and remember whose you are and how much you are loved? It is only through this identity we can draw others to divine love. It is by giving and trusting God with our whole heart we are able to love, taking our narcissistic self interests out of the equation.
Our ability to love others is connected with our ability to receive God’s love. Authentic love is of one piece and how we love anything is how we love everything. Let us always remember the power we have participating in this divine love. A love that serves as a beacon, drawing the lost, brokenhearted or hurting souls towards safety, freedom and honor.
Lord, all power in heaven and earth has been given to me through You. Energize me with zeal to go and make disciples of all who cross my path, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that You have commanded. Help me remember and hold dearly, that You are with me always, until the end of the age. You will not, do not and cannot abandon me and all Your creation. Glory and honor is Yours, now and forever. Amen
How well do you know the Holy Spirit?
The person of the Holy Spirit guides us in our spiritual depth of relationship with God. Attuning our ears to listen, our mind to understand and our hearts to obey God’s word. The quality of our prayer life will always go back to the disposition of our heart and whether we are open to the movements of the Holy Spirit.
I take comfort in the fact that the Lord leads us all by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each of us responds according to our heart’s resolve and the personal expressions of our prayer. However, Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal, meditative, and contemplative. They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart.
If we want to prepare our hearts for our life of prayer, we need to frequently turn to the Word of God and frequently practice the presence of God.
Prayer doesn’t simply “happen” to most of us and we need to train our heart to listen to God’s voice. When we successfully prepare our heart for moments of prayer, we will experience a profound union with God that is a foreshadowing of the ultimate union with God in Heaven.
Lord, help me seek you first, giving you my best and not what’s leftover. Guide my attention to focus on you and turn away from the evil of distraction. Let me live for an audience of one so I can carry out your holy will. Amen
As a convert, I grew up in a divided household where my stepmother believed that the pope wasn’t Christian and that Catholics wrongly worshiped Mary. How this lens skewed the truth for me for many years. My husband however was raised catholic and had a true devotion to Mary. She is his gracious protector. How beautiful is that!
It is through his example I was drawn to develop my own relationship with Mother Mary. First through praying the rosary which showed me the way to a deeper relationship with her Son through this daily practice. Next, by walking with Mary as my Saint Buddy and learning more about her story. I continue to grow in relationship with her today through Hallow and reading daily meditations from A Year With Mary.
In Jesus’ last words he gives Mary to us as our mother. She is Mother of the Church, Mother for us all. We need Mary! May we all go to our Spiritual Mother whose only desire is to make us holy and lead us to her son.
Lord, you are always with Mary, and Mary is always with you. She can never be without you, because then she would cease to be what she is. Let me surrender to this realization that I am nothing without you. Amen
Today is Pentecost Sunday, celebrating when the Holy Spirit was poured forth at Pentecost, Christ’s Paschal Mystery was brought to completion, and the Church was fully equipped to carry on his redemptive work in the world. At Pentecost, it is revealed that we remain always intimately united to our heavenly Father, who will shepherd his people home to the glory of heaven. Let’s live in this knowledge that our help is here and find strength and purpose in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
Smitten With Goodness 