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Daily meditations to provide inspiration
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.”—St. John XXIII
Change in our lives can be difficult. Reflect on some of the major changes in your life and what you’ve learned about yourself from them.
—From the book Guided by the Saints: A 30-Day Journal for Inspiration and Direction
by Susan Hines-Brigger
“In God’s will, there is great peace.”—St. Josephine Bakhita
For many years, Josephine Bakhita was a slave, but her spirit was always free, and eventually that spirit prevailed. Given what she endured, we would understand if St. Josephine had harbored anger and resentment toward those who enslaved her. She chose, however, to move beyond the hurts she had suffered and work to help others.
What are some things in your life you are holding on to that are weighing on your heart?
Take some time to ponder why you are holding on to those experiences or emotions. What are you searching for that is keeping you from moving forward? Is it peace, acceptance, forgiveness?
—From the book Guided by the Saints: A 30-Day Journal for Inspiration and Direction
by Susan Hines-Brigger
It was the light she remembered. Even now, in all this darkness that attends aging, it is the light she remembers. The light. It is without horizons and yet most of the time it seems just beyond the horizon, the invisible presence that though it is inside her, is just beyond the horizon she became when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. It is her hope, this light, especially in the deepest night. The memory of it now as then, just after the angel’s light, the words like the static of lightning disappearing and light remaining like a gentle rain falling, the room as quiet as before, the silence returning as light.
The closeness of the dark night. The memory of yesterday’s dawn making the dark light, the light dark, all because of that other Light out of the invisible, the place of the angel’s arrival and departure.
— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM
It was not just the message that drew Mary to remember again and again the annunciation of Gabriel. It was his song and movement which were from the unseen heavens where God dwelt with God’s Son who, when he entered her womb, sang his own song and brought his own movement that she could feel as she carried Jesus daily as he grew into the baby born in Bethlehem, looking like all other babies, no glory surrounding him as God’s glory surrounded and shone from the Archangel Gabriel.
All the amplitude of Gabriel’s astounding voice and movement was now but a newborn human baby lying in a little crib of ordinary straw. Somewhere inside that little bundle of baby was the magnitude and amplitude of God’s own.
— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM
We as human persons are made with infinite desires that only God can fulfill. But because we’re fallen, we tend to live at the level of our superficial desires—desires for comfort, fun, fame, wealth, pleasure, success. These desires are not bad, but the rosary helps us be more aware of the soul’s deepest desires, which are for God. As St. Catherine of Siena taught, the greatest gift we can give to God in prayer is not the finite work of saying the words but our “infinitely desirous love” for God that is expressed in those words and that is being drawn out of our souls in prayer.
— from the book Praying the Rosary Like Never Before: Encounter the Wonder of Heaven and Earth
by Edward Sri
A friend of mine suggests that we treat the name of Jesus in the Hail Mary like a speed bump: Slow down as you approach it, and speak it with care and attention. “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb … Jesus.” Let’s speak Jesus’s name with tender love at every Hail Mary in the rosary. Indeed, we should never neglect the power of Christ’s name—the only name under heaven by which we may hope in salvation (see Acts 4:12).
— from the book Praying the Rosary Like Never Before: Encounter the Wonder of Heaven and Earth
by Edward Sri
Although my wife has heard me say these same words to her thousands of times, never once has she complained, “Stop saying the same thing over and over again!” In an intimate, personal relationship, two people may repeat to each other certain expressions of love, and each time the words express the heartfelt affection they have for one another. Repetition is part of the language of love.
In reciting the Hail Mary throughout the rosary, we participate over and over again the wonder-filled response of Gabriel and Elizabeth to the mystery of Christ. The name of Jesus, spoken with tender love, becomes the heartbeat of the the rosary.
–from the book Praying the Rosary Like Never Before:
We Christians sometimes submit to the Lord’s will begrudgingly, as if it were something burdensome—a sacrifice we must make for the kingdom of God. However, as we grow as God’s children, we begin to realize that his plan for our lives always corresponds to our heart’s deepest longings, to what will truly bring us fulfillment. Though at times very demanding and involving great sacrifices, God’s will is not simply an ethical test we must pass or an external code of behavior to which we must submit. Ultimately, God’s will is written on our hearts and is meant to lead us to a profound peace and happiness, even in the face of trials and sufferings. May we, like Mary, actively desire God’s will to be fulfilled in our lives. May we joyfully embrace his plan for us, not simply as a religious rule to obey but ultimately as the divine pathway to our hearts’ deepest and most noble desires.
—from the book Praying the Rosary Like Never Before: Encounter the Wonder of Heaven and Earth
by Edward Sri
Trust in God requires not the felt experience of God but the handing over of one’s life to God in darkness and silence, realizing that one’s life is not one’s own but belongs entirely to God. Francis trusted in the power of God’s love present in the poor, the lepers, the sick, and the simple creatures of life. He handed himself over to this power as one completely embraced by love. Through the fire that consumed his ego, Francis gave birth to a deeper self in love; he was born anew, and this birth was a new Francis in whom was visible the face of Christ.
—from the book Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis
by Ilia Delio, OSF
Every act of love is a new beginning, a new creation. To live compassionately is to believe in a love greater than ourselves yet intimately present to us, a love visible in the trees, the streams, the clouds, the poor, nonbelievers, and all who share the life that is our life—a love binding us together without constraints. We must believe that each person is capable of being transformed by love, that each tree, flower, animal, living creature, the stones, the sand, the sky—everything is capable of being transformed by love. And that when all is united by a luminous thread of love, Christ will be visible in the universe.
—from the book Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis
by Ilia Delio, OSF
Compassion flourishes when we have nothing to protect and everything to share. It is the gravity of all living beings that binds together all that is weak and limited into a single ocean of love. We have the capacity to heal this earth of its divisions, its wars, its violence, and its hatreds. This capacity is the love within us to suffer with another and to love the other without reward. Love that transcends the ego is love that heals. When we lose ourselves for the sake of love, we shall find ourselves capable of real love. Compassion flows best from a heart open, free, and deeply in love with life. It rises above the individual and yearns for oneness of heart. Compassion knows no other language than the language of love. Let us learn this language and speak it aloud with our hands, our feet, and our eyes, for compassion can birth the new creation.
—from the book Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis
by Ilia Delio, OSF