Category: Meditations

Daily meditations to provide inspiration

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Minute Meditation – Great Love, Great Truth

God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good. Nothing humans can do will inhibit, direct, decrease, or increase God’s eagerness to love. That is the one absolute of biblical faith, as Pope Francis says, and all else is relative to it. All other claims to some theoretical “absolute truth,” even by the Church, are all in the head, and that is not where we need truth. For us, the word has become flesh. So we need to first find truth in relationships and in ourselves, and not in theories. Only great love can handle great truth.

—from the book Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr, OFM

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Minute Meditation – Joy at the Heart of the Franciscan Alleluia 

I believe the joy that is at the heart of the Franciscan alleluia proceeds from this inner realization, which descends upon us at ever deeper levels as we walk our faith journey. This deepening is the only real goal of Christian contemplation, and is the heart of the Perennial Tradition of wisdom. This is how Francis and Clare, and all contemplatives, “know” things: “The soul itself is an image of God, to which God is so present that the soul can actually grasp God, and ‘is capable of possessing God and of being a partaker in God” (Saint Bonaventure). With that we can move forward. In fact, we can move far and wide and confidently forward.

– from the book Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr, OFM

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Minute Meditation – Change is Good News

The Good News of Jesus Christ is precisely that things have changed and that they are going to change even more. He came to a world that was stuck, to a people that could not find a way out of their sinfulness, to announce that there was another way. Better yet, he came not simply to announce this path and carry us there as passive recipients of grace, but empowered his followers to bring about the kingdom of which he spoke. The kingdom of God is at hand. It is not simply a far distant reality, but something that is inbreaking here and now, something that can be felt and brought about by those who live in communion with him. In the way we love one another, work for justice, and offer sacrifice—doing as Jesus did—we can actually make a difference in our world because it is in these moments that Christ dwells in us and the Holy Spirit is sent forth from us. What is it that we always pray? “Send down your Spirit and renew the face of the earth!” If we want to follow after Jesus, we must let go of our cynicism and bleak outlook on the world, and instead believe with all our hearts that Christ is in control of this mission. We must look beyond what is not yet redeemed and open our eyes to the overflowing torrent that is God’s love in our world, transforming and renewing the face of the earth. We must realize it is through us, those whom Jesus has called as his disciples, that this work is being accomplished.

— from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship by Casey Cole, OFM, page 34

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Minute Meditation – They Only Self We Bring to Christ 

Despite being a finite creature in the midst of an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present Being—an absolute nothing next to God, in every way dependent and with no reason to boast—I never feel insignificant or unwanted. I am God’s child, chosen and adopted out of love, called to love and serve in his kingdom. What could ever matter more than knowing this? Truly, everything else is straw. Everything else is the working of a false self, an ego that knows nothing of reality. It is why in his admonitions St. Francis writes, “As much as [one] is before God, that much he is and nothing more.” Nothing in all of existence matters at all except what God thinks of us. What we say about ourselves, what others think of us, who we wish were are—these are all useless questions, false selves that keep us from who we truly are before God, and prevent us from following after Christ with our whole hearts. If we want to be his disciples, the only self we can bring is the one that he created and redeemed. Everything else, we must let go.

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Minute Meditation – Disciples Have Passion

We can walk with Jesus, whose mission will be accomplished whether we like it or not, or we can grasp at our fleeting comforts, getting in his way. It doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me. If we want to follow after Jesus, we need to let go of our apathy and laziness, the comfort that comes from being disconnected from others, and begin to truly care. Discipleship is about a life of passion, about giving our lives completely over to the mission that Christ is calling us to. Either we’re fully in, or we’re not in at all.

— from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship by Casey Cole, OFM, page 74

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Minute Meditation – Herald of Christ’s Dream

Some faces seemed to fix upon him the searching, expectant look of those whose journey had no end, of those who wandered aimlessly through life because they did not know what else to do, or because they were fleeing from something rather than toward something. For these Francis had the most compassion because they had no dream and because the dream would have to come from within themselves where all was barren desert. Or could someone else find the dream for them? He began to wonder if everyone heard an inner Voice as he had, or whether some heard only human voices.

If his Dream were something very special, then perhaps he would have to become a voice from Christ for others to hear. He would have to become the Herald of Christ, singing aloud the glory of the Dream that God had made for everyone. As he walked about the countrysides and through the streets of all the world, he would imagine that he was taking each face from the anonymous crowds and breathing hope and love into it. He would share the Dream.

—from the book Francis: The Journey and the Dream
by Murray Bodo, OFM, pages 26-27

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Minute Meditation – We Each Have Our Own Path

God loves us so much that, not only did he make us a creation unto ourselves, but in doing so, he gifted us with a particular way to return that love that is fit for no other person. In simply being our true selves, doing nothing more than becoming the unique person that God created us to be, we give glory to God and follow our own particular path of holiness. That’s it! We are not to imitate the lives of the saints or do what others define for us; our path to holiness is not made by scrupulously following the path of a holy person who has gone before us. What is asked of me may not be asked of you. What you are capable of may not be what I am capable of. Each and every one of us has been created differently, for God’s own glory, and we each have our own path to follow.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM, page 15

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Minute Meditation – Christ Calls Us to the Here and Now

Following Christ does not mean that we have to give up our jobs, schools, love of sports and entertainment, playing video games, or our social media handles. At least, not necessarily. What it means is that we need to let go of everything that produces anxiety in us and takes up our time without any benefit to ourselves or the world; it means giving up the trivial worries that merely keep us busy, give us something to think about, offer an escape, or hide us from what really matters. Christ calls us to the here and now. He wants us to be present to people and things that actually make a difference. If we want to be his disciples, there is no time to waste living in a world that doesn’t exist. The kingdom is at hand, and it’s the only world we need.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM, page 50

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Minute Meditation – What Do We Expect?

Despite knowing from the onset that following Christ means two sure things—God is ultimately in charge, and nothing we can say or do will prevent God’s plan from being successful in the end—we have certain expectations, even certain demands, for the way things should go. Sometimes, even when we know these two constants, we find ourselves on the road to the kingdom but instead of being filled with joy, we’re frustrated and disappointed. Often we discover that our hopes are not of the kingdom at all, but of our own creations and fantasies. If we want to follow Jesus, we must let go of our hopes and expectations, our visions for the future, our demands for the present, and remain radically open to what God is doing right in front of us.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM, page 20

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Minute Meditation – Who Are You, God, and Who am I?

For St. Francis, this search for himself began and ended by asking the only one whose opinion mattered: Jesus. Rather than filling his head with the opinions of the world, getting bogged down by his own self-doubt, letting his successes fill up his ego, he went to God in prayer and asked the two most essential questions anyone could ask: “Who are you Lord, and who am I?” So simple and pure, and yet so powerful. In these words and the response that follows is everything that could ever matter. How we come to answer them will define everything.

In my case, these questions inevitably draw me to littleness. When I ask God, “Who are you Lord, and who am I?” the image that always returns to me is that of a child of God. My place is not off alone ruling my own kingdom, but as the beloved in the kingdom of my Father. Despite being a finite creature in the midst of an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present Being—an absolute nothing next to God, in every way dependent and with no reason to boast—I never feel insignificant or unwanted. I am God’s child, chosen and adopted out of love, called to love and serve in his kingdom.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM, page 16

//Franciscan Media//