Minute Meditation – God is the Source of All Good

While we are quite familiar with being disappointed by the worst we see in the world, we cannot deny the extraordinary heroism of which humanity is also capable. All around us, ordinary people are performing acts of sacrifice, giving up their own lives so that others may live. It is nearly impossible to look into the world and not see love overflowing at every turn. Science cannot explain it; logic doesn’t understand it. And yet, love emanates more powerfully than any substance we can measure. Truth transcends any instrument or equation. In moments of pessimism, when we find ourselves impatient with the world, do not grow hopeless, but trust in the unexplainable love lived by so many. Trust the goodness you see. Be still, and know that God is the source of all that is Good, Beautiful, and True, and that all love exists because God wills it.

—from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
by Casey Cole, OFM, page 55

//Franciscan Media//

March 8, 2022

Minute Meditation – Follow Without Reservation

If we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ, following him in complete freedom and without any reservation, the first and most important thing that we must let go of is ourselves. We must identify all that lives within us that does not bear life, that does not reflect the joy of the kingdom, that does not live up to the person Christ created us to be, and we must die to ourselves. Let go of your delusions of grandeur, self-loathing, and false selves, and follow Christ as the person he created you to be.

— from the book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship by Casey Cole, OFM, page 3
//Franciscan Media//

February 28, 2022

Minute Meditation – The Spiritual Virtue of Humility

Humility is the hallmark spiritual virtue of letting go. It’s an open-minded, openhearted, openhanded way to move through the world. To be humble is to make room for life as it comes, without the need to grasp too tightly, even (and especially) to certainty. This kind of attitude is what keeps your vision from clouding up and occluding. No one manages this perfectly, of course. That’s why life seems all too willing to deal us periodic humiliations that knock down our towers of Babel and drop us back onto the ground of our being: the truth that we are held in divine and loving hands, without being able to do anything to deserve or ruin it.

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living
by Kyle Kramer

February 28, 2022

Minute Meditation – Eating is an Opportunity for Gratitude

Food offers a constant opportunity to take in gifts with gratitude, which is one of the fundamental practices of the spiritual life. Every time you eat is a chance to give thanks for all those many links in the great chain of being that brings nourishment to your body and your soul. It’s a chance to be grateful for the miracle of your body, which can take food and turn it into the miracle that is you or, if you are pregnant, your developing child. There are plenty of times when I take food for granted, when I treat it merely as fuel, or when, to use one of the phrases I like least in the English language, I just “grab a bite.” But other times, whether it’s in receiving the Eucharist or eating Cyndi’s homemade pizza on Friday nights, I’m full—of wonder, gratitude, and a sense of belonging with those I eat with and with the beautiful living world that brings such miracles to my plate. Saying grace over meals, then eating with full awareness and intention, is one of the most profoundly spiritual practices I know of—and we have a chance to do it several times, every day.

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living by Kyle Kramer, page 123

February 28, 2022

Meditation for February 28, 2022

“The Eucharist is alive. If a stranger who knew nothing about the Eucharist were to watch the way we receive, would he know this? When you and I approach the Eucharist, does it look like we believe we are about to take into our bodies the living person, Jesus Christ, true God and true man? How many times, Lord, have I forgotten that the Eucharist is alive! As I wait in line to receive you each day, am I thinking about how much you want to unite yourself with me? Am I seeing your hands filled with the graces you want to give me? Am I filled with awe and gratitude that you love me so much as to actually want to come to me in this incredibly intimate way? Or am I distracted, busy with other thoughts, preoccupied with myself and my agendas for the day? How many times, Jesus, have I made you sad, mindlessly receiving you into my body, into my heart, with no love and no recognition of your love? How many times have I treated you as a dead object? The Host that we receive is not a thing! It’s not a wafer! It’s not bread! It’s a person – He’s alive!”
—Vinny Flynn, p. 8

//Catholic Company//

February 28, 2022

Minute Meditation – Having Enough

Many of us think about money in terms of scarcity: the fear of losing it, of not having enough, and therefore the need to hold on to it tightly. Behind the veil of scarcity, though, there are more gracious ways to engage with money. What if we understood money as a form of energy that is meant to flow through our lives and through the world, rather than be hoarded and so become stagnant? To see money this way, to be willing to let it flow, requires letting go of fear and trusting instead that there is and will be enough for us and for others. Sufficiency—enoughness—is the middle way between scarcity and exploitative wealth. As Gandhi put it, the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. Sufficiency is the way the birds of the air live, and the lilies of the field.

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living by Kyle Kramer, page 54

//Franciscan Media//

February 16, 2022

Daily Meditation for February 12, 2022

Now man need not hide from God as Adam did; for He can be seen through Christ’s human nature. Christ did not gain one perfection more by becoming man, nor did He lose anything of what He possessed as God. There was the Almightiness of God in the movement of His arm, the infinite love of God in the beatings of His human heart and the Unmeasured Compassion of God to sinners in His eyes. God was now manifest in the flesh; this is what is called the Incarnation. The whole range of the Divine attributes of power and goodness, justice, love, beauty, were in Him. And when Our Divine Lord acted and spoke, God in His perfect nature became manifest to those who saw Him and heard Him and touched Him. As He told Philip later on: Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father [John 14:9].”
—Fulton J. Sheen, p. 21

February 16, 2022

Daily Meditation for February 11, 2022

“Consider not only that God your benefactor is present but also that He acts continuously in all His creatures. And for whom is this continual action, this work of God in nature? For you. Thus, He lights you by the light of day; He nourishes you with the productions of the earth; in a word, He serves you by each one of the creatures that you use; so that it is true to say that at every moment the bounty, the wisdom and the power of God are at your service and are exercised in the world for your wants or pleasures. This conduct of God toward man should be the model of your conduct toward God. You see that the presence of God in His creatures is never idle; it acts incessantly, it preserves, it governs. Beware, then, of stopping at a sterile contemplation of God present in yourself. Add action to contemplation; to the sight of the Divine presence add the faithful accomplishment of the Divine will.”
—St. Ignatius, p. 182

February 16, 2022

Meditation for Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Yes, my heart’s dear one, Jesus, is here with His cross. Since you are one of His favorites, he wants to make you into His likeness; why be afraid that you will not have the strength to carry this cross without a struggle? On the way to Calvary, Jesus did indeed fall three times and you, poor little child, would like to be different from your spouse, would rather not fall a hundred times if necessary to prove your love to Him by getting back up with even more strength than before your fall!”
—St. Therese of Lisieux, p. 87

February 16, 2022

Minute Meditation – Rest in God’s Love

When the Significant Other says we are good, then we are good indeed. That’s what it means, psychologically speaking, to be liberated and loved by God. Anyone else can say it, but we will always doubt it, even though it temporarily feels good, and is the necessary “bottle opener.” Salvation is only secondarily assuring us of an eternal life. It is, first of all, giving us that life now, and saying, “If now, then also later,” which becomes our deep inner certitude. If God would accept us now, when we are clearly unworthy, then why would God change the policy later? We can then begin to rest, enjoy, and love life.

— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM, page 41

//Franciscan Media//