Daily Reflection – Don’t Let Your Past Rob You of Your Future
Daily Reflection – None of Us Can Know the Future
Daily Reflection – April 24 – You Can Change Your Whole Future
Verse of the Day – Let Not Your Heart Envy Sinners
//The Catholic Company//
Daily Message from Pope Francis – The Old Dream of a Future for the Young
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021
“Dear friends, this is the time to restore not just buildings but also the bonds of community that unite communities and families, the young and the old together… When the old and the young come together, what happens? The old dream dreams, they dream of a future for the young. And the young can take those dreams and prophecy, make them reality. When old and young come together, we preserve and pass on the gifts that God gives. We look upon our children, knowing that they will inherit not only a land, a culture and a tradition, but also the living fruits of faith that are God’s blessings upon this land.” Pope Francis
Minute Meditation – What is Refuge?
What exactly is refuge? It’s vastly different than shelter. Refuge is deeper, scarier. The stakes are higher when you need refuge. Shelter is from temperatures dropping and the chance of rain. You can probably make it through without shelter. But without refuge, you’re vulnerable and truly alone. Refuge is wind blowing the cedars as far as they will bend, thunder that jolts you and an absolutely black night that has suddenly fallen. And you’re running toward home. The need for it is deeper in the body. When you find shelter, you can calmly peer out. But the need for refuge makes you look within. I could never add up the number of hours I’ve spent alone staring out the window at that void. Those are the deepest darkest loneliest hours. I feel that darkness filling me, as I am part of it. In you, Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame (Ps 31:1). When I remember to say a prayer, it comes as a cluster of stars on the periphery, and I’m not quite sure I even saw any green sparkle, but I try again. A Hail Mary. A Jesus Please. I can’t even call that relief “embers” because embers stay awhile. When I cannot sleep because I am reliving some conflict I endured that day, one I feel I cannot undo, when I’m imagining some future event which I fear is going to flood me with more heartache and sink me, and God, at last, finds me in the dark, I fall asleep, and when I wake up, I don’t know at what point I finally let that refuge enclose me. The psalms are all about the contrasts in our lives. Like a riveting black-and-white photo, there’s gradations: vivid cool to dramatic warm to dramatic cool. Refuge honors the challenge of the silver tone moments turning to noir.
— from the book What Was Lost: Seeking Refuge in the Psalms
by Maureen O’Brien
//Franciscan Media//
The Bible in a Year – Day 131 – Hope for the Future
Fr. Mike preaches hope for the future of those with wounded hearts as we read the stories of Tamar, Amnon, and David. No matter what’s in your past – things you’ve done or things that have been done to you – there is abundant hope for your future because God desires to make you whole. Today’s readings are 2 Samuel 13, 1 Chronicles 17, and Psalm 35.
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