Minute Meditation – God at the Center
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” —Romans 8:28
Instinctively every human being has a hunger for God because each of us has a hunger for happiness. Most of us have discovered that all those things we thought would make us happy might have for a while but faded and kept us searching. St. Augustine wrote of his search: “You have made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Your heart, your life, and mine have a deep capacity for limitless, infinite, pure, irrevocable love. No human being or beings can satisfy that deep yearning. Only God can fill it with his infinite, gentle, unconditional, eternal love. Human interpersonal relationships are great gifts from God. We need the love of others, but we must keep God at the center. We must look to God for that deep peace, happiness, and security that only God can give and not expect it from another limited, imperfect human being. Only God is perfect; humans are not. In daily, peaceful prayer, God continues to fill that capacity. Keep God at the center, and he will put the puzzle of life together for you.
Lord, call me often to prayer and reflection so I can keep you at my center. Amen.
—from the book Three Minutes with God: Reflections and Prayers to Encourage, Inspire, and Motivate
by Monsignor Frank Bognanno
Minute Meditation – Finding Happiness
“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.”—Psalm 16:11
Eleanor Roosevelt once said something that is very true: “Happiness is not something that we can directly acquire. It’s a by-product of something else. It seeps into our consciousness and emotions when we choose to do that right thing, the best thing.” We basically become happy when we do our best as parents or at work, or when we reach out to help someone, or fulfill our responsibilities, whether others notice it or not. Then suddenly, strangely, we are happy. Don’t go after happiness directly. It will elude you. Just try to be the best version of yourself. Do everything with peace and for the right reason and happiness will be there as a by-product.
Lord, teach me to live with love and happiness will follow. Amen.
—from the book Three Minutes with God: Reflections and Prayers to Encourage, Inspire, and Motivate
by Monsignor Frank Bognanno
Daily Reflection – How to Bring Happiness to the World
Daily Reflection – We Tend to Over-Complicate Life
The Secret of Happiness
“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that He, in His goodness, sends to us day after day.” —St. Gianna Beretta Molla
//Ascension//
7 Cardinal Rules for Life
//Contemplative Monk, 3/19/2022//
Daily Reflection – You Were Made for Perfect Happiness
Minute Meditation – The Heart Longs for God
Spiritual desire is the longing of the heart for relationship with God that brings happiness and peace. Francis of Assisi was a passionate person, a dreamer, a lover and a person of desire. When he felt his desire filled in hearing the gospel, he found the answer to his deepest longings and changed his life accordingly. He became a follower of Christ. Francis’ life shows us that we must be attentive to our desires if we are to find the fulfillment of our lives in God.
— from the book Franciscan Prayer
//Franciscan Media//
Minute Meditation – Opening Our Eyes to Meaning
Happiness and a meaningful life are inseparable. You may know people who appear to have whatever good fortune can give and are nevertheless desperately unhappy. And there are others who in the midst of raw misery are deeply at peace and—well, genuinely happy. See if you can find where the difference lies. When we go deep enough, we find that the happy ones have found the one thing which the others are lacking: meaning in life. But we should not call meaning a “thing.” It is, in fact, the one reality in our life which is nothing. Nor should we say that someone has found meaning, as if, once found, meaning could be safely kept for darker days. Meaning must be constantly received, like the light to which we must open our eyes here and now, if we want to see.
— from the book The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Lifeby Brother David Steindl-Rast
//Franciscan Media//