“If we could comprehend all the good things contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be wanting to content the heart of man.”
— St. John Vianney
//Catholic Company//
Morning Offering – Holy Communion
Daily Reflection – It Comes Down to This
Morning Offering – Put Your Heart Into It
“Put your heart aside. Duty comes first. But when fulfilling your duty, put your heart into it. It helps.”
— St. Josemaria Escriva
//Catholic Company//
Minute Meditation: God is Ever-Faithful
When the heart rebels and says, “I will reach out for love wherever it may be found,” and the mind echoes, “Yes, and I will not see,” and the conscience says, “I don’t care anymore,” then memory rises like a bright and redeeming sun and says, “Yes, but you have been here before and God saved you in the nick of time. God comes if you ask just one more time, remember?” And again it is memory that cries aloud, “God is faithful and will not abandon those who trust in God.” And the past is made present through memory’s alchemy. This saves us time and again, and we praise and thank God who gives us the past to make the present a wise and redemptive future.
— from the book Song of the Sparrow: New Poems and Meditations by Murray Bodo, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
Daily Reflection – Life is Messy
Morning Offering – Speak to Him With Your Heart
“You must speak to Jesus, not only with your lips, but also with your heart; actually, on certain occasions, you should speak with only your heart.”
— St. Padre Pio
//Catholic Company//
Morning Offering – An Occupied Heart
“God does not fit in an occupied heart.”
— St. John of the Cross
//Catholic Company//
Minute Meditation – Forgive and Begin to Live
Until we learn to forgive deeply and sincerely, we remain only on the threshold of real union with God, we remain essentially imprisoned and unfree. In the course of a lifetime, we gradually accumulate countless little resentments which, if allowed to grow, become big hates and seemingly insoluble differences. If, however, we do not allow these jealousies and hatreds to grow, but instead try always to purify our hearts, we enter into the mystery of love, the mystery of God. We have so much to forgive: life, maybe, certainly those who have hurt us and even ourselves (perhaps most of all, ourselves). Often we are hardest on ourselves and need to forgive ourselves for failing, for being less perfect than we would like to be. God forgives us much more readily than we forgive ourselves, and this inability to forgive ourselves is the cause of much of our pain and inability to grow. Forgive, then, and we will begin to live.
— from the book Song of the Sparrow: New Poems and Meditations by Murray Bodo, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
Morning Offering – We Must Pray Without Ceasing
“We must pray literally without ceasing— without ceasing—in every occurrence and employment of our lives . . . that prayer of the heart which is independent of place or situation, or which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”
— St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
//Catholic Company//
Does God Want to Hear Everything?
Should we really talk to God about everything?
There are a lot of different kinds of prayers (liturgical, litanies, the rosary, the chaplet of divine mercy, etc.), but today Father hones in on mental prayer. Mental prayer—including lectio divina and Ignatian prayer—is about having a conversation with God and inviting him into your mind and your heart. But our minds are messy places, and our hearts are wounded. Should we really be talking to God about all of our thoughts, longings, and desires?
