Meditation of the Day – The Strength of the Soul
Minute Meditation – No Straight Line to God
Just as the Bible takes us through many stages of consciousness and salvation history, it takes us individually a long time to move beyond our need to be dualistic, judgmental, accusatory, fearful, blaming, egocentric, and earning-oriented. Isn’t it a consolation to know that life is not a straight line? Many of us wish it were—and have been told that it should be, but I haven’t encountered a life yet that’s a straight line to God, including Mother Teresa’s! It’s always getting the point and missing the point. It’s God entering our lives and then us fighting it, avoiding it, running from it. There is the moment of divine communion or intimacy, and then the pullback that says, “That’s too good to be true. I must be making it up.” Fortunately, God works with all of it, and that mercy, or steadfast love.
— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM
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Meditation of the Day – Out of the Darkness
“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: The Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.”— J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 119
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Morning Offering – Without Love
“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”
— St. Therese of Lisieux
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Daily Reflection – Love
Minute Meditation – Hearts on Fire
Franciscan prayer, lived to its full, is to set the human heart on fire. It is to transform one’s body into a body of love and one’s actions into actions of love. In this transformation is the fire that can set the earth ablaze — the fire of light, peace, justice, unity and dignity. It is to see the wounds of suffering humanity and bind them with mercy and compassion. It is to see and feel for all creation — to love by way of self-gift. It is to live in the mystery of Christ, the mystery of God enfleshed.
— from the book Franciscan Prayer by Ilia Delio, OSF
//Franciscan Media//
Morning Offering – Never Give Up Prayer
“Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.”
— St. John of the Cross
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Meditation of the Day – There are Two Loves
Morning Offering – Put Into Practice the Teachings of Our Holy Faith
“To put into practice the teachings of our holy faith, it is not enough to convince ourselves that they are true; we must love them. Love united to faith makes us practise our religion.”
— St. Alphonsus Liguori
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Meditation of the Day – Unite Yourself to Him in Holy Communion
“Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a pale image and likeness of My love.”— Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, 1447
//Catholic Company//