The Catechism in a Year – Day 115 – Wounds to Unity

Together, with Fr. Mike, we examine the wounds to the unity of Christ’s one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. The Catechism emphasizes that people on both sides of this division are to blame for this broken unity. God did not intend for the disunity of Chrstians that we see today, but rather, intended for the unity of all Christians. Fr. Mike, therefore, concludes with asking us to pray and hope for the miracle of the unity, once again, of all Christians. Today’s readings from the Catechism are paragraphs 817-822.

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Minute Meditation – Peace Is the Fruit of Love

The life of Christ is the life of all life––the peace of creation, the justice of humanity and the unity of humankind. That is why the Franciscan path of prayer must ultimately lead to peace because it leads to the compassionate love of the crucified Christ. Peace is the fruit of love. Francis became a person of peace because he became a person of love—a love shown in his body and in his willingness to spend himself for others.

—from the book Franciscan Prayer

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Meditation of the Day – Action Relies Upon Contemplation

“Action relies upon contemplation for its fruitfulness; and contemplation, in its turn, as soon as it has reached a certain degree of intensity, pours out upon our active works some of its overflow. And it is by contemplation that the soul goes to draw directly upon the Heart of God for the graces which it is the duty of the active life to distribute. And so, in the soul of a saint, action and contemplation merge together in perfect harmony to give perfect unity to his life.”— Dom Jean-Baptist Chautard, p. 62

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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

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Meditation of the Day – One with Christ

“Whenever that sacrifice of Christ is memorialized in the Church, there is an application to a new moment in time and a new presence in space of the unique sacrifice of Christ Who is now in glory. In obeying His mandate, His followers would be representing in an unbloody manner that which He presented to His Father in the bloody sacrifice of Calvary. After changing the bread into His Body and the wine into His Blood: He gave it to them (Mark 14:22). By that communion they were made one with Christ, to be offered with Him, in Him, and by Him. All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion.”— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, p. 401-2

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Daily Message from Pope Francis – January 24th

“Unity is above all a gift, it is a grace to be requested through prayer.  Each one of us needs it. In fact, we know that we are incapable of preserving unity even within ourselves… The root of so many divisions that surround us — between people, in families, in society, between nations and even between believers — it is inside us… Therefore, the solution to these divisions is not to oppose someone, because discord generates more discord. The true remedy begins by asking God for peace, reconciliation, unity.”
Pope Francis