Daily Rosary Meditations - School of Faith

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe Famous MottoMaybe you have heard the saying, “Work as though everything depends on you and pray as though everything depends on God.” Some attribute this to St. Ignatius of Loyola, though there is no evidence he ever said it.There is an important truth here. It reminds us not to be lazy but to take responsibility and work hard, knowing all the while that God is in control. The truth is, God does not bless laziness. St. Paul told the Thessalonians, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat” (2 Thess 3:10). Meaningful work, some way to contribute to the good of the world, is a necessary ingredient of happiness. Understood rightly, this motto should stir us to do our duty faithfully, while humbly relying on the Lord.TwoHow Pride Distorts ItUnderstood in the right way, this motto is good. But there can be a danger: in a culture driven by pride, competition, and achievement, this motto is easily twisted. Instead of freeing us, it becomes a crushing burden. “Everything depends on me. If I don’t work harder, if I don’t plan perfectly, if I don’t hold everything together, it will all collapse.”We can fall into the trap of thinking, “If I don’t do enough, God’s plan will fail.” That is not just mistaken, it is the lie of pride. This distortion breeds perfectionism, anxiety, and burnout. The businessperson worries that if they don’t hit the numbers, everything will fall apart. The parent fears that if they don’t do everything just right, their children will be ruined. The missionary or leader frets that if donations don’t come in, God’s plan is blocked. We rush frenetically, neglect prayer, and live as if God were an afterthought.This is not the way of Christ, who said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28).ThreeGod Is the First Cause of All GoodThe tendency of fallen human nature is to fall back into pride, which is self-reliance. Humility, on the other hand, is to live in the truth. And the truth is twofold: We can do nothing good without God’s help. God nevertheless calls us to cooperate with Him.The first reality check is this: God never leaves us alone to carry the burden by ourselves. In fact, we do nothing alone. At every moment, God is carrying you. He gives you existence and sustains you. Without Him, you would vanish. Without Him, you cannot even think a good thought or lift a finger in love. He is the First Cause of all that is good.When Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5), He meant it literally. We are utterly and completely dependent on God at every moment. So, God wants His children to take initiative and be responsible and work hard, but never as if the whole world rests on their shoulders. God holds up the whole world. He just gives his kids the joy of helping out. FourWe Are Secondary CooperatorsThe second part of this reality check is that God wants our free collaboration. Even though God is the source of all that is good, He wants us to share in the joy of helping bring about His plan. In His wisdom, He gives angels and humans the dignity of truly contributing. What we choose and do really matters. As St. Paul says, “We are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor 3:9). Grace doesn’t replace our freedom, it perfects it.That’s why St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that God is the first cause of every good, yet He always works through secondary causes. Our efforts matter, though they always depend on Him.The good news is that God knows our limitations and weaknesses. Even when we fail, His providence is never defeated. If we turn back to Him, He can even weave our mistakes into His saving plan, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him.” (Rom 8:28).So, we can rest in peace. God gives us real responsibility, but He alone carries the weight of the world.FiveThe Right Expression of the MottoSo what is our takeaway? The formula is not “maximum effort plus maximum stress.” It is “maximum reliance on God plus faithful cooperation.” As a resolution, let me suggest a better motto: “Pray as if everything depends on God, and work responsibly knowing everything depends on God.”This doesn’t mean laziness or irresponsibility. St. John of the Cross was tireless in reforming religious life, founding monasteries, raising funds, and writing works that shaped souls for centuries. Yet he did it all with detachment from outcomes, knowing that unless God breathed life into his work, it was nothing. His task was to cooperate; God’s task was to bring the fruit.So, do what is necessary, but let go of the results. Live in peace. Then your work becomes prayer, your prayer becomes rest, and your whole life becomes God’s. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe Cult of Busyness  If you want to know the false god of our age, just listen to how people answer the simple question, “How are you?” The automatic reply is usually, “Busy!” Busyness has become a badge of honor, the way we measure our worth. Our culture no longer asks whether a life is meaningful or good; it asks whether it is productive. We equate constant motion with importance, as though the person who never stops must surely be winning. And yet, beneath all that motion lies a gnawing emptiness. The endless hustle leaves us depleted. Even when we “rest,” we tend to choose distractions that mimic the very pace we’re trying to escape: frantic scrolling, binge-watching, or adrenaline-charged entertainment. This isn’t real life, it’s a treadmill. And the more we chase, the less peace we feel. Our obsession with activity feeds anxiety, not joy.The Christian vision offers something radically different. It does not glorify frenetic motion, nor does it commend laziness. Instead, it calls us into a rhythm, work and rest, labor and prayer, where every action is ordered to God, and where our worth isn’t measured by the length of our to-do list but by our belonging to Him.Do you long for a simpler, more meaningful life?TwoIngredients for Happiness Everyone wants to be happy. So, how would you define happiness? Let me suggest that happiness is to possess the good things that fulfil human nature. In general, God designed the human person to need certain good things to be happy, to be fulfilled: Union with God in Jesus Christ. Receive the life of Jesus by the frequent reception of the Sacraments. Deep friendship with God through daily mental prayer. We want good physical and emotional health that comes from sleep, nutrition and hydration, exercise, hygiene, shelter, clothing, stability and variety, order and surprise. We want good relationships, meaningful work in which we do some good for others and for the world. Knowledge, our intellect needs to be fed by reality in the form of truth. Beauty, our emotions need to be nourished by reality in the form of beauty.These are the ingredients for happiness Money, time, and power aren’t goals to pursue. We only value them because they help us get what really matters: God, family, meaningful work, love, health, truth, and beauty. But if we have those, we don’t need more money, time, or power. Chasing them as ends leads to slavery. Using them as means leads to freedom.ThreeRecipe of Life We just looked at the basic ingredients for happiness. Now we need the recipe. We need a way to organize our lives to achieve happiness and holiness. St. Benedict called it a Rule of Life. We call it a Recipe of Life. We need the right ingredients in our lives in the right order and in the right proportion.Let me suggest a daily recipe for happiness: Friendship with Christ (30 min/day in Mental Prayer through the Rosary and Lectio Divina). Frequent reception of the Eucharist and Reconciliation (1.5 hours). Physical and emotional needs. Sleep (8 hours). Personal hygiene (30 minutes). Prep, eat, and clean up meals (3 Hours). Exercise (1 hour ) like a good walk. Time for relationship with your family and friends, which we can do over meals or walking and talking, which takes no extra time. Meaningful work inside the home or out (8 Hours). Knowledge about God and the good world He created (30 minutes to read or listen to something). Experience beauty in its many forms (30 minutes).That’s 23 hours, which gives you a whole extra hour for friendship. You can get all that in 24 hours!FourOrder, Structure, and FlexibilityThese are the six ingredients to a recipe for happiness. They fulfill the way God designed us. There also needs to be an order to the way we pursue them. For example, we’re no good at anything without sleep or at least rest, so we go to bed on time and get up on time. Then the most important ingredient is a relationship with God, receiving Him in the Eucharist and spending time in prayer is the priority, so it should come first. As C.S. Lewis writes, “put first things first and we get the second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”But the recipe must be flexible, life isn’t always predictable. Some days call for more work, others for caring for children or aging parents. Some days, truth and beauty get a little less attention, and that’s okay. A rule keeps us grounded, but if the exceptions become the rule, our lives unravel. Do good things together. By creatively combining good things, we make it easier to live the life that leads to happiness. Prepare a meal, eat, and talk with your spouse, family, or friends. Walk and talk with a friend. Take a walk outside, pray the Rosary with a friend, and talk. This gets you prayer, friendship, exercise, and beauty! FiveCut Out the Wrong Ingredients—And You'll Have Time for the Right OnesMany people object, “There’s no way I can fit all of this into my day.” Or, “It’s too overwhelming to change everything at once.”That’s okay. Start small. Start by tracking your time. For one week, write down how you spend your time in thirty-minute blocks. Then look at the results. You’ll likely find hours lost to scrolling, streaming, and distraction. Now ask yourself, “What needs to go?”Cut out the junk: unnecessary busyness, compulsive news-checking, endless entertainment, and phone addiction. These aren’t neutral. They clutter the soul, dull the mind, and train the heart to crave disorder and noise. They numb us to real life and to God.But here’s the good news: when you clear the clutter, space opens up. You have space for prayer, for deep friendships and good books, and exercise. For beauty, laughter, nature, music, creativity, and restful meals. These aren’t escapes from life, they are life. When we remove disordered pleasures, we don’t lose joy, we recover it!And then, our life, ordered, peaceful, and filled with goodness, becomes not just a recipe for happiness…but for holiness. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe Story of Joseph and His BrothersAlmost everybody knows the story of Joseph and his brothers. The favorite son of Jacob or Israel, Joseph was kidnapped and sold into Egyptian slavery by his envious brothers. Along the way, he was falsely accused of attempted rape and sent to prison for several years. But eventually, Joseph’s power to interpret dreams brought him to the Pharaoh’s attention, who made Joseph the second in command over the entire nation. Then, one day, who should come along to Pharaoh’s court, asking for help, but the very brothers who had sold Joseph into slavery in the first place. Of course, they didn’t recognize Joseph. When Joseph revealed who he really was, his brothers were stunned and frightened. But Joseph forgave them all the wrong they had done him.And then, Joseph made an astounding statement. A statement every one of us should reflect on if we really want to learn to trust in Divine Providence.Two“It was not really you, but God”When Joseph was promoted to second-in-command of Egypt, it was primarily because he had foreseen that a great famine was coming to the whole surrounding area. There would be abundant harvests for seven years, but after that, there would be practically no food. The only way Egypt could survive, Joseph told Pharaoh, was if they arranged to store and preserve all the extra from the first seven years. Which means that if Joseph hadn’t been sent to Egypt, hadn’t gone to jail, hadn’t met someone in jail who knew the Pharaoh, and hadn’t interpreted the Pharaoh’s prophetic dream, if all that didn’t happen, not only Egypt but all the surrounding area would have died of starvation, including Joseph himself!And seeing this fortunate turn of events, Joseph declared to his brothers standing before him, “God, therefore, sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So it was not really you but God who sent me here.” “It was not really you, but God, who sent me here.” In that one statement is the key to one of the greatest of all mysteries: the interplay of God’s providence and human sinfulness. ThreeEvil is Evil – not GoodOf course, Joseph’s brothers were responsible for kidnapping him and selling him into slavery. And the Egyptian woman who falsely accused Joseph was responsible for having him unjustly put in prison.When Joseph says, “It was not really you, but God, who sent me here,” he’s not just giving his brothers a pass, or saying that they weren’t free, or pretending that they weren’t responsible for a lot of what he went through. They did what they did freely. Nobody forced them, least of all God. But Joseph’s brothers, and the other protagonists in his story, didn’t fully understand what was happening or what their actions were bringing about. And to that extent, they weren’t really the main movers and shakers. They weren’t the ones who were shaping or directing the course of events.Only God, who knows everything and governs everything, can perfectly nudge and synchronize, and coordinate all the events of the world. Only He really knows what’s going on. Only He really knows what He’s doing. And it’s always for the best.FourGod’s Permissive WillWe say that God doesn’t choose or do or will sin and evil, but that He “permits it.” The technical term is “God’s permissive will.” But be careful. Permissive doesn’t mean passive. God is always at work, always active, always creative in the human story. As the Catechism says, “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination,’ he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace” (#600)Think of it this way: God is the great composer, and the notes from every human instrument come before Him in all eternity for Him to arrange. We are free to play our instruments however we want to. God will permit us to play the notes we want. Some of us, like Joseph, will offer God beautiful notes: tones of trust and fidelity. Others, like Joseph’s brothers, will send up ugly notes: harsh discordant sounds of envy and resentment and selfishness and anger and arrogance.We play the notes freely, and to that extent, we make the music that becomes the human story. But God arranges all our sounds, puts the notes together so that even the ugly, dissonant notes, when they’re put in the context of the rest of the music, end up contributing to the beauty of the overall symphony.So who makes the music, us or God? Who is responsible for the human story? Is it us or God? The answer is: both. We provide the individual elements of the story with our free choices, whether those choices are good or evil. But God writes the story with our free choices. And the story is always magnificent. So it is not really us who are ultimately responsible for the splendid outcome of providence. It is that Supreme Artist who is the Lord.FiveThere is nothing that does not contribute to God’s planSo what’s the takeaway of Joseph’s story and our resolution for the day? There is nothing, no sin, no injustice, no tragedy, that God does not orchestrate for beauty and for a happy ending. This happens time and again: first and foremost at Calvary, then in the lives of the saints and martyrs, and even, if we look carefully, in our own lives.Everything that happens is God’s will, in the sense that the convergence of all the different factors and forces at work at any time and place has been arranged by Him. Here is our resolution: God is watching over and orchestrating whatever has happened and whatever happens today. If there is nothing you can do to change it, then say to God, “I trust you are working this for the greatest good, and I thank you ahead of time!” Thank you, God, for working this out for good!” Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneBiographyToday is the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. Along with St. John of the Cross, she is one of the most important teachers of the spiritual life. She was born in Spain in 1515 and died in 1582. When Teresa was seven, she talked her cousin into running away from home to be martyred by Muslims. Her uncle caught them at the edge of town and brought them back. Her mother died when she was fourteen, so she took Mary as her mom. Then, at twenty, she entered the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. At twenty-two, she experienced an illness that paralyzed her for three years. In the end, she turned to St. Joseph, who obtained for her a miraculous healing. She writes, “I took for my advocate and lord the glorious St. Joseph and earnestly recommended myself to him…I don't recall up to this day ever having petitioned him for anything that he failed to grant…For with other saints, it seems the Lord has given them grace to be of help in one need, whereas with this glorious saint I have experience that he helps in all our needs and that the Lord wants to us understand that just as He was subject to St. Joseph on earth -- for since bearing the title of father, being the Lord's tutor, Joseph could give the Child command -- so in heaven God does whatever he commands.”TwoThe need for mental prayerThe biggest problem Teresa faced was that the nuns in the convent were kept so busy that there was no time for deeper prayer, and there was no one to teach them how to go deeper. So, Jesus appeared to her and taught her how to have a deep friendship with Him in mental prayer (otherwise known as meditation). Teresa later wrote that mental prayer, “is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.”Mental prayer is a conversation with God in which we speak to Him from the heart and tell Him whatever we are thinking and feeling. But if it’s going to be a two-way conversation, we need to listen to God. How do we do that? Read or listen to something from the Word of God found in Scripture or Tradition, that is, the writings of the saints, or the teaching of the Church. But if we stop there, it is almost useless. We need time to think about the Word or God, reflect on it, and ask ourselves, “Am I living this or not? If not, what is preventing me? And what am I going to do about this?” Jesus said that it is not enough to hear the Word of God, we must do it, put it into practice. So, every meditation must end with a resolution. Choose something practical and concrete from the meditation to put into practice that day. The purpose of prayer is not to change God. Prayer is for us to change, and we will only change if we follow all the steps, listen to the Word of God, think, see the gap between how we live and what Jesus is saying, then make the choice, the resolution to put it into practice, and then do it. Only then will we change. ThreeAre we engaging our minds when we pray?The basic problem in life is that disordered feelings control us: anger, fear, anxiety, lust, pride, and so on. But God designed the soul differently. The intellect should see the truth, the feelings should respond, and the will should choose. Thinking should determine behavior, not feelings.Mental prayer fixes this. In mental prayer, we think about the word of God and then choose to act on it. By thinking and acting, the feelings become ordered toward God.This is why the great Teresa of Avila could say that mental prayer is the infallible means of transformation. Without it, Jesus cannot change us, because we are not cooperating with Him. With it, He transforms the whole person, mind, heart, and will, until Christ Himself is the Master.FourTeresa tells us there are two essential traits we need to grow closer to God The first is to want God more than any good thing in this world.The rich young man in the Gospels fascinated Teresa. Outwardly, he had everything: success, obedience to the commandments, and even the desire for eternal life. But he loved his wealth more than he loved Christ, and so he went away sad.To reach the goal of life, transforming union with Jesus, we must desire Him above all else. If there is any created good we love more than God, we must accept the purification, even the loss of that good, so that we can possess Him perfectly. We must say with Teresa, “Let Your will be done in me in every way” (Life 11, 12).FiveThe second condition for growth is courageTeresa insists on this again and again. She writes, “Have great confidence, for it is necessary not to hold back one's desire to be a saint, but to believe in God that if we try we shall little by little, even though it may not be soon, reach the state the saints did with His help. For if they had never determined to desire and seek this state little by little in practice, they would never have mounted so high. His Majesty wants this determination, and He is a friend of courageous souls if they walk in humility and without trusting in self.” (Life 13, 1-3).Courage is the willingness to sacrifice lesser things for the sake of greater. The rich young man was a coward because he sacrificed the greatest thing, Jesus, for the much lesser, his wealth and comfort. Teresa said, “I marvel at how important it is to be courageous in striving for great things along this path.” (Life 11, 11). Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OnePreppingAs you probably know, some people out there are “preppers.” They want to be ready for any disaster that might strike: government shutdown, economic shutdown, infrastructure shutdown, you name it. They look ahead, think about whatever awful thing might happen in the future, and try to get ready for it. But what’s interesting is that Jesus doesn’t really advise a strong focus on material preparation for the future. On the contrary, listen to what He says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek all these things… Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, leave tomorrow to worry about itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”Trying to prepare for the future is usually unproductive for two reasons: We don’t know what the future will be, and God doesn’t give us the grace to face it until it comes.TwoWe Don’t Know the FutureWe should try to understand what can be understood, try to know what can be known. And the future’s the least knowable thing there is. We can know the past. We can know the present, because it’s right in front of us. No one can know the future. So why even try?When we worry about the future, we are investing time and thought and energy in infinite possible futures that just won’t happen. In fact, sometimes we worry about contradictory outcomes. We worry about a government shutdown and a government takeover, which can’t both happen. Or we worry that we’ll die of cancer and of a heart attack, which also can’t both happen. In other words, anxiety about the future is irrational because we’re worrying about what we can’t know, what won’t happen, and often enough, what can’t happen. And that is a huge waste of time and energy.ThreeGod Gives us the Grace for TodayAnother problem with worrying about the future is that you’re trying to deal with challenges God hasn’t yet given us the grace to confront. God is very clear: He gives us what we need when we need it. He allotted to the Israelites one day’s worth of manna and He didn’t want them to take more. He has instructed us to pray for our daily bread, i.e., enough help and support for this day, not more.God will not give you grace for something you don’t have to deal with now, and that maybe you won’t ever have to deal with. And that’s potential future trials. And you can’t properly respond to anything without God’s grace. Therefore, it follows that you can’t properly respond to potential future trials now. So don’t try to get a firm handle on the future, you don’t have the necessary information or the necessary grace.FourBeing Prepared InternallyA prepper is someone who tries to guess the future and be physically prepared. And usually, because that preparation is based on guesswork, it doesn’t really count for much. A quarter century ago, a bunch of people got their powdered milk and beef jerky for Y2K, and they didn’t need it. About five years ago, people started desperately stocking up on food and medicine, and toilet paper for the COVID-19 lockdown, and it turned out, grocery stores and pharmacies stayed open.That’s not the focus of a Christian. The committed Christian is actually more prepared than any prepper, because the Christian is prepared internally, not externally. The Christian works to develop a sense of trust in God and detachment from needing things to be a particular way. And no matter what the situation, no matter how dire or how unexpected, trust in God and detachment will equip you to handle it. It’s the only way to prepare for any contingency, and to know you’re not wasting your time.FiveDo what you know today and let God take care of tomorrowThe future is always uncertain. We can’t know it, and God hasn’t given us grace to handle it yet. So why waste our strength worrying about it? What we do know is today, and God has given us grace for this day. So do today’s work: pray, go to Mass, serve, labor, love, rest, eat, rejoice in friends, take care of your responsibilities. That’s the only “prepping” that really matters. Leave tomorrow in God’s hands. When it comes, He’ll give you what you need, just as He gave the Israelites manna each morning. That is the Christian way to prepare: not by stockpiling things for imagined disasters, but by practicing abandonment to Providence, trusting God today, and tomorrow, and forever. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneMr. WorryThere’s an old children’s book by Roger Hargreaves called Mr. Worry. As you might expect, it’s about a little man who is constantly worrying about all kinds of things. Then he runs into a kindly old wizard. The wizard tells Mr. Worry to make a list of all the things he’s worried about and the Wizard will use his magic to make sure none of those things ever happens. Maybe you can guess how the story ends? It ends with Mr. Worry worrying himself sick because he doesn’t have anything to be worried about. Now that’s just a silly little kids’ book, but actually, don’t you know people like that? People who seem like they want to worry about something, like they actually enjoy it? And maybe, without realizing it, we are that kind of person. So why do we enjoy worrying?TwoDisordered DesireIn Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us three times, “Do not worry.” If Jesus says not to do something, and then we do it, well, that’s all we mean by sin. If God says not to worry, and then we do anyway, then we’re breaking His instructions. And here’s the interesting thing: every sin is based on some kind of disordered desire. Every temptation is a temptation precisely because there’s something appealing about it.So again, we need to ask ourselves if the temptation to worry really is a temptation that Christians are supposed to resist, then why is it attractive? What’s the disordered pleasure we get when we worry?ThreeThriving on CrisisThe truth is that an awful lot of us thrive on crisis. Many people move from one drama to another; everything is always super-urgent, super-catastrophic. And because life is lived as a chain of disasters, they never settle into the quiet groove of virtuous living. They never learn the steady rhythm of the daily grind, which is the universal prerequisite to a good life. And that’s precisely the point. A catastrophe is always an excuse to abandon your regular, boring, difficult duties, the work of becoming holy. No one expects you to do laundry during an earthquake. No one expects you to mow the lawn, make your bed, or sit for half an hour of quiet meditation if there’s a mob rioting outside your door.And we’ve added our own excuses: the “urgent” email, the latest controversy in the news, the breaking headline on social media. These become our daily manufactured earthquakes. But here’s the reality. There aren’t that many real catastrophes. Earthquakes and riots are rare. Even the “breaking news” usually has no direct bearing on our duties today. And yet, because we don’t want to face the ordinary work of holiness, like daily meditation and a resolution or an examination of conscience, we invent crises to justify neglecting it.We can do this in two ways: by making a mountain out of a molehill in the present, or by worrying about some possible disaster in the future. And that’s the hidden pleasure of anxiety. By living in crisis mode over a threat that isn’t real, we avoid the steady, demanding work of growing in virtue. Worry is an avoidance technique, and a subtle one, because it looks responsible. But it is often nothing more than an excuse not to pray, not to work, not to persevere.The invitation, then, is clear. True holiness is not built in emergencies but in ordinary faithfulness. God is found in the rhythm of daily prayer, the humble duties of family life, the perseverance in work, the hidden acts of patience and charity. The saints show us that the real adventure is not the invented crisis but the steady surrender to God in all the little things.FourFighting against anxiety through BehaviorSo now that we’ve figured out why we like to worry, it’s time to figure out how to attack that disordered pleasure. There are two ways to attack it, namely, through behavior and through imagination. The first way is through behavior, that is, through your speech and your deeds. If you struggle with anxiety and worry, the first step is simple: stop feeding it with your words. If someone asks, “How are you?” don’t say, “I’m so busy,” and then catalog all the crises in life, which is really an ingenious way to justify that we are avoiding prayer, exercise, time with a spouse, or elderly parent. It’s all a way of avoiding the daily duties of holiness. Instead, get your life in order and do the work of holiness, and then when people ask, “How are you?” you can calmly say, “My life is good.” Remember this: worry is avoidance. It’s designed to distract you from what to do now. Don’t give in. Instead, throw yourself into a steady rhythm, prayer, work, service, and even healthy recreation. Once worry sees it can’t derail you from your duties, it loses its power. It simply fades away.FiveFighting against Anxiety through ImaginationFinally, fight against anxiety through your imagination. Imagine how awful it would be if you could have lived a life getting stuff done and enjoying the fruit of your labor, and instead you just wasted everything by worrying. Think of the peace, contentment, and rest that comes from total trust in God. And reflect on how ridiculous it is to worry when God has personally vouched for the fact that He’s arranged things so that you don’t have to worry.He’s like the wizard in the Mr. Worry book, who has told us that he’s taken care of everything, so we shouldn’t worry. That wizard was probably displeased when Mr. Worry told him he was still worried about not having anything to worry about. And God will be displeased with us, if we tell Him we are still wasting our time and energy in worry, just as a way of avoiding the more important work God Himself has given us to do. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneMore Active or Less Active?I went into the bookstore at the airport and was amazed at all the books offering people completely opposite advice on how to live. Some books have titles like “Determined to Win,” “The Road to Success,” and “Relentless Drive.” These books all tell you how to work harder, never give up, and visualize your goals. They tell you stories about rich, successful men, Elon Musk types who become hugely rich and influential. Other books have titles like “Slowing Down,” “Smelling the Roses,” and “The Path to Peace.” They talk about being mindfully aware, about resisting the impulse to be too active, too ambitious, too driven. They celebrate stories of wise Buddha-types, who renounce the rat-race and choose to live quietly and simply and contentedly. In other words, some books tell us to become happy by becoming more active. Other books tell us to become happy by becoming less active. So which is it?TwoDisordered PassivityThere is such a thing as being too passive, too mellow, and laid-back. It should be obvious that those who never actually do anything with their lives aren’t models for anyone. These folks need to get their act together and get going, do something worthwhile, light a fire. We only have one life, and it’s essential that we not waste it. Nor should we go in for those religious systems or techniques that encourage us to just not care about anything other than our own tranquility. We should care. Life is short and precious, and eternity is around the corner. Trying to achieve total indifference, trying to get to some sort of personal Nirvana of complete passivity and complacency, that can’t be the goal. Life is way too good, way too important, for that.We should be doing something. We should be working hard. We should be fighting. But how? That’s the question.ThreeDisordered ActivityThe religions and techniques of the Far East often focus way too much on passivity and trying to achieve indifference. On the other hand, the Western world has become absolutely obsessed with hyperactivity. We’re utterly enslaved to our ambition, to “winning,” to “success”. Workaholism, wealth, status, and political preoccupations dominate our lives. To-do lists and plans for the future govern us from dawn till dusk. Sometimes, when we’re about to burn ourselves out, we take a break from our own hyperactivity and entertain ourselves with a hyperactive superhero movie or a hyperactive news binge. Then, maybe, we go right back to overworking.This is also definitely not the right way to live. This is a panic-driven life that feeds some level of anxiety. The non-Christian world can’t seem to get the balance right between too much activity and too little activity. So what’s the Christian solution?FourChrist – a Man of Peace on a MissionAs always, the ultimate solution to our dilemma isn’t so much a formula as it is a person. And that Person is Jesus. Jesus is the perfect exemplar of peaceful quiet and commitment to a mission. Jesus is a man at peace. His peace is an expression of His commitment to prayer. He always takes time out to pray. Even when everyone is looking for Him, when everyone is trying to get Him to do something, He makes sure He has time set aside for silence and stillness before His heavenly Father. And the result is that He can be calm and unresponsive to the hate of the Sanhedrin, the cruelty of the Roman Soldiers, the fear of Pilate, and the irrationality of the mob. But Jesus is also a man on a mission. He has come to set the world on fire. He does His Father’s work. He takes care of the sick. He challenges those in authority. At one point, He creates a public disturbance in the temple. And at the end, He saves the World.So many people today are desperately trying to make a name for themselves, trying to make an impact, trying to create a legacy. No one’s name will ever be as impactful, no one ever left their mark so deeply on earth, as Jesus Christ. Jesus is at peace. But He’s not content with things the way they are. He has come to make things better - for everyone. And that has to be our mission as well.FiveMonks and Crusaders – People of Prayer and People of ActionThe Catholic Church is a Church of monks and crusaders. It’s a Church of people who, like Christ, know how to find peace and how to fight tirelessly for the Kingdom.We get peace by praying every day, by recognizing that the world and its glory are passing away, and by working to overcome our disordered attachments to goods and pleasures that are merely transient. But we are also active workers of the Kingdom. We don’t settle for being content with the way things are. We will not be content, we will not put our labors aside, until we have done everything we can to make our souls and our world as much like the Kingdom of Heaven as possible. Till then, we preach, we evangelize, we work at the jobs that serve society and neighbor, and we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come, and Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”So here’s the question for each of us: In what way do I need to cultivate the peace of the monk? How do I need to commit more firmly to prayer, or reflect more rigorously on the temporary and unsatisfying character of the worldly things with which I’m too preoccupied?And in what way do I need to cultivate the zeal of the crusader? Where do I need to take action to spend time and build a real friendship with my spouse, kids, and friends? Where do I need to build up the Kingdom of Heaven, in these few years left to me in the battlefield of earth? Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here One“Lord, I love your will.”I know a young family who recently went through something very, very difficult. This story has a happy ending. While the dad was at work, the mother of four went to check on her napping newborn, and he wasn’t breathing. The mother called 9-1-1, and then did CPR on her baby until the emergency responders came. By then, the father had come home too, and both of them rode with their baby to the hospital in the ambulance.The baby wasn’t doing well. Breathing and heartbeat were irregular, eyes were open and glazed. The father, who is an emergency responder by profession, knew this wasn’t good. But then he heard his wife, this mother who had found her baby not breathing, and who had kept his little system going all by herself, he heard his wife saying, over and over, “Lord, I love your will. Lord, I love your will.” And the father said he couldn’t believe his wife’s faith, and it made him strong.In the end, the baby recovered perfectly. But here is the point, before the mother knew what God’s will was for her child, that mother was determined to love it.TwoAnxious for Our KidsThere’s almost no faithful parent who isn’t, in some way, worried about their kids. Some parents have kids who are sick or even dying. And their call is to remember that illness and even death are the path to God, to eternal happiness, to the fulfillment of their kids’ destinies. But what about those of us who are worried for our kids spiritually? So many of us are in the position St. Monica, when her son Augustine was off the rails. And yes, Augustine eventually came back to the faith and became a great saint. But we all know stories of other faithful parents whose kids strayed from the faith and never came back. Some parents, parents who pray and worry about their kids for years and years, some of these parents have prayed and worried only to see their children die outside the faith, sometimes in deeply upsetting ways. How can we trust God then? How can we abandon ourselves to divine providence then? How can we say, “Lord, I love your will” then?ThreeAre We Really Doing All We Can for Our Kids Spiritually?The mother who prayed, “Lord, I love your will,” was also the mother who had done CPR on her baby until the paramedics arrived. In other words, she wasn’t someone who had seen her child in trouble and then just anxiously wrung her hands, or instead simply shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, it’s God’s will.” No, she did everything she could to keep her baby alive.We might be worried about our kids, but are we praying and sacrificing for them as we should? Our Lady said the Daily Rosary is a powerful means for the conversion of loved ones. Are we praying the Rosary every day? What kind of voluntary sacrifices are we taking on for the conversion of our kids? Are we accepting and offering up everything we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change? Prayer and Sacrifice are the first means to help another person to conversion. Have we rooted out all our vices so we can be the best possible example? Are we practicing a daily resolution? Are we going to Confession once a month? Have we apologized to them for the way we’ve been bad examples? And if our kids have died, are we continuing to fast and pray and offer indulgences for their souls? It becomes much easier to trust in divine providence when we’ve done all that can be done on our end. FourConsecrate Your Kids to Our LadyFinally, it’s worth noting that this mother, the first thing she did when her child wasn’t breathing was to call the experts. She got that baby to the professionals, to those with the maximum resources for keeping her kid alive. Our Lady is the supreme caregiver, the supreme professional when it comes to the spiritual life of our children. When Christ was physically dead, they laid him in the arms of His Mother, and soon, He returned to newness of life. If our children are spiritually dead or even spiritually sick, we consecrate them to Mary, which means to lay them in her arms, so that everything can be done to restore them to newness of spiritual life. Five“Lord, I Love Your Will.”How can a mother, faced with the prospect of her dying child, say, “Lord, I love your will”? Because she has come to know that God’s will is always good. That God’s will always means happy endings. That God only permits something sad and brutal for the sake of something triumphantly, dazzlingly joyful. Death wasn’t part of God’s original design. Neither was sin. But God allows death, even of our children, because He has something beautiful and good in store. And He allows sin, even the sins of our children, because He has something beautiful and good in store. The story of this young family had a happy ending. But the story of everyone who trusts in God, which, as we saw, is easier when you’ve done your part, for everyone who trusts in God, the story will have a happy ending; a happy ending that’s all the happier because it’s a surprise happy ending.And when we really understand that, when we really believe it, we’ll be able to say, in every circumstance, in every situation, “Lord, I love your will.”   Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneSt. Seraphim of SarovHave you ever heard of St. Seraphim of Sarov? He was a Russian Orthodox monk in the nineteenth century, and he’s famous for a lot of reasons. For one thing, he was a great ascetic, doing amazing penances for the love of God. For another, he was once set upon by a gang of criminals and beaten so badly that they thought he was dead, and, although he ended up surviving, it took him many years to recover. And even after his recovery, his back was never the same. In many icons of St. Seraphim, you see him bent almost double because of his damaged spine. And yet at the trial for the robbers, he pleaded with the court for mercy to be shown to his attackers. In other icons, you see St. Seraphim feeding a bear, because due to his holy peacefulness, the wild animals approached him and left him unharmed.But the most important thing was something he said. It’s a single piece of advice he gave to all Christians. Here it is, “If you acquire a peaceful spirit, a thousand souls around you will be saved.”TwoThe Attractiveness of Peace“Acquire a peaceful spirit, a thousand souls around you will be saved.” That makes sense. We draw others to faith not by pressure or agitation, but by peace. Who is attracted to anxiety, aggravation, or crankiness? No one. Nobody sees a stressed-out, frantic Catholic and says, “That’s what I want for my life.”  What draws people is the quiet strength and calm joy of someone who lives in God’s peace. But if we allow the peace of Christ to permeate our souls through meditation and striving to grow in virtue, then maybe the people we come into contact with might actually say, “That’s what I want. Where did you get your peace?” And we can answer, in all honesty, “By our friendship with Christ found in prayer.”ThreeThe Witness of PeaceThe peace of a Christian is a powerful proof that Christians actually believe what they profess. Because if Christians say that they believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God, who is in control of everything and who has arranged that everything will benefit His disciples and will lead to a maximally glorious conclusion to the human story, if we say we believe all that, but then we act as though everything’s a mess and things are falling apart and we’re on our own and we don’t know how we’re going to make it, well, people are going to conclude that we don’t believe what we’re saying.A peaceful spirit, on the other hand, is the only way to be a consistent witness of the Gospel. So, are you working on a peaceful spirit? Are you trying to act like someone who thinks it’s God is in control, everything is going to be okay, and we are safe? Because the souls of those around you depend on it.FourThe Transparency of PeaceConsider the surface of a lake under the sun. If the water is calm, the sun is reflected perfectly. But if the water is agitated, the image disappears. So it is with our soul. The more peaceful it is, the more God’s image shines through us and the more His grace acts in us. If our soul is restless, His light is harder to see, and His grace finds less room to work. All the good we do is only a reflection of the Essential Good, who is God, and the more our soul is calm because it trusts completely in God, the more God communicates Himself through us.Every Christian in the state of grace carries the Trinity within. Our task is to let others glimpse God through us. That happens only when our hearts are calm, trusting in Him, whatever comes. When we are at peace, people can see God in us, and that is why, as St. Seraphim of Sarov said, “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.”FivePeace and the Salvation of Those Around Us.Imagine you could save the people around you by acquiring peace. If your kids and spouse, and friends could all be brought closer to heaven because you became a person of deep peace. Would you strive for peace then?St. Francis De Sales says if you want peace, do these three things again and again: Do all things out of love for God and for the good of others. Do the good you can, and do it at once, never put it off. Let God do the rest, abandon to Him what is beyond your power.St. Seraphim and all the saints and angels who are perfectly at peace with you, make us tranquil, calm, undisturbed, so that we can be a bridge for others to come close to you. Amen.  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe Fiery FurnaceEverybody loves the story of the three men in the fiery furnace from the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, makes a huge golden statue, and then commands that everyone in his kingdom worship it. And three faithful Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse. So the King has them thrown into the fiery furnace, a furnace so hot that even the men who throw the captives into the furnace die from the heat exposure. But instead of being roasted, the three men are unaffected by the fire, and they stand in the furnace singing praises to God. It’s a very vivid episode of God’s ability to deliver his faithful ones. But one of the interesting things about the story is this: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t sure God would deliver them.TwoIf He will… if He will not.When King Nebuchadnezzar is told about the three men who will not follow his idolatrous order, he flies into a rage and summons Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gives them one last chance to adore the idol before being thrown into the white-hot furnace. Now listen to how the three men respond to the furious king, “There is no need for us to answer you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, will save us from the white hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us. But even if He will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue you have set up.”That, right there, is what abandonment to divine providence means. God is able to do anything, but I don’t know what He’s going to do. But whatever it is, whether it means I suffer or I get a pass, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to follow Him. Is that our attitude? And if not, how can we make it our attitude? How can we be like the three faithful men and entrust ourselves to God when we don’t even know whether He’ll save us?ThreeSaved Spiritually, even if Not PhysicallyIf we entrust ourselves to God, we can be certain He will save us. What we cannot know, and must leave to His Providence, is whether He saves us by taking away the trial or by carrying us through it. Most of the time, He does not remove the trial, because our holiness requires purification and strengthening which involves suffering, and our union with Christ means sharing in His redemptive Cross. In the end, every one of us must pass through the greatest trial, death, because it is the doorway into eternal glory. In the words of St. Augustine, “Fear not: do what he commands you, and if he does not deliver you in bodily form, he will deliver you spiritually…” FourDeliverance from the Fires of PassionWhat makes life unbearable is not outside trials but the fire of our own disordered passions, lust, resentment, envy, and ambition, that burn and torment us. Scripture gives us a picture of deliverance. When the three Israelites were thrown into the fiery furnace, an angel of the Lord turned the flames into a cool breeze, so the fire could not harm them. Nebuchadnezzar looked in and saw not three, but four men walking unharmed, and the fourth “looked like a son of God.”This is what Christ does for us. He enters the furnace of our human condition. He walks with us in the fire, and by His power, He delivers us, not always from trials outside, but from the flames within: sin, vice, and passion. That is true deliverance, and it is promised to all who trust in Him.FivePraising GodDo you realize how happy you’ll be when you are freed from all your vices, when all your addictions are gone, when the flames of selfishness can’t touch you anymore, when you’re free to love like God? The men in the furnace lifted their voices in a hymn of praise to God that is so powerful the Church requires every member of the clergy to pray it every Sunday morning.The Lord is blessed, over and over, for all His majestic goodness. All inanimate things, the night, the day, the lightning, the clouds, the earth, the waters, the ice, the Sun, and the stars, they’re all told to bless the Lord. All living things, plants and birds, and beasts, they’re all told to bless the Lord. And the rational orders too, men on earth and angels in heaven, they’re all told to bless the Lord.This is Heaven, all of us who have been freed by God for happiness, by and with Christ, singing praise to God in every way we can think of. This is the reward for trust in divine providence. So let’s make it our rule of life, “God is able to do anything, but I don’t know what He’s going to do. But whatever it is, whether it means I suffer or I get a pass, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to bless Him.” Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here According to Jesus, Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux, and every other saint, trust in God and abandonment to Providence are essential to love and holiness. Yet total unconditional trust in God might be the hardest thing to do. So I want to invite you to join Teresa and I in this new series on Abandonment to Providence so we can all grow in trust.OneThe Exemplarity of JobG.K. Chesterton once expressed amazement that the Israelites of the ancient world had managed to keep the book of Job to themselves. It was as if, he said, the ancient Egyptians had somehow managed to keep the pyramids hidden and secret. Because surely, the book of Job, in which the great mystery of divine providence and human suffering is explored so profoundly, is a much greater cultural achievement than an impressive architectural feat.  Just look at how perfectly Job shows us what abandonment to divine providence looks like. Remember the scene: Job is told, in rapid succession, that he has just lost everything. All his livestock, all his servants, and then, most tragically, his very children, without any warning, all of them are dead, everything and everyone is gone. What does Job say? Just this, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall go back again. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Nothing has befallen here except what the Lord willed. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”Each of those amazing sentences is absolutely packed with spiritual significance. If we really meditate on those words, we will understand the abandonment to divine providence that is at the heart of the Christian life. TwoThe Lord Gave, and the Lord Has Taken AwayIn the second chapter of Job, Job’s wife urges him to curse God and die in his misfortune. Job reproves her and says, “We accepted good things from God’s hands, shall we not accept bad things?” And earlier, he says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.”What does that mean? It means that our standard for what we are willing to accept, what we are willing to endure, should not be whether we like something or not. It’s whether God gave it to us. Love treasures a gift not for what it is, but for who gives it. What counts most is the love of the giver, not the gift itself. If a girl really wants a guy to ask her out, she won’t care which restaurant he picks. If a mom loves her child, she’ll be touched by any homemade gift, a picture, a drawing, or a clay figure. What matters is the love behind it.And the amazing thing about God is this: everything that happens is a gift from Him, the things He gives are gifts, and, paradoxically, the things he takes away are gifts. And in each case, it’s an act of love. And we receive it gratefully because it comes from His hands.ThreeNothing has Befallen Here Except what the Lord WilledPicture this scene: Job has prostrated himself in his grief. He lies face down upon the ground, the same ground where his animals have been stolen, his servants murdered, his children crushed to death. And with his face in the dirt, utterly ruined, Job says, “Nothing has befallen here except what the Lord willed.”Job retains his peace and his hope because he knows that nothing can happen except what God wills or allows for our greater good. Do we believe that? Do we believe that all the disasters of history, all the disasters in the world, in society, in our lives, in our families, none of that happened without God’s permission? It was Satan who directly devastated Job’s life, just like it is Satan who is ultimately at work in the sins and tragedies of all human existence. But it is God who allows Satan to work his mischief in our homes and in our hearts. And God allows it for our greater good. That we might show heroism. That we might show love and devotion to God. And that we might be humbled and purified and prepared, as we must be, for the greater happiness that awaits us.We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him. Romans 8:28FourNaked I came Forth; Naked I shall returnJob says, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return.”That’s absolutely right. We came into this world with nothing, and when we die, we’ll take nothing with us. We can’t. Our souls must go where our bodies can’t, at least not yet. We’re going to a place for which our imaginations and even our ideas can’t prepare us. As we were naked for our birth into this world, so we must be stripped of things of this world for our birth into Heaven. When God detaches us from things of this world, it’s not necessarily a punishment; it’s preparation for the greatest gift He has to offer: Himself.Which is why even when the Lord takes away, it is to give. Blessed be the name of the Lord!FiveBlessed Be the Name of the LordJob ends his speech of surrender to God’s providence with the words, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”St. John of Avila famously said, “A single ‘Blessed be God’ in times of adversity is worth more than a thousand acts of thanksgiving in times of prosperity.” Why? Because while it’s good to be grateful for God’s worldly blessings, it can still be that even as we’re thanking God for his gifts, we prefer the gift to the giver. But in times of adversity, in times of trial, God is preparing us to receive Him. So if we can trust in Him and bless His name, it means that we definitely prefer Him to any of the worldly things He can give us. To say “Blessed be God,” in times of adversity, means, “I want you Lord ,more than any other good thing.”Lord, let us all imitate Job in accepting whatever happens as Your will, and so drawing ever closer to that perfect happiness that can only consist in intimacy with You. Amen.     Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe Stage is Set In the 1500s, the Muslim Ottoman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and pressed hard against Christian Europe. By 1571, a fleet of 300 Ottoman ships gathered in the Gulf of Lepanto, ready to invade and destroy the Christian faith on the continent. Pope St. Pius V saw the danger clearly. He pleaded with Europe’s rulers to put aside their rivalries and unite in defense of Christendom. But they were too busy building their own kingdoms. So the Pope turned to the people of God and urged them to take up the Rosary as their weapon.At last, Don Juan of Austria answered the call. With about 200 ships, he formed a smaller Christian fleet. Giovanni Andrea, the Genoese admiral, commanded the armada and carried aboard his flagship a rare image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, touched to the original Tilma.On the eve of battle, Don Juan ordered every sailor and soldier to pray the Rosary, while in Rome, Pope Pius V himself led the Rosary at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. He knew that Europe could not be saved by numbers or by might, but only by the power of the Mother of God through the prayer of her Rosary.TwoThe BattleOn October 7th, 1571, the Christian and Muslim fleets entered into Battle in the bay, south of the town of Lepanto in Greece. The Muslim fleet, led by Ali Pasha, arranged in the formation of a massive quarter moon. The Christian fleet was arranged in the shape of a cross, divided into three squadrons: left, center, and right. The battle started badly for the Christians. The Muslim fleet broke through the left and center squadrons, heading right for Admiral Doria’s ship. Doria slipped down to his cabin, where he had hung the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, fell on his knees, and began to pray the Rosary. At that moment, the winds shifted against the Islamic fleet and scattered it. The Christians regrouped and destroyed two-thirds of the Ottoman armada. It is said that the sea was red with blood for miles around by the end of the battle. In Rome, Pope Pius V knew the Christians were victorious before a message could possibly have reached him. During a meeting in the Vatican, the pope suddenly rose up and gazed out the window, saying, “This is not a moment for business; make haste to thank God, because our fleet this moment has won a victory over the Turks.” When the official news reached Rome, Pope Pius V gave credit to the Virgin Mary. He declared October 7th the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, which we celebrate today as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, because Our Lady came down through the Rosary and sent the enemy packing.ThreeThe Real Enemy While Islam is an enemy of Christianity, especially in places like Nigeria, St. John Paul II, in his encyclical letter to the world on the Holy Spirit, identified the main enemy today as materialism in the form of the deadly sin of sloth. Sloth is the vice, the deadly habit of stuffing ourselves with so much busyness and entertainment that we are no longer hungry for God. When you have no hunger for God, then you make the choice not to feed your soul with God by prayer and sacraments and spiritual things. That choice is despair. I’m not talking about the feeling of despair, the feeling of discouragement. I’m defining the sin of despair as the choice not to do anything to feed our souls with God. That is the sin of our culture. Sloth kills the hunger for God that leads to the choice not to seek Him. That is the sin of despair. Are you resisting sloth that makes you so busy and then so exhausted that you veg with entertainment? Do you hunger for more? FourHunger and Thirst for HolinessSloth is the enemy, so what’s the plan to defeat it? In January of the year 2001, Pope John Paul said, I’m going to lay out the plan to overcome the sloth and despair that is killing souls. He did so in a letter to the world called Novo Millennio Ineunte, the beginning of the new millennium. He said that we don’t need any new programs. (Novo a. 29) Political programs, military programs, and even Church programs will fail. We need Jesus. Only Jesus can fix us, and only Jesus can fix the world. What the world needs is Jesus, and the most immediate way to reach him is by prayer. So, John Paul said the plan to save your own soul and help your loved ones to heaven is this: Lead people to meet Jesus in prayer! John Paul wrote, “If Christians don’t develop this deep life of prayer, then they can’t reach holiness and they will be not only mediocre Christians, but worse, Christians at risk.” Because without prayer, they will be defeated by materialism that makes them so busy and distracted that they forget about God. FiveThe Rosary John Paul said all our parishes should become schools of prayer, training people in the art of prayer. And since Mary is the greatest teacher of prayer is Mary so, John Paul said we should sit at the School of Mary every day in the Rosary.At the approved apparition of Our Lady Queen of the Rosary in San Nicolas, Argentina, in the 1980s, Mary said, “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary…The Holy Rosary is the weapon which the enemy fears. It is also the refuge of those who look for relief for their sufferings, and it is the door to enter into my heart.”The battle for souls rages. The weapon is the Rosary. What are you going to do about it?  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneA Lost SonYesterday was the memorial of Bl. Bartolo Longo, but since he shares the day with St. Faustyna, will reflect on his life today. He was born in 1841 in a small town on Italy’s Adriatic coast. His parents were devout Catholics, and his mother especially nurtured his faith. But when Bartolo was only ten, she died, and that wound ran deep. Restless and skeptical, he slowly drifted from the Church.At seventeen, he went to Naples to study law. The city at that time was a cauldron of anti-Catholicism and fascination with the occult. Séances, mediums, and secret societies flourished. In this environment, Bartolo abandoned his faith completely and, seeking something beyond the ordinary, immersed himself in spiritism. Curiosity hardened into devotion, and he soon became entangled in darker practices.Eventually, he was initiated into a Satanist circle. By his own admission, he was “ordained” a priest of Satan after fasting and ritual consecration to a demon. He began presiding over ceremonies and preaching against God and the Church, calling them the true “evils.”The effects were devastating. His health collapsed. Depression, hallucinations, fevers, and insomnia left him broken. In this torment, he suddenly heard the voice of his deceased father urging him, “Return to God! Return to God!”TwoThe Way Back Through FriendshipIt was at this low point that the grace of God came to Bartolo in the form of a friend. Vincenzo Pepe was both a lawyer and professor of philosophy at the University of Naples, but more importantly, he was a devout Catholic and a man of deep charity. When others avoided Bartolo, whose extremism and violent mood swings made him difficult company, Pepe drew near. He did not begin with arguments, condemnations, or warnings. He began with friendship.Pepe spent time with Bartolo, listened to him, asked questions, and sought to understand him. This was no formula or quick fix, but a sustained and patient friendship, the kind that builds trust and allows grace to work slowly and deeply. Through this genuine care, Pepe became a bridge. With persistence and compassion, he eventually invited Bartolo to meet a holy Dominican priest, Father Alberto Radente.Fr. Radente was the perfect guide for Bartolo’s brokenness: steady, humble, and deeply consecrated to Mary through the Rosary. He did not sensationalize Bartolo’s torment, but offered the antidote, Christ, the sacraments, and Mary’s refuge. At first, Bartolo resisted when urged to go to Confession, fearing his sins were beyond forgiveness. But with Pepe’s encouragement and Radente’s persistence, he finally surrendered.That Confession broke Satan’s chains at last. In that moment, God broke the devil’s power, poured His grace back into Bartolo’s soul, and welcomed him back as His child.ThreeApostle of the RosaryEven though God had forgiven him, Bartolo could not forgive himself. One evening, as he walked near the ruined church in Pompeii, he was overwhelmed by despair and nearly took his life. Later, he wrote, “As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my head of the voice of the Dominican Priest, repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!’ Falling to my knees, I exclaimed, ‘If your words are true that he who propagates your Rosary will be saved, I shall reach salvation because I shall not leave this earth without spreading your Rosary.’”From that moment, his life had one purpose: to begin with friendship and lead people to the Rosary, and he became forever known as the Apostle of the Rosary.FourMake the Rosary a Meditation Blessed Bartolo Longo had the habit of meditating on the whole life of Jesus and all His teachings that are found in the Catechism while praying the Rosary, not limiting himself to the traditional mysteries. It was this practice of Bl. Bartolo, that inspired St. John Paul II to add the Luminous Mysteries to the Rosary. In his letter on the Rosary the Pope said, “even with the addition of the luminous mysteries, the mysteries of the Rosary do no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they should easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged recollection.” Rosarium 29Bartolo Longo saw the daily Rosary as a spiritual journey with two friends, Jesus and Mary. As we spend time with them, day after day, in the Rosary, we start to become like them, little by little. John Paul was captivated by the idea of the Rosary as a spiritual journey with friends and so he wrote, “Just as two friends, frequently in each other's company, tend to develop similar habits, so too, by holding conversation with Jesus and Mary, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, (that is, in friendship with them) we can become, to the extent of our openness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection”. Rosarium 15FiveOur MethodWe all know that you can’t just go up to someone who wants nothing to do with Christ and the Church and say, “Hey, why don’t you try praying the Rosary!?” That’s why our method for evangelization isn’t the Rosary. It’s friendship. Why do we keep repeating this? Because no matter how often it’s said, people will always ignore the simple and obvious solution. Instead, everyone turns towards programs, institutions, and the latest, most helpful self-help book. They blame their priests, and the culture, and really, all they’re doing is avoiding the real solution. If you want to help a loved one back to Christ, the solution is not a program. Pray for them. Offer sacrifice for them. Develop a genuine friendship with them and have a good conversation. And when God opens the door, invite them to encounter Him. Again, what is the real solution? PRAYER. SACRIFICE. FRIENDSHIP. GOOD CONVERSATION. In that order. Keep your resolution simple, and don’t put it off. Who can you invite to coffee, to drinks, to your house? Who can you get to know better? How quickly can you get them on your schedule? Do it now, do it immediately. Don’t wait. If you can’t find the time, make the time. Because this IS the method.  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneWho is St. Faustyna Today is the Feast of St. Faustyna Kowalska, a saint I call a close friend. Born in 1905, Faustyna felt the call to religious life as a child, yet she later admitted, “I was not always obedient to the call of grace,” and lamented that no one helped her understand God’s voice. At seventeen, she asked her parents’ permission to enter a convent, but they refused. For a time, she turned toward worldly distractions, though her heart found no peace there.Then, at eighteen, while at a dance in Łódź, she suddenly saw Jesus beside her, stripped, wounded, and filled with sorrow. He asked, “How long shall I put up with you, and how long will you keep putting Me off?” In that moment, the music and company vanished, leaving only her and Christ. I often think: Jesus could say the same to me, “Michael, how long will you keep putting Me off?”Faustyna slipped away from the dance, went straight to the cathedral, and prostrated before the Blessed Sacrament. There she heard, “Go at once to Warsaw; you will enter a convent there.” With only one dress and no plan but to trust, she boarded a train. Overcome with fear, she prayed, “Mary, lead me, guide me.” And she did, leading Faustyna to the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, where Jesus would unfold to her the great mission of Divine Mercy.From 1925 until her death in 1938, she lived what looked like an ordinary life of a nun as a cook, gardener, and door-keeper. Except for this, Jesus, Mary, her Guardian Angel, St. Michael, and many saints and souls in purgatory, as well as demons, visited and spoke with Faustyna on a continual basis. TwoHer mission Jesus gave Faustyna the mission of telling the whole world about His infinite Goodness and encouraging them to trust in His Mercy before the Day of Justice arrives. The Day of Justice doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the world; it could mean the end of this age, but it certainly means the Day of Justice, otherwise known as our particular judgment that we will face at our death.Jesus said to Faustyna, “I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart…Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy.” (Diary, 1588). To accomplish this mission, Jesus commanded Faustyna to keep a diary of all their conversations, calling her the secretary of his Mercy. At one point, Faustyna threw the Diary in the fireplace and burned it because she feared she was being deceived by the devil. But Jesus ordered her to rewrite it. He would at times read the notebooks and then say, “You have not written everything in the notebook about My goodness towards humankind; I desire that you omit nothing.” (459) The Diary reveals a deep personal friendship between Jesus and Faustyna. As I read the Diary, I too was drawn into a deep friendship with Christ. If you read the Diary prayerfully, I’m sure the same will happen to you.ThreeImage of Divine MercyOn February 22nd, 1931, Jesus appeared to Faustyna. She writes, :In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. In silence I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord: my soul was struck with awe, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me, Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature, ‘Jesus I trust in You.’” 47Her confessor told Faustyna to ask Jesus the meaning of the two rays in the image. Then, during prayer, she heard these words within her, “The two rays denote Blood and Water. The white ray stands for the Water, which makes souls righteous (Baptism and Confession, which cleanse the soul). The red ray stands for the Blood, which is the life of souls (The Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist).I encourage you to place the Image of Divine Mercy in a prominent or central place in your home and let the red and white rays remind you of your need for Mercy by means of the Eucharist and Confession.FourChaplet of MercyOn Friday, September 13th, 1935, Jesus revealed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy to St. Faustyna. In her Diary, she writes, “I saw an Angel, the executor of divine wrath.  He was clothed in a dazzling robe, his face gloriously bright, a cloud beneath his feet. From the cloud, bolts of thunder and flashes of lightning were springing into his hands; and from his hand they were going forth, and only then were they striking the earth. When I saw this sign of divine wrath which was about to strike the earth…I began to implore the Angel to hold off for a few moments, and the world would do penance. But my plea was a mere nothing in the face of the divine anger.  Just then…I was instantly snatched up before the Throne of God...I found myself pleading with God for the world…”God then revealed the Divine Mercy Chaplet to Faustyna (476), which she immediately began to pray with powerful effects. She relates, “As I was praying in this manner, I saw the Angel’s helplessness:  he could not carry out the just punishment which was rightly due for sins.  Never before had I prayed with such inner power as I did then.”FiveGoing Deeper in Prayer Jesus also taught Faustyna how to go deeper in prayer. First, he said to her, “Talk to me simply as a friend to a friend.” 1487Then He taught her the value of reflection, “When you reflect upon what I tell you in the depths of your heart, you profit more than if you had read many books.  Oh, if souls would only want to listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time.” 584 But if we want to hear Jesus, then we need silence. Jesus said to Faustyna, “Strive for a life of recollection so that you can hear my voice, which is so soft that only recollected souls can hear it…” 1779Recollection is the habit of remaining inwardly attentive to God’s presence and His quiet inspirations, even in the midst of work or leisure. Now consider the modern habit of constantly turning to the phone, news feeds, social media, TikTok, and sports updates. Each notification pulls the soul outward, scattering attention into fragments. The intellect learns to skim and jump rather than dwell. The emotions are provoked: outrage, amusement, envy, lust, until they live in constant agitation. The will, weakened by habit, craves stimulation and loses the strength to choose God. In such a state, true recollection becomes nearly impossible.The smartphone is not evil, but constant attachment to it is slavery. Faustyna would urge us to break free. Detach, cut the cord that makes you restless without it. Discipline, deny yourself unnecessary use, so the senses are not scattered. Recollect, turn that hunger for stimulation into hunger for God. If you do not, your soul will remain dispersed, tied down like a bird that cannot fly. Only detachment and recollection make real prayer, and real freedom, possible. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneToday is the Feast of St. Francis of AssisiWhen he was a young man, he had a dream that his home changed into a great palace filled with shields, armor, swords, and banners. On all this war equipment glittered a red cross. As he wandered the halls, a beautiful, poorly clad young woman appeared and clasped his hand tightly and said to him, “Francis, my beloved, all this is for you and for your companions. Take up your arms.” Francis misinterpreted the dream. The poorly clad young woman was Lady Poverty. The companions were Franciscans, and the weapons, well, God had other weapons in mind: prayer, penance, and preaching. But Francis missed the point and went off to war and was captured. Thankfully, God does not give up on us when we miss the point.Francis came to the broken-down church of St. Damian, barely more than rubble. He fell on his knees before the Crucifix and in the silence, Jesus spoke, saying, “Rebuild my Church. It is falling down.” Again, Francis misunderstood what the Lord was asking. He began rebuilding the little stone chapel of St. Damian. It was a good start, but God had something much bigger in mind. Men began following Francis and his way of life. When there were twelve, they went to the Pope for his approval. The night before, the Pope had a strange dream. The Pope dreamt he saw the Church falling apart, and when it was about to fall into pieces, a small man came up and put his shoulder against the building, and with one shove, he set the Church back on its foundations like new. When the Pope awoke, he knew the small man was Francis. He approved their way of life, and they became the Franciscans. If you feel you have blown it and not done the will of God, don’t despair. God doesn’t care about the past. He lives in the present. Offer yourself to Him now once again. TwoIn the early 1200s, the Fifth Crusade was happening in Egypt. Francis decided the best way to bring an end to the fighting was to convert the Muslim Sultan to Christianity. So, he and Br. Illuminato joined the Crusade, sailing for Alexandria, Egypt. Upon arrival, Francis and Illuminato walked straight up to enemy lines, requesting to see Sultan Malik al-Kamil. The Muslim soldiers were so dumbfounded by these two small, unarmed Christians that they did not immediately kill them. They even granted their request to take them to the Sultan. However, there was one rule: if you were granted permission to approach the Sultan and didn’t, you would be put to death. This was no problem except for one thing. The Sultan spread crosses on the ground covering the way to the throne, believing Francis would not step on the Cross. Boldly, Francis stepped on the crosses as he approached the Sultan, who promptly ridiculed him for desecrating his sacred image. Francis replied, “There were three crosses on Calvary; I stepped on the other two.” This courage and wit so captivated the Sultan that they ended up having many conversations, and a surprising friendship grew. However, the Sultan would not convert. But Francis was persistent. ThreeA Holy Competition Seeing he was making no progress, Francis proposed a holy competition, that two large fires be made. He would lie in one fire, and the Muslim Imams could lie in the other. The one who came out unharmed, theirs was the true Religion. None of the Imams, however, wanted anything to do with this trial by fire. At length, the Sultan said to Francis, “Brother Francis, most willingly would I be converted to the faith of Christ; but I fear to do so now, for if my people knew it, they would kill both me and you and your companion. You have much good to accomplish, and I have certain affairs of great importance to finish. But teach me how I can be saved, and I am ready to do as you tell me.” To this Francis answered, “My lord, I will take leave of you for the present; but after I have returned to my own country, when I shall be dead and gone to heaven, by the grace of God, I will send you two of my friars, who will baptize you and you will be saved. In the meantime, remove all sin from your life and live the way of goodness and virtue so that, when the grace of God arrives, you will be found ready to receive it.” The Sultan then gave Francis his ring, which signified his authority over the Holy Land, thus entrusting the Christian Holy Places to Francis and the Franciscans. That is why from 1217 until this day, the Franciscans are the Custodians of the Holy Land. FourYears passed, Francis died, and the Sultan, having fallen ill, awaited the fulfillment of the promise of St. Francis, and placed guards in all the passes, ordering them if they met two brothers in the habit of St. Francis to conduct them immediately to him. At the same time, St. Francis appeared to two of his friars and ordered them without delay to go to the Sultan and save his soul, according to the promise he had made him. The two set out, and having crossed the sea, were conducted to the Sultan by the guards he had sent out to meet them. The Sultan, when he saw them arrive, rejoiced greatly and exclaimed, “Now I know Allah has sent his servants to save my soul, according to the promise of Francis. After receiving Baptism, his soul was saved, and he died in the Peace of Christ.Francis took the initiative, broke out of his routine, went way out of his way to build a friendship with the Sultan, and though it took many years, and did not happen in the lifetime of Francis, the Sultan turned to Christ and was saved. Friendship was the bridge that carried the Sultan to Christ. What are the routines in our lives that prevent us from doing the same? What are the fears that paralyze us from intentionally engaging in relationships to help others to Jesus? Ask the Holy Spirit now who he wants you to go to, to renew your efforts in friendship, to try and help another to friendship with Christ. Who is it?FiveFaith comes through friendship. St. Francis of Assisi once told a brother who was struggling with doubts, “Do not be troubled, brother, but through friendship learn faith.” Francis had a way of life, and he invited people to live it with him. We have a Simple Way of Life: Friendship, Good Conversation, and the Rosary. Invite people into it.The first is friendship, friends share life together. Have coffee, or a meal, or drinks, or dessert, go for a walk, play cards…go to a park, do something good together. Your goal is not to tell them stuff. Instead, ask questions about them and their life, and their opinion on things. Your goal is to get to know and understand them better and appreciate them more fully. You can’t do this by watching something together on a screen. Because that is the focus and not the other person. Stop making a screen your focus. Make other people and God your focus. Where you live, create an atmosphere of hospitality, friendship, and good conversation in your kitchen, living room, deck, garage, by the pool – wherever. Invite people into this space, offer them something to drink or eat. Nobody cares if your house looks like Pinterest, in fact, if your home is too neat and clean, it is not hospitable; it looks like no one lives there, the devil wants to stop you by this temptation. Don’t freak out about putting out a big spread, just offer what you have in your fridge and pantry. Above all else, it’s important to remember that conversion takes time. St. Francis may have converted the Sultan, but it happened long after his death. So be patient and leave it to God. Then invite them to encounter Christ through Mary in the Rosary.  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneThe goal of life is holiness.Scripture commands us in both the Old and New Testaments, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (Lev. 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16) Holiness means becoming like God. As St. John tells us, “We shall be like him.” (1 John 3:2) And what is God like? God is love. (1 John 4:8) This does not mean merely being “a good person.” Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)This is not human kindness as the world defines it. No, our Savior asks something infinitely greater, “Just as I have loved you.”We are commanded to love in a divine way. This is the virtue of charity. Not an emotion or a feeling. Not simply acts of kindness or generosity. Charity is God’s own life poured into our souls, enabling us to love with His love, supernatural, divine, beyond human strength. Divine charity means: Loving God for His own sake. Loving Him above all things. Loving God in our neighbor—even in our enemies. But how can we do this? On our own, we cannot. That is why, when the world rejects God, it ends up tearing itself apart. The only way to love as God loves is if He gives us His life. This is why, at the Last Supper, Jesus gave Himself, Body and Blood, in the Eucharist. We open to this grace by daily meditation and resolution.With Jesus living in us, He loves through us. And in Him, we can love in a divine way.TwoCharity is to Love God above all The supernatural virtue of love or charity is to love God for His own sake, not for what we receive in return. And it is to love God above all things so that every lesser love draws us closer to Him. We fail in charity because our loves become disordered. We desire things of this life more than God. We attach our identity, worth, and happiness to things like success, relationships, health, comfort, freedom, or security. And when these are threatened or lost, we are overcome by fear, anxiety, anger, or despair. These emotions reveal that our hearts have clung to created things as if they were ultimate. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, charity puts our loves in the right order. We love God above all things, and we love the good things of this world for God's sake, not in place of Him. If God is truly our greatest love, then even painful losses will not master us. When the good things of this life become false gods, God may allow their loss, not to punish us, but to set us free. Every loss He permits is an invitation to return to our true good: union with Him, where alone we find unshakable joy and eternal security.I know the three created good things that I am tempted to want more than God. Do you know yours?ThreeKeep My Commandments Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15. Am I truly loving, as God commands? Do I love God above all things, or do I cling to good things of this life, success, relationships, health, and freedom, as if they were my happiness? (CCC 2084–2094) Do I speak of God’s name with reverence, or do I use it carelessly, forgetting that love honors the Beloved? (CCC 2142–2167) Do I love God enough to give Him time, or do I treat prayer as one more thing to get done? (CCC 2168–2195) Do I give time, attention, and patient care to my parents, especially in their old age, or do I neglect them when they become inconvenient, difficult, or annoying? (CCC 2197–2257) Do I respect life and seek peace, or do I harbor resentment, judgment, or indifference to those who suffer? (CCC 2258–2330) Do I love my spouse with the fullness of self-giving, or do I reject God’s design for life and love through contraception or sterilization, withholding my fertility from my spouse? (CCC 2366–2379) Do I love my spouse without seeking return, or have I given in to resentments? Do I love by giving generously to the poor, or do I possess more than I need, ignoring justice and generosity? (CCC 2401–2463) Do I speak the truth in love, or do I lie, gossip, or tear others down? (CCC 2464–2513) Do I guard my heart and intentions in love, or do I indulge lust or emotional manipulation? (CCC 2514–2533) Do I love with contentment and gratitude, or do I envy what others have and feel entitled? (CCC 2534–2557)FourLove Your Neighbor as Yourself Scripture tells us,  “Anyone who says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4:20-21Do you truly love those closest to you or only tolerate them? Are there people you feel stuck with who don’t give you the love or affirmation you think you deserve? Do some relationships leave you weary or empty, difficult, broken, or even hopeless? It may be a spouse, a child, a parent, someone who has hurt you, failed you, or is slowly destroying themselves, and you feel powerless to change them.Love them anyway.  That does not mean feel good about them. To love them means to think good about them, want good for them, and do good for them. That is love. And when you think good about them and do good for them, you will slowly, slowly begin to feel love for them. It’s easy to say we love God. But the real test is how we treat those closest to us. Don’t be angels abroad and demons at home. Be the first to begin there.FiveLove your enemyJesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (cf. Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:32) You might say, “I don’t have any enemies.” But ask yourself, who do you see as “them”? Because we naturally hate what threatens the true and good we cherish, who do you see as a threat? Liberals or conservatives? Republicans or Democrats? Russians, Muslims, the “woke” or the “un-woke”? Yes, evil must be hated. Sinful actions must be opposed. False and destructive ideologies must be rejected. We can never condone sin or error. But we must never hate people.Jesus commanded us to love every person, even those who oppose us. That doesn’t mean we need to have gushy feelings toward them. Love is to want their good, forgive them, and pray for them. From the Cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Finally, since loving in a divine way is impossible for the weak humans that we are, we must stick very close to Jesus in the Eucharist and prayer and then loving him in the people who are hard to love and begging him to love them for us.  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneWhat do we know about Guardian Angels?We are a composite of body and spirit or soul. Angels are pure spirits. They are persons with no physical body, but real persons nonetheless. They are vastly superior to us in their intellect and their strength and power. Their primary task is to serve God and glorify Him. Their secondary task is to guide and protect humans as we journey through this life to our home in heaven, while under the attack of the devil and his demons.The Catechism (336) teaches that every human has his own special Guardian Angel from the moment of his conception. Think of this: an angel was sent from heaven the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb and charged with the mission of bringing you safely to heaven. He has waged a long and relentless battle on your behalf. And we…half the time we have acted as his ally and the other half as his enemy and the enemy of God. Yet while we vacillate, he never wavers. He is our constant Ally.TwoGemma Galganni and her Angel St. Gemma Galgani saw her Guardian Angel with her eyes and touched him with her hand as if he were a being of this world, and spoke with him as one friend would with another. I want to share with you the kinds of conversations she had with her Angel. She would say, “Tell me, my Angel, what was the matter this morning with the confessor who was so very serious that he would not listen to me? And will the Father write to me from Rome, and when, in answer to the letter I wrote him, asking him how I should act in a certain case? And that sinner for whom I am striving, tell me dear Angel, when will Jesus convert him for me? And what answer should I give that person who has come to ask my advice? And what do you think of me? Is Jesus contented with me, or what must I do to keep Him so?”She made known to him her own wants and those of others. In her sufferings, she wished to have him always by her side. She charged him to lay several matters before the throne of God, before the Divine Mother and her Patron Saints, giving him also closed and sealed letters for them, with a request to bring her back the answers in time. And those letters, as a matter of fact, disappeared.ThreeOur Guardian Angel is a witness to all our words and actions. Again, St. Gemma Galgani writes, “My Angel is a little severe, but I am glad of it. During the past days he brought me to order as often as three or four times a day.” And indeed sometimes it almost appeared as if he had gone too far. “Yesterday while at table”—it is Gemma who is speaking— I raised my eyes and saw the Angel looking at me with a severity that would frighten one. Later when I went to rest a little, O my God, how angry he was! I looked at him but lowered my eyes immediately. “Art thou not ashamed,” he said, “to commit faults in my presence?” He cast such severe looks at me! And I did nothing but cry and recommend myself to my God and to my Blessed Mother, that they might take me away, because I could not bear it much longer. Every now and then he repeated: “I am ashamed of thee.” I prayed also that others might not see him so angry; for if they did, no one would come near me. I suffered a whole day and could not recollect myself. I had not courage to say a word to him, for whenever I raised my eyes he was looking at me with severity. I should have so liked to ask pardon, but when he is angry there is no chance of his granting it. Yesterday evening I found it impossible to go to sleep, and at last about two o’clock I saw him approach; he put his hand on my forehead, saying: “Sleep, my poor child,” and disappeared.FourSt. Faustyna and her Guardian Angel In her diary, St. Faustyna writes of a profound experience with her guardian angel, “When the sermon was over, I did not wait for the end of the service, as I was in a hurry to get back home. When I had taken a few steps, a great multitude of demons blocked my way. They threatened me with terrible tortures, and voices could be heard: “She has snatched away everything we have worked for over so many years!” When I asked them, “Where have you come from in such great numbers?” the wicked forms answered, “Out of human hearts; stop tormenting us!” Seeing their great hatred for me, I immediately asked my Guardian Angel for help, and at once the bright and radiant figure of my Guardian Angel appeared and said to me, “Do not fear, spouse of my Lord; without His permission these spirits will do you no harm.” Immediately the evil spirits vanished, and the faithful Guardian Angel accompanied me, in a visible manner, right to the very house. His look was modest and peaceful, and a flame of fire sparkled from his forehead.” 419FiveDevelop a Friendship with Your Guardian Angel The best way is by talking to your Guardian Angel, in your mind or out loud. Angels have intellect-to-intellect communication. Thank him. Ask for help, guidance, and protection. Think about his presence, which makes you aware of his presence. If I am aware my Guardian Angel is present, then I guarantee I will think, speak, and act better. Awareness of the presence of an important person puts us on our best behavior. So practice the presence of your Angel. Take delight in the company of one who shares your pursuit of the good – that is the essence of friendship. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneFlower or FighterToday is the feast of Therese the Little Flower. Honestly, I have a hard time relating to a flower. Hans Urs von Balthasar, possibly the greatest theologian in the 20th century, wrote a wonderful book on two great Carmelite saints, Therese and Elizabeth of the Trinity, called Two Sisters in the Spirit. There Von Balthasar says Therese had the heart of a Warrior, she was a fighter. Now I can relate to that. In fact, Jesus said that, “The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by storm.” This warrior spirit of Therese explains her love for Joan of Arc. She writes, “When I began to learn the history of France, the story of Joan of Arc’s exploits entranced me; I felt in my heart the desire and the courage to imitate her; it seemed to me that the Lord meant me for great things too. I was not mistaken, but, in place of voices from heaven calling me to war, I heard in the depths of my soul a voice sweeter, more powerful still, the voice of Jesus calling me to other conquests more glorious…I realized that my mission was not to get a mortal king crowned but to get the King of heaven loved and to bring the realm of hearts under his sway.”TwoGratitude and Surrender Here lies the key to Thérèse’s power as a spiritual warrior. She teaches that “Jesus does not ask for great deeds, but only for gratitude and self-surrender.”For Thérèse, gratitude means recognizing everything as God’s gift and rejoicing even in our littleness and limitations. Self-surrender means doing what love asks of us in each moment, while entrusting every outcome, our weaknesses, failures, and successes, entirely to God’s mercy. Both together make up her childlike trust. What seems like surrender is in fact the most powerful form of combat. Thérèse fights by refusing to rely on her own strength, choosing instead to let God fight in her and through her.ThreeSurrender What keeps most of us from becoming saints is that we fight in the wrong way. We fight against God. Therese shows us a better way. She said, “I choose it all!” Whenever God allowed something in her life she did not choose, did not like, or could not change, she did not fight against it, she made the choice to choose what she had not chosen. God, if this is what you want, then I also choose it.  This doesn’t change the situation, but it does change us. And it enables God to draw good out of everything that happens to us, whether good or bad. St. Maximilian Kolbe writes, “A cross consists of two pieces of wood, crossed at one point. In everyday life, our cross consists in our will crossing the will of God. In order to remove it, it is necessary to conform ourselves to the will of God.”FourThe Practice Surrendering to God is not giving up. I am a fighter and I will never give up. True surrender is the most active choice of all: it means I stop fighting against God and start cooperating with Him. It means letting Him work through people and events beyond my control, while I give my whole effort to what He asks of me.This is how we fight: By doing the duty right in front of us. By enduring the suffering He allows. By receiving the joys He gives. By waiting patiently when He alone must act. This is the battle plan, not resistance, but wholehearted cooperation with God’s will.FiveThe Secret Here is the most powerful way to fight – let the All-Powerful God do the fighting for you. This is the secret of the Little Way of St Therese. “I have always wanted to be a saint. Alas! I have always noticed that when I compared myself to the saints, there is between them  and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and the obscure grain of sand trampled underfoot by passers-by. Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness… But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new…We are living now in an age of inventions, and we no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs, for, in the homes of the rich, an elevator has replaced these very successfully. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched, then, in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires, and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: “Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me.” And so I succeeded. I felt I had found what I was looking for. … The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus! And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little and become this more and more.”This is the Little Way. Thérèse fought like a warrior by remaining little, knowing every good thing comes from God, by choosing what God allowed, and by letting God lift her. And in that littleness, she conquered. Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneToday is the Feast of St. JeromeSt. Jerome lived from 347 to 420 AD. He did not start out as a saint. None of them ever do. He was baptized and became a Christian at the age of 19. As a young man, he had a hunger and thirst for knowledge, so he dedicated himself to learning languages, Latin, Greek, and then Hebrew. Most of all, he loved reading the Roman and Greek Philosophers. Cicero was his favorite, and he devoted all his leisure time to reading them.  While on his way to Jerusalem to study Hebrew, Jerome became gravely ill and fell into a coma. In this state, God gave him a vision of his particular judgment at the moment of his death. Suddenly, his soul came back to his body. When he arose, he shared with those around him the vision. Later, he wrote about it. “Suddenly, I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the judgment seat of the Judge; and here the light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I cast myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and what I was, I replied, “I am a Christian.” But He who presided said, “You lie, you are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For ‘where your treasure is, there will thy heart be also.’” Letter XXII. 30From that day forward, he read the books of God with an even greater zeal than he ever read the books of men. TwoPilgrimage to the Holy LandIn 385, Jerome went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 386, he came to Bethlehem to the birthplace of Jesus, a cave beneath the Church of the Nativity built by Queen Helena. And there he decided to make his home, living in a cave adjoining the place where Jesus was born. In the place where the Word of God was born, Jerome translated the Bible from its original languages of Hebrew and Greek into the common language of the West, Latin, so that all people could read or hear the Word of God and by it nourish their souls.  “Jerome’s translation of the Bible became known as the Vulgate, the official text of the Church, which, after its recent revision, remains the authoritative Latin version used by the Church to this day.”What can we learn from St. Jerome? Above all, this: to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”ThreeThe Bible is the most direct way God speaks to usSo often people say, “God never speaks to me.” I ask them, “Well, how much time do you spend listening to God by reading Scripture and then thinking about it and talking it all over with the Lord in a personal conversation?” Usually – almost never. Instead, we wake up and read email and the news, and listen to lots of human voices. And then we set the tone of our day with the feelings of anger or anxiety, or being overwhelmed. Imagine how much better our lives would be if the first thing we did was open up the Bible, knowing that God, my Father, wants to speak directly to me today.  The Catechism (104) reminds us that, “In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is - the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet His children and talks with them.”FourScripture really is the words of GodBecause God is the primary author who inspired the human authors to write whatever He wanted and nothing more, Scripture is the words of God. That is why the CCC teaches that the inspired books teach the truth. Since, therefore, all the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Sacred Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.Because God is its author, Scripture teaches without error those truths which are necessary for our salvation. But to know those truths, we have to read them, think about them, live them. Our Lady said, "Dear children! Today I invite you to read the Bible every day in your homes. And let it be in a visible place so it will always encourage you to read it and to pray. Thank you for having responded to my call." (October 18, 1984)FiveWho do you follow?Having died and finding himself before the judgment seat, God said to Jerome, “You are a follower of Cicero and not of Christ.” Think how much time, energy, and attention we give to reading and watching news, social media, political, and sports analysts…and how little time in comparison to reading and thinking about the Word of God in the Bible. When we stand at our particular judgment, and we will, who will Christ declare we follow based on how we use our leisure time?Let’s make the firm resolution to read the Bible every day. A good place to begin is with the daily readings of the Mass, or even just the Gospel of the day. But don’t just read them. Think about them. Apply them to your life. Ask yourself, “Do I understand this? Am I living this? What concrete changes do I need to make to live it better?” Let it challenge you, convict you, and then make a simpl,e concrete resolution to put into practice what God is inspiring within you.  That is how we become a follower of Christ.  Print today's meditation    

Receive content like this every day - subscribe here OneChoirs of Angels Today is the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. There are three levels or hierarchies of angels and three groups within each hierarchy, making nine choirs of angels.The Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones. The Dominions, Virtues, and Powers. The Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels.There are three things Archangels do: They fight against the powers of evil to defend us, announce the will of God to us, help and heal us. This corresponds to the Three Angels whose names we know. St. Michael, who cast Satan into hell. St. Gabriel, who announced God’s plan to Zechariah and Mary. St. Raphael, who brought healing to Sarah and Tobit. TwoThe Archangel Gabriel makes God’s plan known to us Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, telling him that God’s plan was for him and his elderly wife, Elizabeth, to have a son and name him John. This son would then go on to prepare Israel and the whole world for the Messiah. Zechariah, however, does not believe because he has not spent time with God in silence. When God reveals his plan through the Angel, Zechariah doesn’t get it, and he can’t accept it. So, Gabriel silences Zechariah, no hearing or speech for nine months. Zechariah needs silence to hear God. Soon after, Gabriel comes to Mary in Nazareth to announce God’s plan. She too is to have a son and name him Jesus. He will be the Son of God and save the whole world from sin and death. Mary believes Gabriel because she has the habit of silent meditation on the word of God. Would you like to know God’s plan for your life? Ask Gabriel to reveal it to you. But make sure you are spending time in silent meditation on the Word of God each day. Otherwise, you won’t be able to hear God and respond. And Gabriel might have to silence you as well…ThreeThe name Rafael means “God heals” He is the special Archangel of healing and consolation. We meet Raphael in the Old Testament Book of Tobit, where Raphael takes on a temporary human appearance as “Azarias” to assist Tobit and his son, Tobias. His intercession leads to the spiritual healing of Tobias’ future wife, Sarah, from the demon Asmodeus. The hidden Raphael also directs Tobit to the ingredients necessary for the physical healing of Tobit from blindness. After the fulfillment of his heavenly mission, Raphael reveals his true identity to both Tobit and Tobias, “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy Angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One.” (Tobit 12:15). As the “Archangel of healing,” some speculate that St. Raphael may also be the “angel of the Lord” referred to in the New Testament ( see Jn. 5:2-4), who stirs up the waters at the healing pool of Bethezda, “An angel of the Lord went down in certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed from whatever disease that person had.” (Jn. 5:4). Are you or a loved one in need of spiritual, physical, mental, or emotional healing? Ask Rafael to help you, to guide you in seeking healing, and to strengthen you to endure cheerfully as you accept your suffering and unite them to the suffering of Jesus to help him save souls. FourSt. Michael is the Archangel who defends us in the spiritual battle. In Revelation 12:7-9, “And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.”I shared with you the Vision of Pope Leo XIII that led him to have the prayer to St. Michael said at the end of every Mass. When this was discontinued in the 1960’s all hell broke loose. So, on April 24th, 1994, following the Regina Caeli address, John Paul II urged the faithful to recite the St. Michael Prayer regularly, emphasizing its relevance in the face of modern spiritual challenges. He said, "Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against the forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."St. Faustina experienced the help of St. Michael. In her diary, she writes, “On the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, I saw by my side that great Leader, who spoke these words to me, ‘The Lord has ordered me to take special care of you. Know that you are hated by evil, but do not fear – Who is like God!’. And he disappeared. But I feel his presence and assistance.” (Diary of St Faustina, 706)FiveJesus reminds us of the help of angelsAnnouncing angels: Jesus’s conception, his birth, and his resurrection are all announced by angels. Helping angels: When Jesus is in His agony in the garden right before that, an angel comes to bring Him comfort. Warrior angels: When Peter cuts off the ear of one of the men coming to arrest Jesus, the Lord says, “Don’t you know if I asked My Father would send an army of angels to defend me?” If He wanted, Jesus could have summoned this angelic army to stop His arrest and suffering. The best way to engage them is to develop a friendship with them. So, build a friendship with them by acknowledging their presence, speaking with them often, thanking them, and asking for their help in specific situations.  Print today's meditation