me, Lord, to serve You with boldness.
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
—1 John 3:1 (NRSV)
“It seems to me that one loves very differently from others when one has learned the great difference between this world and the other one. This world is only a dream and the other is eternal. One who knows the difference between loving the Creator and loving the creature also knows the difference between purely spiritual love and spiritual love mingled with sensuality. Those who have devoted themselves to being taught by God in prayer also love very differently from those who lack such devotion.” —St. Teresa of Avila
I want to love You; sometimes I don’t know how.
Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that GOD promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.
—Deuteronomy 11:18–21 (The Message)
“One day, when the brothers who had gathered there were asking the holy Antony to provide some guidelines for their way of life, he raised his voice with a prophet’s confidence and said that the Scriptures were sufficient for all teaching of the rule. He taught also that it would be an excellent idea for the brothers to support each other with mutual encouragement.” —St. Athanasius
I am reminded, Lord, that Your Holy Scriptures contain all the wisdom I require.
Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.
—Proverbs 21:23 (NIV)
“Father Pambo asked Father Antony, ‘What ought I to do?’ Antony replied, ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.’” —The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Gossip and indulgence, Father—save me from both today. Please remind me when to shut my mouth.
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.
—Psalm 70:1 (DOUAY-RHEIMS)
“Like many Catholics, I grew up in a family that recited the rosary every night. And we knew why we did; as Mom would often assure us, the most effective person to take our prayers to Jesus was His own mother. As a good son, how could He refuse her?
“As children, we often came to the nightly rosary with protest—‘in a minute, Ma’—but having settled on our knees, it was a lovely, quieting time, one that bonded our family of nine kids at the end of a day of the usual sibling tensions. Years later, when we gathered for our parents’ wakes, and then for those of siblings, we prayed the rosary together and it bonded us still. The rosary crusader Father Paddy Peyton was right when he said, ‘The family that prays together, stays together.’” —Thomas Groome
Our Father…. Hail Mary….Glory be….
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
—Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
“The delights and pleasures of the will in the things of the world, in comparison with God’s delights, are supreme affliction, torment, and bitterness. One who sets his heart on them is considered in God’s sight as worthy of supreme affliction, torment, and bitterness. He will be unable to gain the delights of embracing union with God…. The soul that loves and possesses creature wealth is supremely poor and wretched in God’s sight, and for that reason will be unable to gain the wealth and glory that is the state of transformation in God.” —St. John of the Cross
Am I being transformed in You, Lord? How will I know?
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
—1 Corinthians 13:3 (THE MESSAGE)
St. Catherine of Siena heard Christ say to her: “I wish for no other thing than love. For in the love of Me is fulfilled and completed the love of one’s neighbor, and the law is observed. For only those who are bound to Me with this love can be of use in their state of life.”
Father, show me a new way to love one of my friends,
