I rush to meet You today, Lord.
Little children, you are from God … [and] the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
—1 John 4:4 (NRSV)
St. Catherine of Siena continues her reflection on preparing for the Mass, talking about herself in the third person: “When the hour of Mass arrived in the morning—it was the feast day of Mary—she anxiously sought her usual place. From a deep knowledge of herself and with a feeling of holy justice, she was ashamed of her own imperfection, for it seemed to be the cause of all the world’s evils. In this knowledge, she cleansed the stains covering her guilty soul, saying, ‘Eternal Father, I accuse myself before You, so that You may punish me for my sins in this life. Since my sins cause my neighbor to suffer, I beg You, in Your mercy, to punish me for them.’”
You alone are the source of my strength, my joy, my justice.
Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
—Psalm 55:1 (NRSV)
“I need far greater knowledge and experience than I have to describe this dark night through which the soul passes in order to reach the divine light of the perfect union of God’s love. This darkness and these spiritual and temporal trials through which happy souls pass in order to be able to reach this high state of perfection are so numerous and so profound that human knowledge is not fully capable of describing them. The only persons who can describe this dark night are the ones who experience it, and even they cannot describe it accurately.” —St. John of the Cross
There are some things I can say only to You, God.
We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
—1 Corinthians 4:10 (NRSV)
“Some might call him a madman, but he was the very reverse of a dreamer. Nobody would be likely to call him a man of business; but he was very emphatically a man of action. In some of his early experiments he was rather too much of a man of action; he acted too soon and was too practical to be prudent. But at every turn of his extraordinary career we shall find him flinging himself around corners in the most unexpected fashion, as when he flew through the streets after the beggar.” —G. K. Chesterton, writing about St. Francis of Assisi
Make me impetuous today, Lord. Let’s call it courage. Take me out of my comfort zone to serve You.
Indeed the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
—Hebrews 4:12 (NRSV)
“When [St. Antony] and his little sister were left completely on their own after their parents died (Antony was around eighteen years old), he took good care of his house and his sister. Before six months had passed, though, he was on his way to church one day when he thought about how the apostles had rejected everything to follow the Savior. He thought about how the early Christians had sold their possessions and laid the proceeds at the apostles’ feet to distribute to the needy. What great hope was stored up for those people in heaven! As he was thinking about these things, Antony entered the church [and] he heard this Gospel being read: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21). When he heard this, Antony applied the Lord’s commandment to himself, believing that because of divine inspiration he had first remembered the incident and that this Scripture was being read aloud for his sake. He immediately went home and sold the possessions he owned.” —St. Athanasius
Show me, Holy Spirit, in some small way, how to apply your Holy Scriptures to my life.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge … until the destroying storms pass by.
—Psalm 57:1 (NRSV)
As he concludes the short Life of St. Paul the First Hermit, St. Jerome writes: “I would like to ask the wealthy, ‘What did this old man ever lack, naked as he was? You drink from jeweled cups, but he was satisfied with the cupped hands that nature had given him…. He was clothed with Christ despite his nakedness. You who are dressed in silks have lost the garment of Christ. Paul, who lies covered in the vilest dust, will rise again in glory…. I beg you, whoever you are, to remember the sinner Jerome. If the Lord would grant him his wish, he would rather choose Paul’s tunic, and his rewards, than the purple robes of kings, and their punishments.’”
Dear God, guide me today as I try to live only for what matters in eternity.
For your immortal spirit is in all things. Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass, and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin, so that they may … put their trust in you, O Lord.
—Wisdom 12:1–2 (NRSV)
“You will probably laugh at me and say how obvious such things are. But, until I closed my