Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8) God is love. If we want to know what love is, and how we are
Our parish priest shared a powerful story about God’s forgiveness recently that I had to share. The story concerns Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus revealed the devotion to his Sacred Heart. When Saint Margaret Mary shared Jesus’ message with her confessor, Saint Claude do la Colombiere, he was
A friend shared a prayer with me, the Surrender Novena, that I had to share with you. This prayer was given to Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo by Jesus. I found the Lord’s words in this prayer so profound and so comforting. About Father Dolindo. He was born in Naples
I like to end my nightly prayers by saying, “Good night, Jesus. Good night, Mary. I love you. I’ll see you soon.” In one of the Narnia books, Aslan, the lion who is the Christ-figure in the story, tells the children that something good is going to happen “soon.” The
In France in the year 1664, a seventeen year-old girl was enjoying herself dancing at a ball, when she saw Jesus as He looked during His Passion. Jesus asked her if she had forgotten about Him. That girl entered a convent, and added the name Mary to her given name,
“Say the word, Lord. I am ready to strike. Say the word, and I will destroy all those who kill you.” “Put away your sword, Michael. It is for their sake that my blood is being spilled.” (1275) “But you desire justice, Lord. It isn’t just for you to suffer.
Spending time in prayer talking with Jesus is an end to itself, but it is also necessary if we are going to perform works of mercy. Cardinal Angelo Comastri tells a remarkable story about meeting Mother Theresa that illustrates the intimate connection between a rich prayer life and a fruitful
So how do we have a personal encounter with Jesus? We talk to Him. I’ve written elsewhere about the value of praying the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Those are exceptional, efficacious prayers that lead to the salvation of souls. They are prayers that Jesus and Mary have expressly
Pope Francis, at the beginning of his first exhortation to the world, invited “all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— 3 and he will delight in the
Suffering has no meaning – unless Jesus rose from the dead. The Son of God became man so that He could share in our humanity and raise us up to His divinity. In becoming man, while He did not sin, He accepted the wages of sin – suffering and death.
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. The lamp of
Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by establishing the values by which his disciples are to live. From there he addresses the Law of Moses, not with the intent to abolish, but to bring it to its fulfillment, to reveal the fullness of its meaning. Jesus is both calling
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine
“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.” This beatitude (like the third) has a parallel in Psalms: Who may go up to the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place? “The clean of hand and pure of heart, who are not devoted
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land” Jesus quotes the Old Testament more often than I realized. This is Psalm 37: 8-11: Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret – it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who
When the Israelites wandered the desert, God called Moses up Mount Sinai, and there he gave him the Law and Commandments to lead his people. When Jesus began his ministry, he went up the mountain, and called his disciples to him. In his Sermon on the Mount, he called on
Saint John Paul II frequently discusses the relationship between justice and mercy in Dives in Misericordia. It can be difficult to understand how God can be perfectly just and rich in mercy at the same time. Justice and mercy appear to be exclusive concepts. But Saint John Paul says just