February 26, 2025 // Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Sirach 4:11-19
Reflect on the Word //
I want to ask her so many questions. How does she maintain her poise, even under the duress of really challenging and complicated situations? How does she remain so beautiful—she never ages!—when every little bit of stress seems to show itself so readily across my beleaguered face and body? How can she bring such everlasting happiness and calm wherever she goes? How is it that merely her presence invites the embrace of the Lord, the Holy One? And His glorious inheritance of blessing?
Too often have I shunned her. Too often have I dismissed her with arrogance and immaturity and taken the path that looked easier or followed my own willful heart only to end in misery.
Oh wisdom, most beloved by the Father, how I long for you. Teach me your ways. Show me how to walk in your paths, how to walk through the world the Lord has seen fit for me to inhabit. Like you, I want to bring calm, trust, beauty, and joy wherever I go. Like you, I want to live in such a way as to constantly invite the embrace of the Lord I love so much. Like you, I want to “breathe life into” (Sirach 4:11) all those I meet.
Jesus, grant me the grace of wisdom, and the courage to follow her wherever she leads, trusting in the promises you keep through her: life, light, peace, happiness, and blessing wherever I dwell (see Sirach 4:13).
Sister, let’s be women of wisdom, women with deep spiritual poise and patience, women who love God’s Word and strive to live it, that we would be a living testimony to how the Lord blesses those who love wisdom.
Relate to the Lord // Where do you need wisdom? Ask the Lord for this gift of the Holy Spirit today.
Liz Kelly Stanchina is a jazz singer who met Jesus in late-night adoration. She is the community leader for women’s formation at the Word on Fire Institute and the author of more than a dozen award-winning books, including Jesus Approaches, Love Like a Saint, and the Blessed is She Advent devotional A Thrill of Hope. She holds advanced degrees in creative writing and Catholic studies. She is trained as a spiritual director, leading retreats and speaking around the world with a particular focus on helping women to flourish in their faith. Visit her website at LizK.org or follow her on Instagram at LizKToday.
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