June 19, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint Romuald, Abbot
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15
Reflect on the Word //
It was a small need, but combined with so many others, it felt like a colossal weight. The old, oppressive lie began hounding me: If we just had more money, it could solve these problems.
Yet for months, my husband and I had intentionally prayed, “give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11, emphasis mine)—seeking to trust the Father’s provision and timing more than our self-reliant solutions. How often had we exhausted our own means only to have the Father lavish us with His miraculous provision?
There were the farm-fresh eggs from a friend and countless other gifts from family and community. There were sudden surges in my husband’s small business and my ministry work that came at the perfect moment. We had come so far in surrendering our own self-reliance in this area to embrace childlike dependence on God the Father. We had learned that our solutions paled in comparison to God’s far more humbling and creative ways. In this moment, it was as if the Lord was reminding me:
You can’t solve it all yourself, daughter . . . ask Me!
Your way is too narrow. Seek Mine! It encompasses so much more.
Entreat Me to provide for every big and little thing. I want better for you than you want for yourself.
Human worry and anxiety spring from an underlying fear that things will not turn out the way we think they should. The solutions we seek are usually rooted in a desire for good things—security, health, comfort, connection, and love. Yet when these desires aren’t fulfilled immediately or they don’t happen in the way we imagine, we lose patience and hope. We glimpse others’ seemingly fulfilled lives and think God has forgotten us.
Thus, we become anxious and controlling, stepping outside God’s will and sometimes even His commandments to try to make things happen on our own terms, instead of waiting on the Father’s healthier, holier, more lasting provision.
The waiting is hard—sometimes brutal—but it’s never without reward.
Our Father is always ready to provide His divine daily bread for our true needs when we allow Him, when we surrender our way for His more loving way.
Relate to the Lord // What do you need? Pray the Our Father and ask in faith for your daily bread.
Megan Hjelmstad is a wife, enthusiastic hockey mom, and Army Veteran living in Denver, CO. In her “spare” time she serves as a Catholic Writer, Speaker, and Women’s Mentor, helping women to embrace their God-given dignity and deepen their prayer relationship with the Lord. She is the author Offer it Up: Discovering the Power and Purpose of Suffering, a writer for SpiritualDirection.com, and a longtime team member of Blessed is She. Megan adores books, sleep, sunshine, and Colorado’s great outdoors almost as much as she adores Jesus in the Eucharist. Learn more at MeganHjelmstad.com.
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