August 14, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63 Reflect on the Word //  My friend’s words that day were like a vanguard ushering in grace and goodness into the arid and frightened parts of my heart. Although I felt relief during our brief conversation as I listened to  the truth he was offering, it wasn’t until I brought it to prayer that I could truly see how I had been liberated from a lie. As I considered the great gift of freedom, I thought of the harrowing stories of the Saints of Poland, and how Saint Maximillian Kolbe is perhaps one of the clearest testimonies to the power of freedom in Christ.  Saint Maximilian famously chose both the crown of heroic purity and the crown of martyrdom that our Lady offered him as a young boy (source), and he perseveringly received them throughout his life. Meditating on the First Reading, I contemplated how his many trials and misunderstandings in beginning his missions paled in comparison to his final trials at Auschwitz. My heart felt that steadying yet overwhelming joy only the Lord gives when He speaks to our deepest places: "Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you,  [. . .] when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord GOD" (Ezekiel 16:60, 63).  I was moved to the prayer of Saint Faustina, another Polish Saint: "Today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy— to Your compassion, O God" (Diary, 1570). Saint Maximilian felt his own misery, knew the crushing weight of sinful humanity's misery, and stood steady amid some of the most horrific trials ever inflicted by man. In my own small trial, the Lord helped me to emerge victorious as He reestablished the authority of His love to conquer death and the enemy's lies. We are each held in that same mercy—the mercy that frees us, restores us, and brings us to covenanted love in Him. Whatever weight we carry today, He is ready to set to work reestablishing. This is our joy: He came to bring us home to Him. Relate to the Lord // Ask the Holy Spirit what lie you’ve been believing. Ask for Him to set you free.

June 30, 2026 // Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 8:23-27  Reflect on the Word //  Just as suddenly as I noticed the casual tone of the crowd of tourists filling the little European church, I felt Him say to me, Will you help Me? It was an answer to a prayer I had made earlier: Please fill Your beautiful churches with people who cherish You. His answer came in what should have been silence after Communion. I struggled to understand how such a church could be such a lonely place for Him, echoing not with prayers but with street-level voices, not speaking to Him. He knew well how I longed for any of these tiny, forgotten European sanctuaries to be lifted and brought back home. I felt His similar tone in the Gospel today: “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26) I could sense His compassion in the ache of my heart amid those embattled waters that dare to terrify me.  His question cut me to the core, for it was a reminder of Who He is: the One Who is worthy of my complete confidence. And just as His voice brought calm to the chaos of the waters, it healed me even as it rebuked. The constancy of His Voice reminds us that even when He seems to be sleeping, He is still in the boat—and that is not far.  The Gospel proclaims a “great calm” at His voice (Matthew 8:26). Do we ask Jesus to come to us as the Lord and Prince of Peace—in His total freedom—and to act and speak into our lives as He wills? Do we recognize His presence within us, no matter what storms may rage around us?  Relate to the Lord // Give Jesus permission to speak to you, to speak into your life today. Pay attention for His practical and personal inspirations.

May 7, 2026 // Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 15:9-11 Reflect on the Word // There were four generations present at my friend’s family gathering. Children and a dog whirled around our legs, delivering rapid hello-hugs as we arrived. Their excitement at seeing my friend and me was intense, but it may have simply matched the timbre of their joy at their homemade game which they interrupted as briefly as possible to greet us. Being away from family during the holidays, that kind of welcome made me smile from the inside out, long into the night. Songs, games, treats, conversation, food—every bit of it was love. As I continue to meditate on this little real-life parable of the family gathering as an illustration of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel, His words, “Remain in my love” (John 15:9), have become luminous and vibrant with life.  “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love” (John 15:9). The Lord’s tender hope and longing are present in these poignant words. I can feel His vulnerability in them; He is as vulnerable as those excited children who gave such hearty hugs to tell us how happy they were we had finally arrived. Our Lord’s love is just as excited but purer and therefore, more vulnerable, because His love is more profound and immediate.  Yet, how can we remain in His love? He wants to redirect our attention from jumping into the spiral of self-evaluation—with the foregone conclusions of our inadequacy—and He invites us to allow Him to show us what it would be to remain. Sister, remaining in the truth of His love is steadying and healing. Enfolded in His love, the storms of human thoughts are like distant wind howling forebodingly. Remaining in His love enables us to resonate with our truest essence like a gentle soprano note, inviting us to admire—contemplate— how God’s beauty is always more than we can expect. Will we say yes like our Lady and remain? Relate to the Lord // When you’re tempted to self-evaluate today. Practice looking at Jesus instead.

April 16, 2026 // Thursday of the Second Week of Easter Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 3:31-36 Reflect on the Word // I felt like my heart was searching for God’s voice or at least leaning on Him for several days. It was the anniversary of a tragic event and His Cross was my only solace. Semi-numb, I walked into the chapel, genuflected, and slid into the end of a pew. As I looked up, I saw a dear friend and had a quiet desire to tap her on the shoulder and to slide in next to her. My heart lightened at this inspiration from the Holy Spirit. The enemy was trying to tell me not to be so needy, but luckily I knew better—for the Lord delights in ministering to us precisely when we are needy.  The gentle knowing became salvific as I considered what a profound blessing it was to sit next to this friend of so many years who was a mom of so many dear children. So many seasons of life were represented as we knelt there silently adoring the King of the Universe Who came from above and is above all (see John 3:31). We didn’t need to speak to each other because we understood each other from the heart and did not need to speak of earthly things as “one who is of the earth” (see John 3:31). And as I thought of the tremendous gift of perseverance and fortitude in both of our lives, the phrase from today’s Gospel that most reechoed in my heart was “He does not ration his gift of the Spirit” (John 3:34). It was a miracle we were there. His gift of faith in us was a miracle. His gift of love between us—even without words, just a hello-hug—was a miracle. Sister, no matter what seasons we are going through in our lives right now, we belong to the One Who is the definitive Victor over anything that is imperfect, not whole, and in need of redemption. May this Easter season be a cause for profound renewal and strengthening for each of us as we open ourselves to receive all the Gifts of the Resurrected One! Relate to the Lord // What gifts is the Lord pouring out in this season? Take stock. 

February 19, 2026 // Thursday after Ash Wednesday Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Reflect on the Word // It felt like my soul was being pelted by desert sand. But amid the nicking and scratching of the enemy in my thoughts, I looked up at a beautiful image of our Lord and my heart rested for a gentle moment. Immediately I felt the courage from the Holy Spirit—definitely not my own—asking me to make an  act of confidence and surrender. You have never failed me, my heart cried as I prayed. Although the enemy’s accusations swirled, tempting me to second guess my intentions and to go down the neverending spiral of wondering how things might turn out, I cried out to God for salvation.  My heart leaped at the absolute truth of the choice set before the Israelites (and us) in the First Reading today. The Lord caught me. Like a great friend whose love is so familiar that one relaxes at the sound of his or her voice, He caught me. I understood in vivid contrast that I had a choice to make. I could spend the next few weeks before the news came about a serious situation worrying, blaming, and becoming embittered. I knew this would lead to the death spiral which the First Reading speaks about, or I could choose life. Did I want the death spiral of self-focus and the small-mindedness of pride, or life in the One Who is Life?  His call in that moment was to obey His command, to trust Him. Trusting prayer would be my lifeline. Obedience to God is not for my destruction but for my life, my freedom from death: “If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you” (Deuteronomy 30:16). We are so blessed to be on the cusp of yet another conversion, another Lent. What a privilege to be called to the desert again, now, today—a desert which will bring us closer to the promised land of Heaven. What an immense joy to know our God calls us to obedience for our fullness of life. Relate to the Lord // Where is the Lord inviting you to obedience for your good?

December 24, 2025 // Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent // Christmas Eve Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 1:67-79 Reflect on the Word // When I finally knelt, rosary in hand, to meditate on the Life of Christ, I was startled by the intensity of my need for God to break through: Lord, I need You. I had been bracketing some difficult news and challenges to get through a busy week. I needed quality time to speak to the Lord and to hear Him. So at this first opportunity to truly pray, the Holy Spirit gave me grace to be utterly vulnerable. My longings, griefs, and fears surfaced and surged.  It was a visceral longing for a savior. Then I came face to face with the mystery of His Birth. As I contemplated the tiring journey of the young Holy Family, I longed for the Light of the World. He is the culmination; His birth is the high point of the Joyful Mysteries. The words of Zechariah from today’s Gospel echo my longing: “[T]he dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death” (Luke 1:78-79). This perfectly innocent newborn Baby was born in such poverty and at a time when His people were horribly oppressed, not just by worldly rulers but by the darkness of evil and sin. The Alleluia verse and O Antiphon for today comes from today’s Gospel, and refers to Jesus as “Radiant Dawn.” When I consider Him as the radiant dawn, like light breaking through every shadow, I experience the blessedness of the poor in spirit. He is the radiant dawn because He knows my need; God became Man so I could never doubt that He not only knows humanity’s need notionally but in His own flesh. His logic is reflected in the tiny wrinkly hands and feet of a newborn baby—ready to be protected, nurtured, and received.  Sister, tonight is for contemplating the “with-ness” of God; tonight Emmanuel, meaning “God is with us,” comes. This is astounding. May we take courage—with everything we are carrying—in Him Who was truly tested in every way, as Saint Paul says, and draws near to us in need as our timely help. Relate to the Lord // Pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary today (or even simply the third mystery, the Birth of Jesus) and give thanks to God for giving us His Son.

November 11, 2025 // Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Wisdom 2:23–3:9 Reflect on the Word //  Ever since I was young, I remember adults encouraging me not to worry.  I am conscientious by nature, but I did not know that word or concept at the time. My parents would help by telling me who was responsible for the thing I was worrying about, or by helping me to fulfill the task that worried me.  The Lord quickly put a beautiful-hearted music teacher in my life who listened deeply, and it was through her loving understanding that I gradually was able to blossom and open up.  The dramatic imagery of the First Reading is another reminder not to worry, and it consoles me. The Lord brings my heart to rest in the familiar rhythm and logic of the book of Wisdom like a pylon in the depths of a raging ocean. I feel His constancy in the words: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead [. . .] But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3). He gently reveals to me how I don’t have to be overcome by the daily griefs of life. Our good Jesus shows to me that after many battles and trembling prayers over many years, I don’t have to look around and ahead at things like a foreboding, tormenting storm. Because of His fidelity,  I now know that daily crosses can be more like thin mist that the Father dissipates easily at every new day.  Our task: hold on to Him. While He proves and tries His beloveds like gold in the furnace (see Wisdom 3:6), our good God shows us that He is our true hope. His desire is for our good, for “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them” (Wisdom 2:23). Sister, He wants us to have peace in this life, and we attain it through clinging to Him through all that comes our way. And through it He will form us to be more like Him.  Relate to the Lord // Are you worried? How can you hold onto Jesus today instead of your fears?

October 8, 2025 // Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 11:1-4 Reflect on the Word // It was not poor planning or ambitious hopes that brought my life to a pace that felt like I was on a treadmill set just a little beyond my gait. When I finally made it into His Presence in the Adoration Chapel, I knelt and sighed: Thank You for helping me make it here, Lord! In response, I felt His warm and welcoming smile. It was like He was matching my gait when I heard: Give us this day our daily bread (see Luke 11:3).  He said to my heart: Ask. I knew it was His voice in my interior because it echoed with a sense of His vulnerable Heart. He was responding to my deeper needs that had brought me into the chapel at such a pace—those unconscious spaces that cry out for the Savior.  It was the same promptness and simple goodness with which Jesus responds to His disciples’ desire to learn how to pray like Him in the Gospel today. Prayer is easy for Him. He doesn’t need a long technical and historical discourse to teach His disciples how He prays. They are simply captivated by seeing Him pray, and so they ask Him. His answer is frank, clear, and reveals the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.  When I felt Jesus tell me, Ask, it was with a sense of His union with the Father. It was like I could touch the Father’s nearness and provision within the invitation. But the challenge was that I was being directed to be more vulnerable, more intimate. To ask for my daily bread would mean revealing those parts of my heart that can be disappointed, places of real hopes.  It took me weeks to get used to praying like this, and it became like an adventure of greater and greater beauty because the Father’s care became something I could see and touch. He healed areas of defense, doubt, and fear, and launched our relationship into new vistas: Ask. The Lord invites us all to pray the Our Father with the same childlike asking that the disciples modeled in the Gospel today.  Relate to the Lord // What will you ask of the Lord today? Share your desires with Him vulnerably now.  

September 9, 2025 // Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Colossians 2:6-15 Reflect on the Word // It was late, but I needed to pray more than eat or rest. I had poured out all my energy, creativity, and patience for a marathon project in ministry.  I had been caught up in the busyness of my work, and I knew that I only needed time with Jesus. I knew I made the right decision to stop in for a visit to Jesus in the Eucharist the moment I opened the chapel door.  I knelt in that soothing silence, asking Him to hold me up. His patience and goodness were so familiar, like the warm glow surrounding His Most Sacred and Real Presence. I thanked Him and rested. After a while, words like Saint Paul’s from today’s First Reading echoed and resounded in my soul. In His steadying presence, He helped me to see how I had been allowing myself to get caught up in thoughts that are the “empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men” (Colossians 2:8). He lovingly convicted me of a lack of trust in Him Who has never failed me. It is true. I realized the source of my exhaustion was that, rather than taking a moment to become surrendered to Jesus and our Lady at the outset of the project and ask for their preference and measures, I immediately started working and became preoccupied, and this disturbed my peace. Now I had a choice. I could allow Him to evangelize, heal, and conquer my heart, or continue my controlling and white-knuckling.  My eyes drifted, gratefully, up to Him on the crucifix. There it is. My soul opened up and felt effortlessly grounded. He helped me to again be “rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith” (Colossians 2:7).  Sister, He simply wants our surrender and our holy indifference again and again. For us to pray, Jesus, I choose You! And to say it every day: Jesus, I choose You! He has conquered every principality and power, as Saint Paul mentions twice in today's Reading. But will we allow Him to conquer these in our own hearts and lives? Relate to the Lord // Stop by a Catholic Church or Blessed Sacrament chapel today and let Him console and ground you.

July 17, 2025  // Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 11:28-30 Reflect on the Word //  My interior was like waves on a windy ocean. Just days prior I received difficult news. My heart was raw with a prayer experience where the Father almost wordlessly reminded me that He had provided. The memory of His all-encompassing Providence embraced me even days later.  But I wasn’t sure that I wanted Him to speak today. I was afraid He would say or do something that might upset the peace I felt was fragile. Yet my heart opened with hope at the word “rest.”  “I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  I cautiously waited there at those words, and I felt His invitation take a breath. The tension lessened. I stayed there a bit longer and repeated His deeply good word: “I will give you rest.” At a certain point the preceding words brought me to tears: “Come to Me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  Yes, Jesus. Yes, Father, it is true You give rest when life is laborious and I am fatigued by the burden. The memory of His fidelity encompassed even my body. I remembered countless just-in-time blessings, especially when I was weary. I delighted in the truth that my rest is His with-ness and presence to me, and there He is my healing and my strengthening fortress. Sister, it can sometimes sound trite to say that God wants to be our friend, but this is the only way I can explain how deeply good and gentle He is. Pope Benedict XVI told us on several occasions not to be afraid, because Jesus will not take anything from us, that is, anything of real value. May we learn from His most meek and humble Heart how He uses all things for our greatest good if we learn to give Him everything. Relate to the Lord // Spend time in silence today—even five minutes—and listen for the Lord’s gentle voice of love.  

June 2, 2025  // Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter // Optional Memorial of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Acts 19:1-8 Reflect on the Word //  I held a familiar ache of heart as I knelt in prayer, and this particular morning, our good Jesus illuminated and named my ache. It was like I was in a room with roaring white noise, and the Lord came and muted the noise with His Word: “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (Acts 19:2). This little phrase painlessly opened my heart with the Light of Christ, showing me the importance of ministry today. We live in a time in the history of our beloved Mother, the Church, where many people are not taught basic truths of the faith. With a bit of time, they sometimes express excitement and sometimes experience fatigue that they must search for the truth while dodging bad teachers and relativistic, mushy thinking. I resonate with Saint Paul’s fire for the Gospel, and also I resonate with the ache he must have experienced at discovering that these new disciples in the First Reading did not know the Holy Spirit when he asked them a simple question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” (Acts 19:2)   Their humble and frank reply moved me to tears, and my heart leapt for joy as I recognized the “rich soil” that the Lord loves to find in hearts that are receptive to the blessing of His Word of Life (see Mark 4:20). There are many, many people I have met in my ministry who soar like eagles in the spiritual life because they are willing to ask a question vulnerably of the Lord. They are humble and frank with God. Sister, God calls us, too, to be poised like Saint Paul to exercise our prophetic mission in Jesus, which we were given at Baptism. We can imitate Saint Paul by simply teaching with the fullness of truth that we only find through, with, and in Jesus Christ in the Church. However, we can only give what we have received, and so we can pray to and trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us in each and every moment of sharing the truth. Relate to the Lord // Invite the Holy Spirit and ask Him to inspire you throughout your day.  

March 13, 2025 // Thursday of the First Week in Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 7:7-12 Reflect on the Word // I came into His Eucharistic Presence saying, Lord,  please give me energy. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the night. I’m so tired. I went to Him needing more than a little break. A two-week cold/flu thing disrupted my plans for what was supposed to be a very simple party for a program I was running. That night was “go-time,” and in a few hours, over a hundred people would be on campus. I had been fighting discouragement mingled with brain fog all morning.  But I was so grateful He gave me the grace to pry away from the office to go to pray. When I looked up at Him to genuflect, my heart felt a familiar relief.  I exhaled as He reminded me that He is our gentle, good, Almighty God. I rested in that gaze, and He quietly responded by giving a gentle surge of energy. There You go being God! Thank you, Jesus! I was amazed. Then I felt Him say, You don’t ask Me to help you enough. I knew it was His voice because it was encouraging, simple, and without a tinge of condemnation. His goodness pierced my heart.  It is true, O Jesus, I can do nothing without you. It was a moment of profound reconnection.  “Ask and it will be given to you . . .” (Matthew 7:7). The Gospel passage today can feel so familiar that we tune it out. But when our good Jesus says, “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish?” (Matthew 7:9-10) are we not struck to the core? Our dear Jesus doesn’t need you or me to work harder without Him. Our greatest talents are like everything else: pure gift. Our Jesus wants us to ask, seek, and knock because He wants us to spend our time—all of it—growing and learning how to live in, of, and with Him. He is the source of all life. He Himself will supply for our every need if only we ask.  Relate to the Lord // Turn to Jesus in faith and ask Him for what you need and desire today.

February 20, 2025 // Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Mark 8:27-33 Reflect on the Word // I rested in her consoling beauty as I looked up at the glowing statue of Our Lady of Grace. In that silence, our dear Mother touched that core part of my heart which knows how to ask to be rooted only and always in the Lord. At once, I saw the source of my distraction and how I wasted precious time being worried about what people were thinking in this new place.  I had just moved from the other side of the country. Three time zones and many climates away from my old home, I was relieved that our beautiful and gentle Mother sweetly encouraged me to recognize that I would not feel displaced here or anywhere if I simply remained in her and our good God. The Gospel today is written by Saint Mark, a close disciple of Saint Peter who probably heard this story from Peter himself. The Lord plunges Simon Peter to the root of their relationship today. Jesus asks him, “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29) as if none of the answers that preceded his mattered. “Who do you, Peter, say that I am?” He sees our hearts. He knows Peter needs to pronounce his faith out loud, perhaps to own it more. We, too, are called to pronounce Who Jesus is in our prayer to Him and our interior answer will be given evidence through our actions. Jesus also rebukes Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mark 8:33). Peter had been living and ministering alongside Jesus Christ for years, but Jesus needed to clearly rebuke him for not submitting in obedience to Who Jesus is—the One Who will suffer greatly, be rejected, be killed, and rise after three days. You and I, like Peter and the other Apostles, are unfathomably blessed to have the Mother of God who waits to be allowed to teach us how to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, how to grow in our capacity to say an ever more all-encompassing yes, and to allow God to be God. Relate to the Lord // How is your relationship with our Lady? Pray a Hail Mary now and invite her to walk with you today.

January 6, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint André Bessette, Religious (in USA) Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: 1 John 3:22–4:6 Reflect on the Word //  That morning, I felt like I woke up and faceplanted into a gooey, sticky web of spiritual warfare. It was the kind of spiritual desolation that enveloped all of reality and made me feel like I had spiritual amnesia. Even though the Lord and our Most Blessed Mother had assured me innumerable times that they had my vocation in hand and had given confirmations and consolations galore, I was distraught and felt abandoned.  But the miracle started happening immediately when I walked into church and genuflected to greet Jesus a few minutes before morning Mass. Everything changed when Father invoked the Saint of the day in the opening prayer. I felt like a friend came near me to remind me of who I am in Jesus. I had been quietly nurturing a fear and buying the menacing lie that Jesus is untrustworthy and certainly could not be faithful beyond what I could tangibly experience or imagine.  But thanks be to God for saintly friends who call us forward into Christ! The Beloved Disciple is so magnanimous as to call you and me “beloved” (1 John 4:1), and he leans into this profound encouragement. He tells you and me to test all spirits to see whether they are of God and then boldly gives the most fitting tool for discernment: “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:3). Sister, I realize it can sound overly dramatic to hear the title “antichrist.” But I am so grateful our beloved friend, Saint John, has his finger right on the pulse of God’s Heart. He repeatedly calls us “beloved” because we need it. And then warns us of the spirit of the world. God calls us to be bold, and our saintly friends call us to boldly live as true believers and conquerors through Him, with Him, and in Him. Relate to the Lord // Ask for the Saints intercession to help you discern your thoughts today.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle. // Psalm 144:1 “I believe in you. You’ve already begun your new ministry with me.” These words reverberated as I gazed at the courageous young person whose body language stated, “Look at me and see evidence.” I was stunned, so she nodded too, beckoning me to listen and soak it in.  We had been simply discussing how very difficult it can be to hold on to faith even though it’s the only game for sanity in town, and we were marveling at how staying close to our Blessed Lord and His Mother is our lifeline even though it seems outlandish sometimes to belong to the Church.  She was a convert and I am a revert.  “This is reality!” she declared. “I’ve nowhere else to go,” she reflected as she opened her hands and expanded her shoulders. Cruciform! I thought. Wow. She gets it in a deep way! We’d repeat the phrase “This is reality!” for fun because it had become packed with meaning.  Like so many young people, she was discovering things I rediscovered years ago in the intense continuity of the Faith. We reflected on how wild it is that the Most Sacred Heart, the Real Presence, Divine Mercy, and Sacred Scripture are all one movement that holds together. She was discovering what I rediscovered or what rediscovered me when God taught me how He is present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  She told me that day and many others how much I’ve helped her to stay in the flowing current of grace which is the Church. I never cease to be amazed at this because I simply share what I know to be true and the One Who is Truth. I do not presume to grasp the fullness, but rather, I’m like a friend standing with another, identifying star constellations.  Sister, perhaps you are also being called to reach out to those who have left the Church and are furthest from her heart. We are called, dear sister, to be prophets—ones who speak of reality in God. He trains us to love our brothers and sisters enough to invite them home.

“But now my eye has seen you.” // Job 42: 5  I was overseas when Dad called. “She’s okay,” he said, but I heard something behind his voice. My brothers were the ones who had to tell me mom had been pretty seriously injured in an accident. It took a few days to piece together what happened because the time difference made it hard to catch my family for any length of time.   I was a handful of months into a year-long overseas program, and leaving would mean starting from the beginning.  Dad told me to stay put, saying he would tell me when my coming home would be helpful.  I remember how my heart ached at memories of joy during my annual home visits. It was a trying time and I felt like I couldn’t pray. I could relate to Job then, at least in a small way. The throes of trials brought my spiritual poverty to the foreground and there was no way around—only through. Weeks passed. Mom demonstrated her amazing resilience again in spades. Once she was able to have a semi-long conversation, my mother declared, “Do not forget who you are.” Her call to faith pierced me to the heart. As I look back on all that has transpired in our family’s life in the many years since this incident, I can trace God’s merciful closeness. We learned so much, and I can’t imagine how we would have learned the lessons as deeply any other way. The conclusion of Job’s dramatic searching ends in his striking declaration in today’s First Reading: “By hearsay I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you” (Job 42:5).  Sister, perhaps you, your family, or your friends are wading through the tumult of trials right now—or maybe you’ve just come out the other side. Either way, I pray that we will be able to hold our good Jesus’ hand through the storms and then reorient our lives as Job did, sharing his prayer to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be hindered” (Job 42:2). May we discern and discover the sweetness of trusting in God come what may.

[W]e have the mind of Christ. // 1 Corinthians 2:16 “Come back and give a proper greeting,” my parents would call out to my brothers and me. Their words were like the tug of a resistance band holding us back from play. It is customary in our Vietnamese culture for children to fold their arms and bow to greet each person in a home upon arrival. If we folded our arms sloppily or if our bow was half-hearted or not deep enough, Mom or Dad would correct, “Khoanh tay lại.” This was certainly tedious for us as kids, and I never guessed how my parents' efforts would help me to grow steady in facing the world.  My parents’ unwavering gazes taught us the profound value of respectfully addressing each person, especially elders our grandparents' age.  Years ago, when I found myself living across the country from my parents, I realized I had formed the habit of slightly bowing my head out of respect as I greeted people in acknowledgement of their God-given inherent goodness and their relationship to me. As I examined my heart to see if this was a custom I wanted to keep, I realized how I relish reverence. In the same way that we learn healthy posture to be musicians and athletes, it is deeply good for us to become disciplined in doing good and giving God just praise. In the same way that I feel differently when I treat people with due reverence, it is healing and fitting for me to embrace the beauty of discipline in worshiping Almighty God and orienting my entire being toward Him, especially in the Sacred Liturgy. In the First Reading, Saint Paul says because we do not have the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God, we do not speak by human wisdom “but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms” (1 Corinthians 2:13).  Sister, may we allow our gracious Lord to draw us into the beauty of discipline, which is essential for authentic discipleship. May Jesus teach us the sweetness of His Way, for all authority and power belong to Him (see Luke 4:36).