August 21, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14 Reflect on the Word //  Growing up in the Church as a “cradle Catholic,” I was exposed to a variety of prayer nights, styles of worship, devotions, etc. What I remember as I was growing in my faith was the distance I put between myself and the presence of the Holy Spirit. There were opportunities to invite the Holy Spirit into my life in prayer but I wanted no part. I believed the Holy Spirit was for those people—the crazy Christians. In today’s First Reading, the Lord sends out the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy over the dry bones. I can’t help but to think of the “dry bones” in my life that I’ve left for dead. Hopes, dreams, relationships, shortcomings that I’ve piled on to this graveyard—succumbing to the fact that there once was life, and now there is not. But I do not have the final say. The Lord invites me to revisit and speak life into these areas. I may not always have the answer and sometimes I accept defeat. But how I wish for the courage to speak life over those areas. The words in today’s Scripture bring me comfort: “I will [ . . .] put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:6). What a relief to come to the realization that it is not going to be by my efforts or my striving that life will come to these dead places. It is by the Spirit Himself, the One I was once afraid of getting to know, the One Who has befriended me and given me such hope in desolation, courage in difficult times, and a profound love for the God Who created me.  Sister, we don’t have to be afraid because we don’t have the last word. Even the graveyard we have occupied with our own disappointments over the years can begin to rattle with the new life the Lord has promised you and me.  Relate to the Lord // Today, invite the Spirit into your heart and explore those places where you need to prophecy over. May the Lord direct you and empower you with His Spirit.

August 20, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Ezekiel 36:23-28  Reflect on the Word //  I smiled politely, said, “No worries at all,” and then replayed the conversation in my head for the next six hours. While folding laundry, answering emails, and brushing my teeth, I kept thinking about that conversation. The more I replayed it, the more irritated I became. I imagined better responses and cleverer comebacks. By bedtime, my chest felt tight and heavy. This situation was really hard. It amazed me how quickly this small wound could harden into resentment. In Ezekiel 36, the Lord says, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts” (Ezekiel 36:26). The phrase “stony hearts” feels painfully specific. Some stones form after heartbreak or betrayal. Others grow quietly through daily disappointments. A woman can build an entire wall from tiny bricks of comparison, resentment, control, or exhaustion. We sometimes use these stones to hide our vulnerabilities. The frightening part is that hardened hearts can begin to feel normal. Yet, the Lord does not shame His people in the book of Ezekiel. He does not command them to fix themselves first. He promises to act. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you” (Ezekiel 36:25). “I will give you a new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26). We all carry hidden stones in our hearts. Some are obvious. Others have rested there so long that we barely notice their weight anymore. Yet, the Lord sees every hidden stone we carry, even the ones we cling to.  He comes close enough to remove them gently because He desires soft hearts within us. He still draws near to us weary women, transforms what has hardened, and teaches us how to live freely again. Relate to the Lord // Where has your heart become hardened? Share that stony place with Him honestly. 

August 19, 2026 // Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of Saint John Eudes, priest Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16 Reflect on the Word //  I opened up my mailbox and excitedly pulled out the envelope addressed to me. My joy deflated a little as I realized it was a wedding invitation from my friend who was getting married to the guy I secretly had a crush on. I was happy for her and knew they made a great couple, but I was sad for me. I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with me. Why was I left on the sidelines and not a chosen one? Eventually, I found the man who would choose me, and I thanked God for His abundant blessings.  In today’s Gospel passage, we read about the laborers who worked in the vineyard for different lengths of time. In the past, I automatically sympathized with the day laborer and his perceived injustice for receiving the same wages as those who worked very little in comparison. But today, my heart related to the evening laborers who experienced Jesus’ words, “The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16).  I pictured the unemployed laborers loitering in the marketplace and others standing around waiting to be hired, hope draining as the daylight diminished. Were they worried because they really needed the pay? Did they question why they weren’t chosen as a laborer? When they finally heard the call to go work in the vineyard, they must have been relieved that they’d at least have a little pay to bring home. Imagine their surprise upon receiving a full day's wages. Gratitude must have filled their hearts at the landowner’s generosity. How often have we felt like others have been chosen, while we’re left on the sidelines? When in reality, we each have our own unique mission that only we can do. Or how often has God been generous with us, not giving us what we deserve, but abundantly blessing us with His love and mercy? Let’s turn our hearts to Him in gratitude for the blessings we take for granted and, without comparing ourselves to others, go where He leads us with humility and courage.  Relate to the Lord // Ponder your chosenness. How have you been especially loved, chosen, and blessed by God? 

August 18, 2026 // Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 19:23-30 Reflect on the Word //  I was talking with a friend recently about all the things that haven't gone according to plan. Somewhere in the conversation, I found myself listing the things I felt I had surrendered to God over the years—relationships that didn't work out, opportunities I walked away from, expectations I had to release. I wasn't angry, exactly. Just tired. And beneath the surface was a question I was almost afraid to ask: Was it worth it? Not because I doubted God, but because I couldn't yet see what He was doing with all that I had placed in His hands. In today's Gospel , Peter asks a question that feels surprisingly human: "We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?" (Matthew 19:27) I love that he says it out loud. After all the teachings, miracles, and acts of faith, Peter still wonders what all this surrender is leading toward. Jesus doesn't rebuke him. Instead, He promises that whatever has been given up for His sake will be returned a hundredfold. The Lord promises him abundance even in the place of apparent loss.  Jesus doesn't deny the cost. The disciples really did leave things behind. Following Christ requires sacrifice. But Jesus invites them to see their losses through a different lens—not as things taken away, but as things entrusted to God. That's the part I'm still learning. Sometimes, surrender feels less like a single decision and more like a daily choice to release my grip on what I cannot control. My plans. My timelines. My expectations for how God should work. We all know what it feels like to count the cost of discipleship. May we also remember the promise that accompanies it: nothing surrendered to God is ever wasted. Even when we cannot yet see the fruit, we can trust that He is doing more than we know, and giving more than we can imagine. Relate to the Lord // Make “Jesus, I trust in you” your prayer today.

August 17, 2026 // Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 19:16-22 Reflect on the Word //  I stared at the checklist on my phone, mentally calculating what still needed to get done before the day was over. School drop off? Check. Workout? Check. Grocery pick up order? Check. As I scrolled through the list, a thought of awareness surfaced: I've been so busy doing things for God that I haven't actually been with Him today. The rich young man in today's Gospel approaches Jesus with a sincere question: "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" (Matthew 19:16) He wants to know what task remains unfinished, what box is left unchecked, what achievement will finally secure the life he longs for. Jesus' response reveals something deeper. Eternal life is not something we earn through perfect performance. It is received through a relationship with God. The young man's riches are measured by his earthly possessions, not by his love for God. His priorities are disordered. He assumes there is one more thing he can do to attain what only God can give. When Jesus tells him to sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow Him, He requests more than a change in behavior. He invites the man to be sincerely transformed in mind and heart. The tragedy of the story is not that the man had many possessions. It is that he walked away from the One thing he truly needed. I recognize myself in him. I can treat holiness like a project to manage rather than a Person to follow. Yet, Jesus continually invites me to loosen my grip on achievement, control, and self-reliance so that He can reorder my loves and make me new. Eternal life begins not in doing, but in following. The Lord extends the same invitation to us. As we surrender whatever competes for first place in our hearts, He teaches us what true riches are. In following Him, we discover that eternal life is not earned by what we do, but received from the One Who calls us to become His own. Relate to the Lord // Be with Jesus today. When, where, and how will you prioritize prayer today?

August 15, 2026 // Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16 Reflect on the Word // My longtime-favorite statue sits in a lovely stone chapel in West Point, NY.  It’s of our Lady, draped head to toe in glorious gold, an intricate golden crown resting regally atop her head. She cradles a delicate gold scepter in her right hand and the Child Jesus in her left, dainty gold slippers on her feet. Lavish as it may sound, this statue is not ostentatious or overdone. It’s elegant and graceful enough to make the heart ache with both longing and satisfaction.  Perhaps this is why today’s Psalm is one of my favorites: “The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold” (Psalm 45:10). I distinctly know and love this Queen in all her beauty, tenderness, and purity. Perhaps it’s also why I’ve long been drawn to gold: gold jewelry, gold accents throughout my home, the stunning golden tabernacle at my parish. I’ve spent hours gazing upon it, and I’m deeply struck whenever I reflect on the truth that traditionally, tabernacles are created to be even more beautiful inside than out.  This began with the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant—covered in pure hammered gold—to house the presence of God, and was powerfully fulfilled in the New Testament through our Lady, the New Ark of the Covenant, created to carry the incarnate presence of Jesus to us. Her outward beauty, reflected in my favorite statue and Psalm, is but the dimmest glimpse of her infinite inner beauty and purity as the most glorious living tabernacle to ever exist. This purity, the sole purpose of which was to honor our Savior, made her too beautiful to ever see corruption; at the end of her earthly life God assumed (brought) her, body and soul, into heaven.  We, too, are temples of the Lord; living tabernacles for His Majesty.  We, too, are invited to embrace this transcendent beauty of our Lady. One that understands external beauty as a gift to honor our Creator, and one that strives to become more beautiful inside than out: through the help of grace, adorning ourselves with ever greater virtue and love, allowing ourselves to become eternally stunning, everlasting tabernacles for Almighty God.  Relate to the Lord // Look upon a favorite image or statue of our Lady today. Contemplate her beauty.

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.

August 13, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Pontian, Pope and Martyr, and Saint Hippolytus, Priest and Martyr Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7-8 Reflect on the Word //  On a recent afternoon, a visiting priest from the Archdiocese of Chicago was incredibly generous to me with his time in the cry-room confessional. He was very gentle, asked probing questions, and even shared a story with me. It was part Confession and part spiritual direction. I had a sense that time was going by, but because I was completely engrossed with what this man of God was sharing, I hadn't paid attention to the fact that the blinds to the windows of the cry room were pulled all the way up. Since father wasn’t hurried, I released my anxiety over the long line that I had just waited in and was fully present.  Once my Confession concluded, I felt light and renewed in God’s merciful love. As I turned the door knob to exit, a woman standing in front of the line frustratedly said, “That took a very long time.” I took a deep breath and walked into the church hall to pray with my penance. As I walked towards where my kids were sitting, both looked extremely deflated. Since my fellow parishioners could see me in the confessional, they had complained about the length of time I took to my children.  How could it be that within seconds of receiving absolution I had stepped into the fowler’s snare?   Today’s Psalm reminds us that God delivers us from moments that could damage us and destroy the good within us especially when we are trying to grow closer to Him. Although I was feeling swallowed alive by all of these judgments and was greatly troubled that these judgments were imposed upon my children, I prayed to not dwell on them but instead offer forgiveness as I was just forgiven (see Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7-8). Sister, the things we say and do to each other can catapult us into the fowler’s snare, but God is there ready to safeguard our freedom and release us from harm. We lean into His mercy. Relate to the Lord // Whom do you need to forgive? Bring that person and situation to Jesus and ask for the grace of His mercy.

August 12, 2026 // Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20 Reflect on the Word //  “18:19!” The text message—and others like it—lit up my phone.  Our staff had adopted this shorthand as an agreement in prayer inspired by today’s Gospel reading from Matthew chapter 18: “Amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”  We held a weekly 18:19 virtual prayer meeting to share intentions and agree for whatever was needed, from Catholic school tuition (covered by a scholarship that very day) to a sibling trying to conceive (she had twins) to friends in need of a car (they were gifted one for free).  But after months of intercession and subsequent miracles, I found that my prayers often went unanswered. Despite everyone’s agreement, I was still empty handed. How do we make sense of disappointment? Admittedly, I’m still learning. But as I examined my heart over those weeks, the Lord began to show me that, actually, I didn’t agree—with Him.  You see, prayer isn’t magic. It’s not about saying the right words or finishing the right novena or doing literally anything “right” to earn your desired outcome. Jesus tells us the true end of our agreement just one verse later when He promises that, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). He promises us Himself. He is what we most need. Matthew 18:19 isn’t about getting what we want; it’s about coming into agreement with Who He is. To believe in His Heart for the deepest desires of ours, His provision in our most pressing needs, and His presence to fill every moment of our lives, even as we wait.  And as we wait for His most loving response to our own tuition/baby/car petition, let us confidently agree that the Father always hears our prayers and Jesus is always with us.  You can count on it. Relate to the Lord // Who can you agree with in prayer today? Call or text her to pray together.

August 11, 2026  // Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 18:12-14  Reflect on the Word //  When I was in college, I met up with my middle-school-principal dad and some of his students who were at a theme park in the city where I was a student. We spent the day riding rollercoasters and walking around the park. Then at one point, early in the afternoon, I realized I was missing one of my earrings. I was wearing a pair of pearls my parents had gifted me for high school graduation and I was devastated to think one was lost. My dad and I retraced our countless steps and then he had the idea to check the seat of a particularly intense ride, one that earlier in the day had banged my head from side to side so hard that I remembered the pounding. Sure enough, there, in one of the seats, was my pearl, nestled in the outline of the padding. My dad and I screamed and laughed and hugged each other in disbelief.  The story of the lost sheep is always an important reminder that Jesus loves us so much. He loves each of us as if it were only us. We are not just some number in the crowd, a cog in the machine. We are each seen and known and cherished uniquely and individually by the Lord.  This is a beautiful truth for us to accept personally and also to remember for our loved ones. Our children, our siblings, our parents—the Lord is searching for and cares for them deeply. Even when circumstances feel impossible, God can make a way.  To Jesus, we are the lost sheep, the lost pearl. The Lord tells us that it is not His will for any of us to be lost. “In the first place,” writes St. John of the Cross, “it should be known that if a person is seeking God, his Beloved is seeking him much more” (The Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3, Para. 28). Relate to the Lord // Reread the quote from Saint John of the Cross. Take a few moments to consider how much the Lord is seeking you.

August 10, 2026 // Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: 2 Corinthians 9:6-10 Reflect on the Word // This past year, I have learned a lot about giving directly from the eagerly raised hands of elementary school children. There is something pure about their willingness to serve, as if it is a coat of honor that God Himself helps them shrug on at the start of every school day. As a student teacher, I would receive drawings everyday, each scrawled with kind words, and when I dropped a box of pencils or a pile of papers, students from the back of the classroom would scurry forward to help tidy up. When I looked up to say thank you, I always knew I would find them already back at their desks, eyes squinted on their paper, pencil in hand, and a faint smile tugging at their lips. In today’s First Reading, Paul states that “God loves a cheerful giver,” and that “in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). We often think we need more in order to give more, but this is far from the truth. The Lord gives to us in abundance, as sure as the dew on the grass each morning. The world teaches us to focus on our lack instead of our abundance, but as long as we cling to our checkbooks and claim we are short on time, we will hesitate to step into the life that God has blessed and ordained for us—one of service to others. Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (whose feast we celebrate today) believed this so much so that when asked to present the wealth of the Church to the pagan prefect of Rome, he presented the poor and sick, claiming, “These are the treasures of the Church” (Saint Ambrose, On the Duties of the Clergy, XXVIII.140). Next time we find ourselves holding on to that skirt we never wear, hesitating to give to our church’s third capital campaign, or claiming we do not have time to drive that friend to the airport, let us refocus on what truly matters: blessing others. Relate to the Lord // Take some time to reflect on the Lord’s abundant generosity to you today. Make a list and thank Him!

August 8, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 17:14-20  Reflect on the Word //  I checked the patient portal once again for the test results. Is it too late to start praying for healing? The tests were run, the data was collected, and all I could do now was simply wait for the notification from the doctor. Or at least that is all I was doing.  When friends and family members get sick, I am quick to pray. Time before the Blessed Sacrament, Rosaries, and offering little sufferings are all ways that engage intercessory prayer for those who need healing. Yet when faced with my own small medical mysteries, I have taken the role of the investigator rather than the prayer warrior. I search with the misguided expectation that if I only work hard enough I will find the elusive answers.  My lack of faith leads me into the AI rabbit hole to discover ways of healing myself, rather than surrendering my fears and worries to my Loving God and waiting with patience.  Like the disciples in today’s Gospel, I am a woman whose faith is still insufficient. Not insufficient to work the miracle, because miracles are from God (not us), but rather insufficient in fully trusting the Lord that His will is best. Unanswered prayers can so often lead to anger, resentment, and disappointment, so it can seem safer to leave the prayer request unspoken. If I pray for healing and it doesn’t come, will the disappointment spark a spiritual revolt? I know that in my imperfect faith, sometimes I don’t pray because I am not ready to surrender the outcome.  When faced with deep desires, we petition the Lord, and surrender with faith that He will hear us. This does not mean that we expect Him to grant each wish like a genie in a bottle. We give Him our petition confident in His love for each of us, knowing that His plan is always best. A prayer isn’t a wish waiting to be granted. It is a conversation.  Relate to the Lord // Have a conversation with Jesus today. What do you want to share with Him?

August 7, 2026 // Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of Saint Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, and his Companions, Martyrs // Optional Memorial of Saint Cajetan, Priest Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 16:24-28 Reflect on the Word //  It was a Friday evening, the exhausted kind, when I encountered a lovely Dominican Sister. As we talked, I shared some of my built-up weariness and fear as I was taking a new leap in my life. I guess I had thought that I had done enough hard things for Jesus, but I was realizing that He was going to keep asking for more. To which Sister confidently replied, “He will ask more of you, but He will also give you more.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His friends something similar: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). I wonder if His disciples understood the weight of this statement, this calling to follow their Friend to His Cross and then to their own martyrdoms. The more I look at my own life, I wonder if I really understand it either. It is so radical that it has to change everything if it is true: my earthly life is meant to be lost. It is meant to be poured out, offered up, given away for God. In the end, nothing else will matter. This is freedom, really. No wonder that my attempts to keep my life for myself make me miserable! All my anxiety about how I am going to make myself happy, satisfying all of my own desires on just the right timeline! That was never what my life was for. Jesus speaks truly when He tells us, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:26) The whole world is about all we can imagine, and yet He wants even more than that for us. He wants us to be happy, infinitely more than we ever could want it ourselves. He wants to give us everything for all eternity.  Relate to the Lord // Today, ask Him for the grace to give Him everything in return.

August 6, 2026 // Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19 Reflect on the Word //  This is all to celebrate one man. The overwhelming fact brought tears to my eyes as I gazed at the throng of pilgrims in Ford Field for the beatification of Solanus Casey. Some seventy thousand people had descended on Detroit to celebrate this quiet, seemingly insignificant friar. I kept thinking, And this is only a glimmer of the glory that waits for each one of us in Heaven.  Today’s feast reveals the Lord’s majesty. But if I’m honest, this vision of the Son of Man (see Daniel 7:13) leaves me feeling outcast. I love the warm and accessible Jesus, our Good Shepherd and Healer. But the Son of God Who reigns at the right hand of the Father? Surely there can be no place for me in that glory. This is when our love for the Lord demands that we raise our eyes and look at Him. We worship a God Who wants us to be “eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). He longs for true friendship with us, which means He wants us to know Him, and He eagerly waits for the day when “we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Even now, He gives us glimpses, flashes of glory that break in on our ordinary lives and keep us striving toward all that awaits us.  For we will not merely gaze upon His glory for eternity. No, He created us to share in it. When we finally see Him, we have His promise that we will be swept up into His glory. Gazing on Him face to face, “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). Thus Saint Peter can confidently assure us that “we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable” (2 Peter 1:19).  For our part, we are called to watch and “be attentive” (2 Peter 1:19) to the flashes of glory in our daily lives that are no mere coincidence, but the loving invitation of our God to know Him better. We have no need to be afraid of His glory, for it is our promise and our hope.  Relate to the Lord // Meditate on God’s glory today. Spend some time thinking about what Heaven will be like with Him.

August 5, 2026 // Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Jeremiah 31:1-7 Reflect on the Word //  The joyful voices rang out amid joyful splashing in Grandma and Papa’s pool. I’d made the rookie mistake of tossing one of my younger cousins across the pool to his great delight. Now, not only was he lining up to “do it again” but so were his siblings and our other cousins. It was getting old, fast! But, at the same time, I just couldn’t say no to those squinty-eyed smiles and the angelic sing-song refrain of “pleeeeeease?” every single time!  So, on it went to the great delight of my cousins and the immense fatigue of my arms! I sometimes forget that the cry of “again” from the heart of a child can have such a heart-softening impact on one who loves him. I especially forget that when it comes to my relationship with the Father. How many times have I asked Him to do something and He comes through with shocking generosity only for me to forget, the next time things get difficult, to ask Him for help. I’m like the Israelites, who need to be reminded that the Lord continues His faithfulness to me (see Jeremiah 31:3). How often have I found myself torn down by mistakes, regrets, or sins, forgetting that His desire is to build me back up, to lead me back to grace in the wilderness, to belong, once again, to Him? (see Jeremiah 31:1-2, 4) He sees me and says, Again you will bear fruit in my vineyard when I have restored you, again shall you go forth rejoicing, when I have saved you, again, you will sing My praise, when I bring you back to Myself (see Jeremiah 31:4-7). We need not be afraid to ask the Lord to work again in our lives. As we don’t tire of heeding the cries of little children in our lives who ask us for more, the Lord delights in responding to our cry of “again” over and over. May we never tire of calling out to Him and awaiting His “I will” in joyful expectation.  Relate to the Lord // Is there an intention or desire you’ve already prayed for but still need? Ask again in faith.

August 4, 2026  // Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 14:22-36 Reflect on the Word // Sitting down in my family room, hot coffee in one hand, my Bible in the other, I was finally taking some necessary time with God. But within minutes, my mind started to wander: mentally composing an email, thinking about my twins’ upcoming graduation, wondering how I would get to two baseball games in one afternoon, and reviewing the budget (or lack thereof). Beneath it all was a constant hum of anxiety. Although I knew prayer would help, I kept putting it off until life felt more manageable—but that season never came. In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes a different approach. Surrounded by needs and demands, He makes time for prayer first. Between miracles, He dismisses the crowds, sends the Apostles ahead of Him, and goes “up on the mountain by himself to pray” (Matthew 14:23). What a stunning realization: If Jesus, the Son of God, needed prayer, how much more do I? The Gospel then turns to Peter, who walks steadily on water when his eyes remain on Jesus, but begins to sink when he notices the storm. I often do the same, letting life’s pressures capture my attention rather than keeping my gaze fixed on Christ. When Jesus asks Peter why he doubted, it isn’t a rebuke but an invitation to trust in the power of prayer. Too often, I doubt that time with Him is worth protecting or that He can handle the very things that distract me during prayer. The truth is, my sisters, that all of us experience “storms” in our lives—not always crises but the steady accumulation of responsibilities, worries, and challenges that slowly pull our attention away from Christ. Will we keep our eyes on Jesus amid life’s competing demands? Today’s Gospel reminds us that prayer keeps our focus where it belongs. The winds and waves of life are real but so is the One Who says, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Relate to the Lord // Make a plan for prayer today. Where can you block out twenty minutes to be with the Lord?

August 3, 2026 // Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 14:22-36 Reflect on the Word //  The smell of fresh rain began to fill the air as I watched the tall palm trees near my home sway to and fro, as gusts of wind began to increase. The sky was painted with thick, dark clouds, which reflected the darkness that was forming in my heart. Confusion and anguish were the relentless winds that refused to die down. This storm was crushing me and an even bigger blanket of darkness wrapped around my heart. I presumed that the Lord was distant from my agony and nowhere to be found. What deeply struck my heart in today’s Gospel was that when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were terrified.“‘It is a ghost,’ they said, and they cried out in fear” (Matthew 14:26). I was confused. How could the disciples not recognize their Savior, the Man with Whom they spent so much time, Whom they knew so intimately? I came to realize that in my own storm, I wasn't able to recognize Jesus. Like Peter, how easy it was for me to take my eyes off of Him, and be engulfed by my fear—to give more attention to my coping mechanisms and doubts, instead of going to Him.  It’s been five years since that storm took place in my heart, and I still find myself grieving and doubting in certain areas—but  Jesus is still there. To be with me, to listen, to allow the areas of my heart that are still “stormy” to be vulnerably exposed. Not for Him to hurt, but to heal.  This is true for you too sister. Allow His voice saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:26), to penetrate your heart. It is He Who remains with you when the storms of life take place. And when the storm’s impact rises up in your heart unexpectedly, He’s still there. Keep going back to His gaze. Even if it takes a lifetime to shift into this rhythm of returning to Him, He remains. Always and forever.  Relate to the Lord // Spend five minutes turning your attention back to His gaze. Do not be afraid to look at Him–or let Him look at you.