Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He proved them, and as sacrificial offerings He took them to Himself.” –Wisdom 3:5-6 The Lord has made it clear through various Jewish traditions (see 2 Mc 12:43-44), the early Church (see Mt 12:32), and the Church Fathers that we should pray for those who have died. Because the Church prays for the dead at Mass each day, it is safe to say that the Holy Spirit leads us to pray daily for the dead. However, we...

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” –Matthew 5:8, RSV-CE Saints see God, for they are pure in heart. They are pure as Jesus is pure (1 Jn 3:3). “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rv 7:14). “They are pure and follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rv 14:4). Saints have been refined “like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord” (Mal 3:3). “By obedience to the truth,” saints “have purified” themselves “for a genuine love” of their brothers and sisters...

“When you have a reception, invite beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind.” –Luke 14:13 The welfare system is not working. Thank God it’s keeping people alive. However, it’s not setting them free. It may even be enslaving and conditioning people in a generational cycle. The nuclear family is under attack. Thank God for marital faithfulness in a society of broken promises, broken families, and broken hearts. Yet the nuclear family is not thriving. It is struggling merely to survive. What if the nuclear family became an extended family — even a Christian community? What if welfare was...

“The Son of Man has come to search out and save what was lost.” –Luke 19:10 Although God is omnipotent and almighty, He rebukes us gently, little by little, so that we may be able to bear it and be encouraged by His mercy to grow in faith, obedience, and holiness. Thus, Jesus stayed with sinners. He came to seek and save sinners (Lk 19:10). Even at the end of His life, Jesus was crucified between two sinners (Lk 23:33). He was made to be sin, as it were, for those who need salvation from sin (2 Cor 5:21). Sinners...

“What you should do when you have been invited is go and sit in the lowest place.” –Luke 14:10 Jesus compared life to a wedding party at which we must be careful to “sit in the lowest place.” The Lord may change our seat, but that’s up to Him. Our responsibility is to sit in the lowest place. Which are the lowest places in life? Low-paying jobs, houses or apartments in poor areas, a simple lifestyle, a single life for the Lord, the responsibility of a large family, or a religious vocation are sometimes the lowest places. Some of today’s...