Category: Prayers

“The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.” –1 Corinthians 3:17 Today we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which is considered the mother church of Christianity. Today we remember that there is only one Church because “there is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given all of you by your call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph 4:4-6). Jesus prayed “that all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; I...

“Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” –Luke 14:27 To be a Christian, that is, a disciple of Jesus, we must put our relationship with Jesus in a class by itself. Figuratively speaking, our relationships with those we love the most are like hatred compared to our love for Jesus (see Lk 14:26). To be disciples of Jesus, we must take up our crosses daily (Lk 14:27; 9:23). This means that we deny ourselves and lose our lives (Lk 9:23-24) in that we decide to depend totally on Jesus and not on...

“He humbled Himself.” –Philippians 2:8 The Lord “humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!” (Phil 2:8) The Lord wants us to come and learn from Him, for He is gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). The Lord is always teaching us to be humble – from His birth in Bethlehem to His death on the cross, and from His Incarnation to the Eucharist. He teaches us humility both from His strictness and His kindness (1 Pt 5:5). Jesus teaches that humility is a matter of emptying ourselves, that is, of dispossessing ourselves, rather than grasping at...

“When you have a reception, invite beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind.” –Luke 14:13 According to Jesus, feeding the poor is a personal responsibility. The poor must be our personal friends. We should try to get to know them by visiting them, while encouraging them to call or drop in on us. The government and Church are not to take our place in feeding the poor but to supplement our individual efforts. We should open our homes to the poor and serve them with our own hands. We can supplement this by writing a check to a...