Category: Daily Prayer

“Why, O Lord, do You reject me; why hide from me Your face?” –Psalm 88:15 It’s doubtful that Jesus would be hired as a personnel director for a Fortune 500 company. Imagine the lawsuits that would occur if a company employee gave such brusque and seemingly insulting replies to a potential applicant as Jesus does in today’s Gospel passage! Unfortunately, it’s also unlikely that Jesus, despite the fact that He is Head of the Church (Eph 1:22), would be approved as a parish personnel director today. It’s hard to find good help in our church ministries. When we finally get...

“I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. My angel will go before you.” –Exodus 23:22-23 Guardian angels don’t just guard us. They are very specialized guards. They don’t so much guard us from attacking enemies as much as they guard us when attacking enemies. Guardian angels have the job of guarding us as we attack the gates of hell (Mt 16:18). They guard us “on the way” to war and then in war (Ex 23:20). Their job is not so much to protect us from our enemies but to wipe out our enemies...

“Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing?” —Job 1:9 Job was the holiest person on the face of the earth. There was “no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil” (Jb 1:8). Because he was so open to God’s graces, he was able to receive from God a beautiful family and many other blessings. So Satan accused Job of serving God for the benefits and not from pure love. God let Job prove Satan wrong by letting Satan destroy Job’s family and bankrupt Job all in one day. Job continued to love God...

“Are you jealous?” –Numbers 11:29 The devil couldn’t stop the seventy-two Israelite elders from receiving the Spirit (see Nm 11:25-26). However, he hoped to be more successful by enticing the Israelites to quench the Spirit (1 Thes 5:19) through jealousy (Nm 11:29). Demons could not prevent a man from using Jesus’ name to expel them (Mk 9:38). Therefore, they tried to stop the continuation of this man’s ministry of deliverance (Mk 9:38). Once again, the demons tried to accomplish this through jealousy. Jesus is dead set against jealous people being sad at others’ successes and thereby saddening the Holy Spirit...

“As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a Son of Man coming, on the clouds of heaven; when He reached the Ancient One and was presented before Him, He received dominion, glory, and kingship.” –Daniel 7:13-14 In a vision, Daniel saw God’s throne in heaven. “Thousands upon thousands were ministering to Him, and myriads upon myriads attended Him” (Dn 7:10). Angels surround God’s throne and worship Him forever. Jesus told Nathanael: “I solemnly assure you, you shall see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51)....