Category: Daily Prayer

“I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over.” –Deuteronomy 34:4 Mass Readings: August 16 First: Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Resp: Psalm 66:1-3,5,8,16-17; Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20 Listen to the Mass Readings In American culture, movies and novels typically conclude with a happy ending. After a long struggle, the author lets justice prevail and the good guys triumph. God, the Author of Life (Acts 3:15), is also into happy endings. His happy ending is “immeasurably more than we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20) – “life on high in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14). Yet it is sometimes difficult...

“Now have salvation and power come.” –Revelation 12:10 Mass Readings: August 15 First: Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6,10; Resp: Psalm 45:10-12,16; Second: 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Gospel: Luke 1:39-56 Listen to the Mass Readings Because the Lord has created us, He knows us perfectly. He knows how to break through our resistance to His will. He knows how to penetrate our hearts and transform us. He knows how to love us. In His infinite wisdom, He has decided to do especially astounding miracles of conversion, repentance, deliverance, and healing on this day when we celebrate the taking of Mary to heaven. This makes...

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God?” –Deuteronomy 10:12 “The Lord, your God, shall you fear, and Him shall you serve.” –Deuteronomy 10:20 If you go to church, you will usually be exhorted to love and serve the Lord (Dt 10:12). In a good church, you will even be told to love God “with all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 10:12) by keeping His commandments (Dt 10:13). However, there’s still something missing. Before we can love, serve, and obey the Lord fully, we must fear Him...

“After the earthquake there was fire – but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.” –1 Kings 19:12-13 Possibly the greatest thing Elijah ever did was to hear God whisper. God whispered for Elijah to anoint Elisha. This led to two other anointings through which the perverted and oppressive kingdom of Ahab and Jezebel was destroyed (see 1 Kgs 19:15-17). Because hearing God’s whisper is so important, Satan tried to...

“Why could we not expel it?” –Matthew 17:19 Jesus makes us the amazing promise: “I assure you, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would be able to say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20). We can do the impossible through faith (Mt 17:20). We can express our faith in many ways, but the way on which Jesus focuses is prayer and fasting (Mt 17:21). Pope St. John Paul II prophesied that this way of expressing our faith is of special significance...