Category: Daily Reflections

“After she and her household had been baptized, she extended us an invitation: ‘If you are convinced that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house.’ ” —Acts 16:15 After her conversion, the first words of Lydia, the first convert of the Western world, involved making her home a base for evangelization. Jesus stayed at home for about thirty years before His three years of public ministry. The Church met primarily in homes for its first three hundred years. The Church fathers taught that the Christian home is a “domestic church” (see Catechism of the Catholic Church,...

“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” —1 Peter 3:15, RNAB Moments after I heard the above passage from the second reading proclaimed at Mass, the priest announced the Gospel reading, and everyone traced the sign of the cross on their hearts, as well as their foreheads and lips. Everyone at Mass was asking the Lord to sanctify their hearts to receive the Gospel and act upon it. When we have a sanctified heart to enthrone Christ as Lord (1 Pt 3:15), our lives cannot help but reflect the joy of the Lord regardless of our life’s circumstances. We will...

” ‘Peace’ is My farewell to you, My peace is My gift to you.” —John 14:27 Peace is what Jesus left us in His last will and testament. Because of this, peace has a special significance for those who love Jesus. Peace is the binding force which unifies the Church, marriages, and families (Eph 4:3). Peace is the guard of our hearts and minds (Phil 4:7). Without peace, we will be subject to heart-failure and mind-games. Without peace, our God-given relationships begin to unravel and society begins to disintegrate. Zeal to propagate the Gospel of peace is our footgear and...

“The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you.” —John 14:26 Eternal life is to know God the Father and Jesus (Jn 17:3). Because love requires freedom and freedom requires some knowledge, knowledge is necessary to love. Therefore, we are created both to know and to love God. We can “perish for want of knowledge” (Hos 4:6). Because knowing is so important for life and love, teaching is extremely important in God’s plan. Although God the Father (see Jn 6:44-45) and Jesus...

“How can we know the way?” —John 14:5 We rely on our phone or GPS (Global Positioning System) to tell us where to go. The GPS device knows your exact location on earth. You tell it where you want to go. Then the GPS talks to you in a voice that tells you each street to turn on, and exactly where to drive. People trust the voice on the GPS. Each of us has problems in this life, and we want to know “the way” out of these problems. We’d like a GPS to show us “the way” to move...