Category: Daily Reflections

“Grant to Your servants, even as they speak Your words, complete assurance.” —Acts 4:29 On the ninth day of Easter, our true Love, Jesus (see 1 Jn 4:8, 16), gives us holy boldness, complete assurance, absolute confidence (Acts 4:29; Heb 10:22), “parrhesia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2778). When we pray with this assurance and confidence, we are “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31). Will you accept the risen Jesus’ gift of what the Catechism quote above calls “humble boldness”? If you accept this gift, you...

“A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors, Jesus came.” —John 20:26 The octave of the first Easter was disappointing and uneventful for the apostles. On the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus sent His apostles to proclaim His Gospel (Jn 20:21), but eight days later they were still paralyzed by fear and behind locked doors (see Jn 20:26). Thomas, not present a week earlier, did not believe that Jesus was risen from the dead. Perhaps this is because Thomas saw no change in...

“Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation.” —Mark 16:15 Jesus’ physical body has been raised from the dead. How many parts of Christ’s body are functioning to the degree to which God has called them? We need a resurrection, animation, and activation of many parts of Christ’s body. After Pentecost, however, the power and “self-assurance of Peter and John” was amazing (Acts 4:13ff). Even when the religious leaders threatened Peter and John in order to paralyze them, “Peter and John answered, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight for us to...

“It is really I. Touch Me, and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do.” —Luke 24:39 Unlike all other religions, Christianity believes that God became man. We believe that God was actually a baby, physically died on a cross, and was buried in a tomb. We also believe that Jesus rose from the dead — not just spiritually but bodily. Jesus is not a ghost (see Lk 24:37). He can be seen and touched (Lk 24:39). He ate food (Lk 24:41-43). He is fully human. Jesus even let Thomas put his hand into His...

“Were not our hearts burning inside us?” —Luke 24:32 Jesus spent the afternoon of the day of His Resurrection walking and talking with two of His disciples. “He interpreted for them every passage of Scripture which referred to Him” (Lk 24:27). As Jesus taught His disciples the Scriptures, their hearts began to burn within them (Lk 24:32). This sensation indicated that their hearts were being purified. Thus, Jesus spent the afternoon of His resurrection day purifying hearts through teaching the Bible (see Eph 5:26). If we let Jesus purify our hearts, our words become powerful, healing, and life-changing, for we...