Category: Memory Verse

I’LL “PREY” FOR YOU

“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb.” —Isaiah 11:6 In our world, when the wolf visits the lamb for supper, the lamb becomes the main course. The viper bites and poisons any baby venturing within range, and the lion eats the ox instead of the hay (cf Is 11:6-8). In our world, the strong survive. It’s survival of the fittest. Our world glamorizes the predators, not the prey. For example, we call our sports teams Lions, not Lambs or Kids. On God’s holy mountain, there’s a new order. The lion passes up red meat in favor of...

AN ADVENT TO REMEMBER

“Many will come from the east and the west and will find a place at the banquet in the kingdom of God.” —Matthew 8:11 Happy Advent and new Church year! God is doing big things. We can grow accustomed to thinking of the Christian life in terms of small gains seemingly no larger than mustard seeds; we likewise think of large difficulties, many crosses and failures, and rejections of the Lord by our loved ones. In the readings from the first Monday of Advent, we hear that “many will come” from all directions (Mt 8:11) to the Lord. They will...

CALL WAITING?

Jesus “watched two brothers, Simon now known as Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come after Me and I will make you fishers of men.’ ” —Matthew 4:18-19 In the Greek Church, St. Andrew is revered as the “Protoclete,” that is, the “first called” (see Jn 1:40). Andrew should also be revered as the “first who called,” for, after being called by Jesus, “the first thing he did was seek out his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah!’ ” (Jn 1:41) We need to...

THE MONSTER MASH

“In the vision I saw during the night, suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea, from which emerged four immense beasts, each different from the others.” —Daniel 7:2-3 Daniel must have been afraid to go to sleep, considering the terrifying visions he had. He witnessed hundreds of years of history represented by four monsters. The first one was like a lion standing upright and having a human mind and eagle’s wings that were to be plucked (Dn 7:4). The second beast was like a bear with three tusks used to devour much flesh (Dn 7:5). The...

EATING DISORDERS

“The king…refused to eat.” —Daniel 6:19 On this Thanksgiving Day in the USA, a day of great feasting, the Church reads to us about not eating. King Darius couldn’t eat out of concern for the doomed Daniel (Dn 6:19). The hungry lions couldn’t eat, since God was protecting Daniel (Dn 6:23). This physical inability to eat has its counterpart in the spiritual life. Spiritually anorexic people won’t eat the spiritual food they need. They have so stuffed themselves with the things of the world (Phil 3:19) that they fail to realize that their souls are starving to death for lack...