Category: Verse for the day

“Jesus then said in reply, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your wish will come to pass.’ ” –Matthew 15:28 Jesus told only one person in the Gospels that she had great faith. Although I am sure Mary, Joseph, and others had great faith, the Canaanite woman was the only person mentioned in the Gospels to have been told by Jesus: “You have great faith!” (Mt 15:28) Pope St. John Paul II maintained that the primary reason for the various crises in our world is the crisis of faith. Under these circumstances, I would expect that the Lord is raising up...

“When I summon him, he shall approach Me; how else should one take the deadly risk of approaching Me? says the Lord.” –Jeremiah 30:21 The Lord has frequently summoned us to approach Him. In fact, He approached us in an unthinkable way through His Incarnation. He even gives Himself to us in Holy Communion. Because the Lord has given us the opportunity to become so intimate with Him, we may forget what a privilege it is to be in His presence and how awesome it is “to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). We may sometimes...

“Jesus at once stretched out His hand and caught him.” –Matthew 14:31 When my children were just learning to swim, I would have them hold onto the side of the pool. Then I would back up a few steps and hold my arms out toward them, calling them to swim to me. We would repeat this many times, and I would sometimes step a few inches farther back to get them to swim longer and build their confidence. But sometimes they would panic and begin to sink. It was easy to stretch out my hands and catch them each time....

“Come to the water!” —Isaiah 55:1 Our heavenly Father repeatedly commands us to come. He commands: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” (Is 55:1) He commands the poor to “come, receive grain and eat” (Is 55:1) and to come, “drink wine and milk” (Is 55:1). Next, our Father commands us to come specifically to Him. He says: “Come to Me heedfully, listen, that you may have life” (Is 55:3). If we come to Him, He will renew with us the everlasting covenant (Is 55:3). Jesus Himself tells us: “Come to Me” (Mt 11:28). We obey our Father’s...

“This man does not deserve death; it is in the name of the Lord, our God, that he speaks to us.” —Jeremiah 26:16 God’s Word is a two-edged sword (Heb 4:12), which comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. When God’s Word and our wills cross, we are tempted to blame the teacher, preacher, pastor, or prophet. We blame the mail-carrier for the mail. The Israelites did this to Jeremiah. He insisted that the Israelites argument wasn’t with him but with the Lord Who had sent him (Jer 26:15). The religious authorities of Jesus’ day confused the messengers with the...