Category: Verse for the day

“Do this in remembrance of Me.” –1 Corinthians 11:24 The early Church met in homes for the first several centuries of its existence. The liturgical form of the Mass was still evolving. Thus, the admonitions St. Paul mentions in today’s first reading may sound foreign to our ears (1 Cor 11:20-22). There was some fellowship and hospitality in the homes in addition to the Mass. Some people overindulged while others went hungry. Decades ago, I attended a retreat which illustrated the scenario mentioned in today’s first reading very nicely. The retreat closed with a common meal in which everyone ate...

“Whoever would preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will preserve it.” –Mark 8:35 Jesus’ first question to His disciples was not “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29) Jesus felt compelled to introduce the big question with another question: “Who do people say that I am?” (Mk 8:27) He intentionally set up the contrast between what others say and what we individually say. When we give our lives to Jesus, we make a personal, individual decision. The saying goes: “God has no grandchildren.” That means we are...

“Near the cross of Jesus there stood His mother.” –John 19:25 The cross, because it was an instrument for executing criminals, is naturally repulsive to us. Nevertheless, Jesus wants us near His cross. He even wants us to live our whole lives in the shadow of the cross by taking up our daily cross (Lk 9:23). He wants us to come to the point that we will boast of nothing but Jesus’ cross and sharing in it (see Gal 6:14). Jesus has given His mother Mary to all His disciples to help overcome our revulsion of the cross and to...

“There is one God, the Father, from Whom all things come and for Whom we live.” –1 Corinthians 8:6 After the consecration at Mass, at the finale of the Eucharistic prayer and just before Holy Communion, we pray in reference to Jesus: “Through Him, with Him, and in Him…” When we pray these words at this most precious moment, are we giving lip service to God (see Mt 15:8), or are we saying that ” ‘life’ means Christ” (Phil 1:21) and Jesus is Life? (Jn 14:6) Is everything in our lives done “through Him”? Do we realize emphatically that without...