Tagged: daily bread

“God further said to Abraham: ‘As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her.” –Genesis 17:15-16 We all want certain things to change. The leper in today’s Gospel reading wanted Jesus to heal him. Jesus touched him, and “immediately the man’s leprosy disappeared” (Mt 8:3). Sometimes we want things to change not by disappearing but by appearing. For instance, Abram and Sarai wanted to have a child. We likewise want changes in our health, families, jobs, financial situations, churches, politics, and...

“So Sarai said to Abram: ‘You are responsible for this outrage against me. I myself gave my maid to your embrace.’ ” –Genesis 16:5 Sarai regretted telling Abraham to have children through her maidservant, Hagar. We likewise regret some of the decisions we have made, and we should especially regret our sins. When we regret our sins, we should not follow the example of Sarai and blame others (see Gn 16:5). Nor should we take out our regrets on others, as Sarai did to Hagar (Gn 16:6). Nevertheless, when we sin, we are inevitably tempted to commit more sins to...

“From my mother’s womb He gave me my name.” –Isaiah 49:1 Certain liturgical celebrations have taken on new significance in our “culture of death.” For instance, the feast of the Holy Innocents is more important than ever before. Also, the feasts of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Immaculate Conception, and the Birthday of St. John the Baptizer have added significance nowadays. These feast days show that the Lord is doing great works in and through our lives from the moment of our being conceived and continuing throughout the nine months in our mothers’ wombs. While in his mother’s womb, John...

“Enter through the narrow gate.” –Matthew 7:13 To make the right decision, we must ask the right question. For example, if we ask “What do I want?”, we are setting ourselves up to make the wrong decision, for reality is not based on what we want but on what God wants. To make the right decision, we must decide by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). For example, Lot saw that the land of Sodom and Gomorrah looked like the best land (Gn 13:10-11). So he chose to settle there. Little did he know that this land would...

“If you want to avoid judgment, stop passing judgment.” –Matthew 7:1 We must not judge a person’s character and motives. Those things are none of our business. Also, we must not pronounce a verdict on others (Mt 7:2). Nor should we sentence them to punishment. We are not to judge in these ways. We must judge whether or not people have specks in their eyes, that is, we should judge if they are sinning. We must do this in order to remove the specks from their eyes after we have removed the planks from our own eyes (Mt 7:4). The...