Tagged: Daily Reflection

“Elisha answered, ‘May I receive a double portion of your spirit.’ ‘You have asked something that is not easy,’ [Elijah] replied.” –2 Kings 2:9-10 To receive a double portion of God’s Spirit, that is, to be filled with the Spirit, is a matter of leaving and staying. We must leave behind sin, selfishness, pride, ego, the world, the flesh, and the devil. In addition to leaving these evil things, we must leave behind good things. For instance, Elijah told Elisha to stay in Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho (see 2 Kgs 2:1-6). It was good to stay in these places, or...

“My command to you is: love your enemies.” –Matthew 5:44 We worship a God Who loves enemies, Who does not avoid them but lays down His life for them. When we kneel before the cross, close by the Lord’s crucified feet, we hear His words, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). For while we were still His enemies, He died for us (see Rm 5:8). The Lord promised to set us free from the hands of our enemies (Lk 1:74) and to set a table before us in the sight of our foes...

“What I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury.” –Matthew 5:39 To punish and control those who have hurt us, we are inclined to retaliate. We feel that our retaliation will not be effective unless it inflicts worse damages than the original offense. However, this extra damage is unjust. Therefore, those who suffer it feel obligated to hurt us some more to even things up. To stop this escalating violence, the Lord taught us in the old covenant: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Mt 5:38; Lv 24:20). Jesus realized that, although the Old...

“I said, ‘I confess my faults to the Lord,’ and You took away the guilt of my sin.” –Psalm 32:5 Today’s psalm response is from one of the seven penitential psalms as listed in the footnotes of the New American Bible. The seven Penitential Psalms are psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. I’ve often prayed passages from these psalms in times of repentance and penance and especially when preparing for Confession. Have you ever been so sorry for your sins that you can’t even find the words to express your sorrow to God? (see Ps 6:3-4) On...

“Once [Barnabas] had found [Saul], he brought him back to Antioch.” –Acts 11:26 Without St. Barnabas, the evangelist St. Paul may not have been accepted by the Church. The Jerusalem Christians could not believe that Paul, who persecuted them relentlessly before his conversion, was truly a disciple (Acts 9:26). “Then Barnabas took [Paul] in charge and introduced him to the apostles. He explained to them how on his journey Saul had seen the Lord, Who had conversed with him, and how Saul had been speaking out fearlessly in the name of Jesus in Damascus” (Acts 9:27). They couldn’t believe Paul,...