Tagged: verse for the day

“In your prayer do not rattle on like the pagans. They think they will win a hearing by the sheer multiplication of words. Do not imitate them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” –Matthew 6:7-8 Prayer is a conversation with God. Since He is by far the wisest One in the conversation, we are well advised to spend a large portion of our prayer time listening to Him. His voice is often a still, small voice (see 1 Kgs 19:12ff). God’s voice is heard clearly in the Scriptures, His Word. Like rain, His Word descends on...

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, then returned from the Jordan and was conducted by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, where He was tempted by the devil. During that time He ate nothing.” –Luke 4:1-2 Lent is a march with a destination of the renewal of our baptismal promises at all the Easter Sunday Masses in the world. Jesus’ forty days in the desert prefigure Lent. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert (Lk 4:1), where He fasted for forty days (Lk 4:2) and refused to doubt that He was the beloved Son of God the...

“Honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice.” –Isaiah 58:13 On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, we received ashen crosses on our foreheads. On the second day of Lent, Jesus told us to deny ourselves, if we wished to become His disciples (Lk 9:23). On the next day of Lent, the Lord warned us that we would ruin our fasting, if we carried out our own pursuits (Is 58:3). Today, on the fourth day of Lent, the Lord promises we will receive many blessings from fasting, if we do not follow...

“…not turning your back on your own.” –Isaiah 58:7 It is possible for our Lenten fasting to have the effect of focusing on ourself. For example, we focus on our hunger pains, our weight loss, our inconvenience, our lightheadedness. Fasting that centers on ourself is not the kind of fasting the Lord wishes (see Is 58:5). Are our days of fasting only leading us to complain to the Lord, “Why do we fast, and You do not see it? afflict ourselves, and You take no note of it?” (Is 58:3) To such fasting, the Lord responds: “Was it really for...

“Choose life…by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him.” –Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 Moses offered a three-fold plan for God’s people: to love God, to obey what He commands by heeding His Word, and to stay with God by holding fast to Him (Dt 30:19-20). Jesus offered the same plan. He declared: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (see Jn 14:21; 15:9-10), and stay with Me (Jn 15:5, 7; Mt 26:38). The best way to love, obey, and stay with Jesus is to follow His plan in Luke 9:23: deny ourselves for the purpose...