Friday | May 31, 2024
Luke 1:48
…for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
With the Grace of God
If Mary’s acceptance of God’s will for her life makes perfect sense, it’s because we know the rest of the story. Imagine your own response to the angel’s message. I know what I’d be thinking. My unworthiness tops the list, and it’s a long list. Mary calls herself “servant”—that stands out for me and indicates Mary readily understood that God overlooks unworthiness for even the most important jobs. As a devout Jewish woman, Mary knew the legacies of Abraham, Moses and Gideon, to name a few who felt unworthy to be called by God. She also knew that those awaiting the Messiah likely expected royalty, prestige and power. But lowly Mary would not give birth to this kind of king. With the grace of God—the same grace open to all of us—Mary could say “Yes.”
Let us pray for the grace to let go of our feelings of inadequacy and trust in God’s mercy.
- Deborah A. Meister
Zephaniah 3:14-18a or Romans 12:9-16 • Isaiah 12:2-6 • Luke 1:39-56
Thursday | May 30, 2024
1 Peter 2:5
…like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house….
8th Week in Ordinary Time
If the Walls Could Talk
We are often struck by the history of a place—perhaps the home of a famous person or a church or public building where momentous events occurred. But we probably overlook the fact that we have a story to tell because we are the “spiritual house” that proclaims the love of Jesus. St. Peter deliberately phrases this in the passive voice—“let yourselves be built”—indicating that, as Christians, we prayerfully submit to the Lord, who builds and fashions us for a purpose. We are an essential part of that spiritual house, but the craftsmanship is God’s. How are you using your gifts to share the mercy and goodness of God? Whatever your age or stage on your journey, you will always be a “living stone!” As you give of yourself in prayer or works of charity or labor alongside others to serve your family or parish community, you are helping make this “spiritual house” a home for all.
- Steve Pable
1 Peter 2:2-5, 9-12 • Psalm 100:2-5 • Mark 10:46-52
Wednesday | May 29, 2024
Mark 10:38
You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
St. Paul VI
The Path to Glory
Going to Jerusalem, Jesus told the Apostles, in shocking detail, how he would suffer and be put to death; then, after three days, he would rise. James and John came right to him and asked that in his glory they would be seated next to him. Jesus’ response is a warning of what must happen before being with him in his glory.
They must drink the chalice of whatever is required of them to endure, as Jesus had to, and be baptized as he is baptized. The word baptized here did not mean when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan. It was a figure of speech for being totally immersed in something completely overwhelming: For Jesus, it was death on the Cross.
Jesus, when we are overwhelmed by difficulties, please strengthen us to drink what we must so we can follow you with our lives.
- Patricia Livingston.
1 Peter 1:18-25 • Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20 • Mark 10:32-45
Tuesday | May 28, 2024
1 Peter 1:16
…Be holy because I am holy.
8th Week in Ordinary Time
Small Actions
I have an ordinary day planned. I am going for a haircut, to the bank and then, I hope, to spend time writing to prepare for an upcoming retreat. I have no specific idea of how to be holy today. How can I follow Jesus’ command in my commonplace life?
I can begin in prayer with gratitude for the day and for the blessings of home and family. I can drive the speed limit, let someone go in front of me in line and smile at a stranger. I can tip the stylist a little extra because she’s a single mom raising three kids. I can take the call from my depressed friend, even though I have work to do. I can roll my neighbor’s garbage cart back down her drive. I can take time to ask my husband about his sore knee. I can break for a walk in the neighboring park on this budding spring day.
Small things, holy things.
Lord, help me to be holy in the day-to-day.
- Jennifer Christ
1 Peter 1:10-16 • Psalm 98:1-4 • Mark 10:28-31
Monday | May 27, 2024
Mark 10:27
All things are possible for God.
St. Augustine of Canterbury
Up an Impossible Hill
I remember once standing at the bottom of a steep hike thinking: This is impossible. It’s too high. I’m not in good enough shape. There are too many twists and turns and obstacles. It’ll take forever. But up I went, step-by-step, until I reached the top and was rewarded with a phenomenal view.
The path to God is filled with just such obstacles and doubts. For the young man who came to ask Jesus how he might be saved, the obstacle was money. It could be the same for us, or it could be power, influence or personal freedom—whatever we put before God. We are rich in so many ways, so how can we be saved? The answer is not impossible.
The answer is walking our lives step-by-step in faith, reaching out toward God who waits with outstretched arms to show us a view beyond imagination.
Lord, show me the way past the impossible to the possible.
- Steve Givens
1 Peter 1:3-9 • Psalm 111:1-2, 5-6, 9-10 • Mark 10:17-27
Sunday| May 26, 2024
Romans 8:15
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
The Most Holy Trinity
Free From Fear
The 9-year-old boy had been making progress with his swimming but still had a way to go. His parents and I (his grandmother) did what we could: cajoled, encouraged, bribed. There were lessons. But fear was hard to overcome.
But then I noticed a pattern evolving. At the brink of every step forward—putting his face in the water, going under, jumping in—he would resist us. But then, left on his own, he’d go off to a section of the pool and work on it, whatever it was. And invariably, he’d master it. In freedom.
The spiritual life is more complex than that scene at the pool. But there’s one important similarity: Our growth—our real, sometimes even radical, growth—only comes out of a place that’s not of enslavement or fear but in the freedom that Christ gives.
Loving God, free me from fear so I may draw closer to you in freedom.
- Amy Welborn
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 • Psalm 33:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22 • Romans 8:14-17 • Matthew 28:16-20
Saturday | May 25, 2024
Mark 10:16
Then he embraced the children and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
St. Bede the Venerable, St. Gregory VII, St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi
Such Is the Kingdom
When we’re weary, when we’ve already spent ourselves and our energy in loving service, it can be challenging to say yes to even one more thing. Any teacher, parent, guardian or mentor knows this.
Earlier in chapter 10, we read that crowds had gathered around Jesus, and he taught them. He then spent some time responding to the Pharisees’ attempts to trap him. So we can read between the lines to sense how tired Jesus must have already been as the next wave of people approached. It’s understandable that his disciples wanted to protect him from further demands on his time.
But to come between parents bringing their little ones forward in hopes of a blessing and healing touch? No way, insists Jesus, welcome the children and all who share their spirit into their place of belonging in my heart.
- Sr. Chris Koellhoffer, I.H.M.
James 5:13-20 • Psalm 141:1-3, 8 • Mark 10:13-16
Friday| May 24, 2024
James 5:11
Indeed we call blessed those who have persevered.
7th Week in Ordinary Time
The Persevering Path
The first words of the Letter of James in today’s reading are: “Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another” (James 5:9). Whoa! How much chatter in the Church—in our parishes, in our chanceries, in our media—would cease if we truly followed those words!
Instead, James encourages us to persevere. It isn’t a popular word these days. We are so often encouraged to be kind to ourselves, to think about our own needs, to put ourselves first, while perseverance demands real humility on our part. We persevere in difficult relationships. We persevere in praying for our wandering children. We persevere in caring for sickly parents. We persevere in loving troubled neighbors.
Perseverance is the pathway to holiness. It reveals our faith that “the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (v. 11), and it demonstrates our desire to follow him.
Father in heaven, give me the faith to persevere in my love of you and others.
- Greg Erlandson
James 5:9-12 • Psalm 103:1-4, 8-9, 11-12 • Mark 10:1-12
Thursday | May 23, 2024
Psalm 49:17-18
Fear not when a man grows rich, when the wealth of his house becomes great, For when he dies, he shall take none of it.
7th Week in Ordinary Time
Heirs to More
“I wish I could have”—we have all spoken these words. Want is, itself, a reality of the human condition, a normal reaction in a world that is a veritable feast, with so much made available to us and at the ready. Our hunger is often insatiable. But our earthly hunger for more goes so much deeper; it is—more honestly—a spiritual hunger. Christ shows us the better way. In Love, we are reminded that nothing material will be taken with us when our time comes, that all that is tangible is fleeting, and riches are not what this world would have us believe. Jesus reminds us that our true, lasting inheritance is the eternal Love and companionship of God, which is a dwelling in God’s Kingdom with riches that cannot be gathered tangibly but rather enjoyed here and eternally. We are all heirs to so much more than what this material world affords.
Remind me today, Lord, of my true inheritance, and lead me from want.
- Sarah Hart
James 5:1-6 • Psalm 49:14-20 • Mark 9:41-50
Wednesday| May 22, 2024
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
St. Rita of Cascia/strong>
Patient Suffering
When people think of St. Rita of Cascia, they picture her with a wound on her forehead. She prayed to suffer the passion with Jesus and was given this “Gift of the Thorn.” For over ten years until her death, St. Rita suffered a visible wound from the crown of thorns on her forehead.
However, her entire life was a kind of crucifixion. Her husband of an arranged marriage was a cruel and abusive man. He was later murdered in a local feud. Her only children, two sons, died from disease. Yet, as a wife and mother, she bore these incredible sufferings with patience and faith.
While people marvel at those saints who bear the stigmata of Christ, I marvel at the suffering that so many people endure in the daily tragedies of life. St. Rita endured both.
May God give us such patience and faith in the midst of our daily trials!
- Msgr. Stephen Rossetti
James 4:13-17 • Psalm 49:2-3, 6-11 • Mark 9:38-40
