Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me.

- Phil 4:13

Reflection: Remember how the first Christians, most of them simple and humble people, suffering the most cruel persecutions, were successful in spreading Christ's message to all parts of the empire. Their only weapons were prayer, the Gospel, and the Cross.

- Pope John Paul II

Prayer O Lord, the First Martyrs of Rome were not rich or wise, but You filled them with Your riches, Your wisdom. Fill me, too with Your gifts, for without You I can do nothing.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, June 29, 2009

Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Fee My lambs...Tend My sheep."

- Jn 21:15-16

Reflection: Where Peter is, there is the Church. Where the Church is, there is Jesus Christ. Where Jesus Christ is, there is eternal salvation.

- St. Ambrose

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You left us Your Church and Your Vicar the Pope to insure our contact with You. Let me always cling to Your Church and follow her teachings with all my heart.

From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Friday, June 26, 2009

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you may ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
- Jn 15:7

Reflection: We cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over God. It is not the soul that does God's will, but God Who does the soul's will.
- St. John Vianney

Prayer: Enable me to live a life of purity that will make me live in You. Let me be so united with You that whatever I might ask will be in total accord with Your will for me.


From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Thursday, June 25, 2009

The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing ad mission to the Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.

- CCC #1210

Reflection: Christ is always with us, but in the sacraments he is present powerfully and physically at our most important moments--those joyful, such as birth and marriage, and those most difficult, such as illness and death.

Prayer: Jesus, help us to recognize your real presence in the sacraments.

From: Day By Day With The Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Wednesday, June 24, 2009

As it is written in Isaiah the Prophet, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths."

- Mk 1:2-3

Reflection: An unexpected child, St. John the Baptist, called out to the people. He told them to prepare for a heavenly announcement, and invitation to universal rebirth.

- Pope John XXIII

Prayer: Heavenly Father, may my words and my actions proclaim to others that today is the day to prepare the way for the Lord. Everyday is the day to welcome the Church's Bridegroom.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, June 23, 2009

In everything, deal with others as you would like them to deal with you.

- Mt 7:12

Reflection: Goodwill in the soul is the source of all good things and the mother of all virtues. Those who possess it hold in their hand--without fear of losing it--all that is necessary to lead a good life.

- St. Albert the Great

Prayer: Heavenly Father, grant me the true spirit of goodwill toward all. Let me be ever ready to carry out Your will and to come to the aid of all I encounter an this earthly pilgrimage.

From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, June 22, 2009

I wore my righteousness like a garment; justice was my robe and my turban.

- Job 29:14

Reflection: In the present-day confusion of the notion of good and evil, licit and illicit, just and unjust, in the demoralizing spread of crime and immorality, we will do well to preserve and deepen the sense of natural law. This means the sense of justice, of integrity, and of the good.

- Pope Paul VI

Prayer: O Lord, help me never to lose a sense of what is right and just. Let me never be deceived by the conflicting voices of a confused world, but always seek and live Your truth.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Thursday, June 18, 2009

Being rooted and grounded in love, may you come to comprehend...what is the breadth, length, height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding.

- Eph 3:17-19

Reflection: Do you wish to know the most intimate perfections of Jesus and the most hidden attractions of His love? Then seek them in the Heart of Mary!

- St.Peter Eymard

Prayer: O Mary, keep ever before me the tried and trusted Christian motto: "To Jesus through Mary." And let me learn to seek your Divine Son in your Motherly Heart.

From: Mary Day by Day (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Jesus is...the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else.

- Act 4:11

Reflection: No one can advance in virtue except by following Jesus Christ. He is the truth, the life, and the only door through Whom everyone who wants to be saved must enter.

- St. John of the Cross

Prayer: Father of goodness, make me realize that Jesus is the only way to You for everyone in the world. Grant that I may follow Him closely on earth and reach my heavenly home.

From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, June 16, 2009

When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself.

- Jn 12:32

Reflection: In could be said that the Cross, its awful scene, its shameful story, would create an emptiness around itself, would repel the contemplation of humans. Instead, however, the Cross attracts. Jesus Himself predicted it: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself."

- Pope Paul VI

Prayer: Lead me to Your Cross, Lord Jesus. May I die for love of You Who have died for love of me.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, June 15, 2009

While everyone was asleep, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and then hurried away.

- Mt 13:25

Reflection: We must live in constant vigilance....Does this mean we must give up the possibility of sleeping? Not at all. We cannot do without bodily sleep. What we must avoid is the sleep of the will.

- St. John Chrysostom

Prayer: Ever-vigilant Lord, let me live inconstant vigilance. Grant that my will may be always completely in harmony with Your holy Will for me.

From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Thursday, June 4, 2009

Do not say, "I am self-sufficient. What harm can come to me now?"
- Sir 11:24

Reflection: Presumption is like vermin burrowing at the root of the tree of our soul. If we do not uproot it with great care and humility, it will eventually destroy the soul.
- St. Catherine of Siena

Prayer: All-powerful God, keep me from all presumption of mind and heart. Help me to realize that I depend on You for everything and myself I can do nothing.

From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of Himself.

- Wis 3:5

Reflection: From Jesus' behavior we learn a double lesson: that human suffering has a precise role to play in God's plan, and that it moves to compassion the Heart of Jesus. For He knows how much suffering can affect human weakness and put it to the test.

- Pope John Paul II

Prayer: Almighty God, St. Charles Lwanga and his companions were tried in the crucible of suffering and found worthy. May I be willing to see Your will in my suffering.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, June 2, 2009

You shall search for me, and you shall find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, and I will bring you back. - Jer 29:13-14

Reflection: We must pray to Mary and call upon her. She is admirable for herself and lovable for us. As in the Gospel, Mary now intervenes with her Son and obtains from Him miracles that the ordinary course of things would not allow. - Pope Paul VI

Prayer: O Mary, you know our human needs and sorrows. Grant that I may have recourse to you in all my anxieties and always obtain God's gracious help.

From: Mary Day by Day (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, June 1, 2009

Store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, nor robbers break in and steal! For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
- Mt 6:20-21

Reflection: Mary is my great treasure. She is my All after Jesus. She is my honor, my tenderness, and the storehouse of my virtues! I do everything in and through her.
- St. Louis Grignion de Montfort

Prayer: O Mary, you are our greatest treasure after Jesus. Help me to prize you above everything, remain united with you, and reach your Son Jesus through you.

From: Mary Day by Day (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)