Reflection: Mary's grace has given glory to heaven; an God to earth, and faith to the nations. She has conferred death on vices, order on life, and a rule on morals.
- St. Peter Chrysologus
Prayer: Heavenly Father, grant me the grace to have Mary as my constant intercessor. In all difficulties let me call on her aid for she is Your beloved Daughter.
Reflection: Learn to love the Creator in His creation, the Worker in His work. Don't be so fascinated by things created that you forget the One Who created all of them.
- St. Augustine
Prayer: Almighty God, help me to love You in Your creatures--both living and nonliving. Let me realize that no matter how marvelous is Your cration. You are infinitely more marvelous and lovable.
Reflection: How sad it is when those who have food before them let themselves die of hunger! Take your food--the loving Lord Jesus, Who was crucified for us.
- St. Catherine of Siena
Prayer: Heavenly Father, let me never go hungry for spiritual food. Help me to receive Your Son often in Communion, so that I may be brought together with You in the union of the Holy Spirit.
Reflection: We must show love for those who do evil to us and pray for them. Nothing is dearer or more pleasing to God than this.
- St. Bridget
Prayer: God of love, grant me the great grace to show love and forgiveness for those sho do evil to me. Let me at least be able to pray for their salvation, won for them by Jesus.
Reflection: God is forever bestowing visitations, gifts, and graces upon us. What tongue can express the great many and various ways in which God does this not only for many people but for every single person.
- Saint Catherine of Siena
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for the countless graces You have poured down on me from my birth. Help me to cooperate with Your grace at every moment, so that my works will not be done in vain.
Reflection: The greatest gift that we can receive from God in the present world is this: To know how, to desire, and to be able to conquer self by renouncing our own will.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Prayer: Heavenly Father, teach me how to discern Your will, how to follow it, and how to make it my own in all things. For in this lies true happiness both in this world and in the next.
Reflection: Read attentively the book of purity that is Mary, written entirely by the finger of God. Read the holiness, the love, the kindness, the humility--in short, read the vast fullness of all the virtues.
- St. Thomas of Villanova
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to learn from Your holy Mother how to lead a Christian life. Let me strive to imitate the virtues she exhibited, for she was Your imitator on earth.
Reflection: Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be.
- St. John Berchmans
Prayer: All-knowing God, let me strive always to see myself as you see me rather than as others do. Grant that, with Your help, I may grow into the person that You want me to be for eternity.
Reflection: So pleasing to God was Mary's humility that He was constrained by His goodness to entrust to her the Word, His only Son. And it was that dearest Mother who gave Him to us.
- St. Catherine of Siena
Prayer: Heavenly Father, let me always have recourse to the Mother of Your Son. May she intercede for me before Your Divine Majesty so that I may be a true follower of Your Son.
Reflection: Do all your actions in accord with the right light of your reason. In all things, seek your salvation, the edification of others, and the praise and glory of God.
- St. Bonaventure
Prayer: God of Reason, grant me the gift of right reasoning and Christian understanding. Let me act always in accord with the dictates of that reason and so be pleasing to You.
Reflection: The happiness to which I aspire is greater than anything on earth. Therefore, I regard with extreme joy whatever pains and sufferings may befall me here.
- St. Camillus de Lellis
Prayer: Heavenly Father, keep my mind fixed on the surpassing joys stored up for me in heaven. And let me be willing to put up with all sufferings and pains that may come upon me.
Reflection: In the Eucharist, all is love. Jesus comes to us and dwells in us. In doing so. He teaches us how we are to love one another.
- St. Augustine
Prayer: Most loving Father, grant that every Eucharistic Celebration may unite me more closely to Your Divine Son. May it also unite me to all Christians and help me to show greater love for them every day.
Reflection: We do not cease praying so long as we continue to do good. The prayer of the heart and of good deeds has more value than the prayer of the lips.
- St. Augustine
Prayer: Dear God, move me to make a morning offering to You each day. Grant that all my deeds during the day may be a devout continuation of my prayer begun in the morning.
Reflection: A great faith merits great graces from the Lord. The more things your trust dares to ask of the Lord, the more you will receive.
- St. Bernard
Prayer: Lord Jesus, grant me a strong faith and an unwavering trust in You. Help me especially in times of trial when everything appears bleak, You seem far away, and I am afraid.
Reflection: We should love and feel passion for those who oppose us, rather than abhor and despise them. For they harm themselves and do us good. They adorn us with crowns of everlasting glory while they invite God's anger against themselves.
- St. Anthony Zaccaria
Prayer: God of goodness, grant me the grace to return good toward those who do evil to me. Let me realize that they are Your instruments for fashioning me into the person You want me to be for all eternity.
Reflection: The passible and temporal life of Jesus in His Mystical Body--that is, in Christians--has not yet reached completion. It is being completed from day to day in each true Christian, and it will be fully completed only at the end of time.
- St. John Eudes
Prayer: Heavenly Father, imprint on my mind that my task, like that of all Christians, is to build up Christ's Body on earth. Let me do whatever furthers this task and shun whatever hinders it.
Reflection: Observe a surprising fact. God is on high. You exalt yourself and God flees from you. You humble yourself and He comes to you. God looks upon the humble to exalt them, but he regards the proud from afar to abase them.
- St. Augustine
Prayer: Almighty Father, whenever I seek to take pride in what I do, remind me of the way things really are. The only good I have comes from You; all that is mine is my weakness.
