Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Tuesday, May 31, 2011

[At the end of time] the beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion.
- CCC No. 1045
Reflection: This is heaven: total access to God in mutual self-giving that is overflowing with happiness and peace. Not a series of ups and downs, but a sustained joy like we've never experienced before.


Prayer: Father, may all our earthly joys be pure and healthy and inspire us to strive more boldly for the promise of heaven.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act.
CCC No. 1010
Reflection: For the Christian, death and eternal life begin at Baptism, and they work themselves out side by side throughout our entire lives.


Prayer: Lord, help us to stay close to you, for all our time is tied up with the reality of you.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Death seems like th enormla end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives: remembering our mortality helps us to realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment.
- CCC No. 1007


Reflection: To honestly accept the fact that our days are numbered: to think about the date on which you will no longer be living; to wrestle with the reality of death, judgment, heaven, and hell is an extremely practical way to live.


Prayer: Lord, help us to face how fragile and finite our life really is.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Monday, May 23, 2011

Christ will raise us up "on the last day"; but is is also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ.
- CCC No. 1002

Reflection: The life of the Christian is "already but not yet." The work of Christ on our behalf is finished and in so many ways we experience that victory, but our earthly trials continue to bring us to our knees. We live with one foot on earth and one in heaven.

Prayer: Jesus, help us to move beyond the limits of this earthly life to experience, even now, the graces you have won for us.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Friday, May 20, 2011

We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day.
- CCC No. 989
Reflection: It is not easy to "firmly believe" in the resurrection of the dead, and yet, if Christ did not rise from the dead, then we do not rise from the dead, in which case our faith is a joke and we are pathetic--as Paul himself pointed out.


Prayer: Lord, we do believe, but help and heal our unbelief.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Scripture, Reflection & Prayer for Tuesday, May 17, 2011

In this battle against our inclination towards evil, who could be brave and watchful enough to escape every wound of sin?
- CCC No. 979

Reflection: Forgiveness and reconciliation are powerful sources of healing to the human spirit and psyche, but in order to receive their benefits we must admit our sins and explicitly ask for pardon. The stage for this beautiful and necessary human drama is the confessional.

 Prayer: Father, draw your wandering children back to you. May we embrace the healing and strength you offer us through the sacrament of Reconciliation.


From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, September 21, 2010

From the outset of the work of evangelization, the missionary "planting" and expansion of the Church require the presence of the religious life in all its forms.
- CCC No. 927


Reflection: Ours is an age of diversity and inclusiveness, but the Church, from her very beginnings, has always provided a multitude of ways to serve God--lay and consecrated, active, contemplative, in the city or in the desert, in community or in solitude.


Prayer: Father, may your spirit equip us to serve you according to our state of life.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, May 09, 2011

Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.
- CCC No. 921
Reflection: All Christians can benefit from periodic practice of the disciplines of the hermit's life: solitude, silence, withdrawal from public life, and intense prayer.


Prayer: Lord, may the pattern of our lives allow us to hear you speaking in the depths of our hearts.

From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Friday, May 6, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Friday, May 06, 2011

And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.
- CCC No. 901
Reflection: Christians hold the power to sanctify their corner of the world simply by living a holy life. Like a sort of spiritual Midas, everything they touch, all that they influence, becomes consecrated to God.


Prayer: Father, never let us forget the power of holiness to change the world.



From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Thursday, May 05, 2011

All [the laity's] works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit...all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- CCC No. 901


Reflection: Catholics learn from an early age to "offer up" their trials and sufferings, but in truth, every action of our lives can and should be "offered up" to God.


Prayer: Father, may every area of our lives be a pleasing sacrifice to you.





From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvellously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them.
- CCC No. 901
Reflection: Gone are the days when Christians believed that only priests and religious were meant to pursue a holy life. Indeed, the Catechism suggests that by virtue of the gifts given them, the laity are perhaps even better suited to bear spiritual fruit.


Prayer: Father of all the faithful, strengthen the faith of the laity.





From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Tuesday, May 03, 2011

[The laity's] activity in ecclesial communities is so necessary that, for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it.
- CCC No. 900
Reflection: Everyone talks about the priest shortage, but what about the laity shortage? The failure to participate in Sunday Mass and Parish life by "non-practicing" Catholics constitutes another sort of crisis, one that seriously hampers the work of the priests we do have.


Prayer: Lord, may all the baptized hear and know your voice and seek you in the community of the faithful.



From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Scripture, Reflection and Prayer for Monday, May 02, 2011

By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.
CCC No. 898
Reflection: Many factors go into choosing a career. Alongside issues of salary, location and personal fulfillment, it should also be asked how one will seek God in this chosen line of work and in what manner one will direct that work according to God's will.


Prayer: Father, bless the work of our hands that it may honor you and give you glory.



From: Day by Day with the Catechism (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)