Keep your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.
- Ps 34:14-15
Reflection: There can be no outward peace unless it reflects and is ruled by that interior peace without which the affairs of human beings shake, totter, and fall. Only God's holy religion can foster, strengthen, and maintain such a peace.
- Pope John XIII
Prayer: Help me to find peace in my heart, O Lord. Teach me to turn things over to Your care; enable me to surrender to Your will in all things. From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Because the [Eucharistic] Bread is one, we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one Bread.
- 1 Cor 10:17
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.From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Let us consider how we spur one another toward charity and good works.
- Heb 10:24
Reflection: Charity! Charity! Is this your hour? Let us all try to be worthy of her and prepare her ways. Let us pray, let us love, let us work so that our charity may be in our hearts and may be able to work the wonder of her triumph.
- Pope Paul VI
Prayer: O Lord, let there be an explosion of Your love in our land. There are so may who are lonely, so many trapped in guilt and self-hate. There is so much violence and selfishness. Help me to work and pray to make this a better place. From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Whatever you ask for in prayer and do so in faith, you will receive.
- Mt 21:22
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 trail when everything appears bleak, You seem far away, and I am afraid. From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Do not spend the rest of your earthly lives on human desires but on the Will of God.
- 1 Pet 4:2
Reflection: Have a genuine sorrow for the slightest amount of time that you waste. This means any time that you do not use to show your love for God.
- St. John of the Cross
Prayer: Lord of time, forgive me for the time I have wasted in the past. Help me from now on to use all the time You give me to serve You in the way You wish.From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
- Lk 13:24
Reflection: Let no one be under any delusion. Christ is demanding. Christ's life is the narrow way. To be worth of Him, we must take up our cross. It is not enough to be religious; it is necessary to carry out the Divine Will in actual fact.
- Pope Paul VI
Prayer: Give me the courage to take the narrow path that leads to You, Lord Jesus. Let me always remember that following You means not only saying "Yes" to Your love but also saying "No" to the things opposed to Your love.
From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
- Lk 18:14
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. From: Everyday Is A Gift (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)
