Daily Reflections

Inspiring prayers, quotes, and spiritual reflections.

Faith, Forgiveness and Healing

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” – he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Mark 2:1-12

Life as a Sister: Using Your Gifts

Blessed Veronica of Binasco

Blessed Veronica of Binasco (1445-1497)

“Through a divine call to a religious and conventual state of life, she conceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and edifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To qualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at work, she sat up at night to learn to read and write, which the want of an instructor made a great fatigue to her. One day being in great anxiety about her learning, the Mother of God, to whom she had always recommended herself, in a comfortable vision bade her banish that anxiety: for it was enough if she knew three letters:

the first, purity of the affections, by placing her whole heart on God alone, loving no creature but in him and for him;
the second, never to murmur, or be impatient at the sins, or any behaviour of others, but to bear them with interior peace and patience, and humbly to pray for them;
the third, to set apart some time every day to meditate on the passion of Christ.”

(from Butler’s “Lives of the Saints”)

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GIVE THANKS

Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds.

Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds.

Psalm 105: 1-2

Life as a Sister: Spirituality

OVER ALL THE EARTH

O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?

You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet.

All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

Psalm 8:2ab, 5, 6-7, 8-9

Life as a Sister: Formation Experience

JESUS, BELOVED SON

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 3:13-17

Life as a Sister: Talk to a Sister

BAPTIZED

This is what John the Baptist proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop to loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.  And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1:7-11

Life of a Sister: Becoming a Sister

Follow Me

Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

John 1:43-51

Life as a Sister: Meet a Sister

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

My object in pronouncing my vows is to embrace Poverty, under whose roof I desire to live and die; Chastity, so lovable and so beautiful, that I truly find all my happiness in cultivating it, and above all, Obedience, the sure refuge and safeguard of my soul.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Life as a Sister: In Community

Righteousness and Purity

If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him.

See what  love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him.

1 John 2:29–3:6

Life as a Sister: Picture Yourself

Solemnity of Mary

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis –  January 1, 2017
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart! (Lk 2:19).  In these words, Luke describes the attitude with which Mary took in all that they had experienced in those days.  Far from trying to understand or master the situation, Mary is the woman who can treasure, that is to say, protect and guard in her heart, the passage of God in the life of his people.  Deep within, she had learned to listen to the heartbeat of her Son, and that in turn taught her, throughout her life, to discover God’s heartbeat in history.  She learned how to be a mother, and in that learning process she gave Jesus the beautiful experience of knowing what it is to be a Son.  In Mary, the eternal Word not only became flesh, but also learned to recognize the maternal tenderness of God.  With Mary, the God-Child learned to listen to the yearnings, the troubles, the joys and the hopes of the people of the promise.  With Mary, he discovered himself a Son of God’s faithful people.

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