January 30, 2025

Daily Thought from the Saints

"In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course."

– St. Boniface

Daily Scripture Verse

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Daily Meditation

"What is time, with regard to myself? It is my present and actual existence. Past time, or my past existence, is no longer anything, as far as I am concerned; I can neither recall it, nor change anything in it. The time to come, or my future existence, has not yet arrived, and perhaps never will arrive. I does not depend on me; I cannot count on it ... No one is ignorant of these two simple truths, but very few draw from them the conclusions they ought to draw ... This present moment, or this actual existence—from whom do I hold it? It is He who has preserved my existence from one instant to another, and who is preserving it at this present moment. Will He preserve it for me in the moment that shall immediately follow this one? I do not know; and nothing in the world can give me the assurance of it. Why has time been given to me? So that by it I may merit a happy eternity. I shall live forever: faith teaches me this; my reason even assures me of another life. The desire of immortality is implanted in the depths of my heart, and this desire, which God Himself has planted there, can never be frustrated of its object. I am, then, born for eternity, but this eternity will be happy or wretched ... My fate for all eternity depends, then, on the use I make of time, and since neither the past nor the future is in my own power, it is quite true to say that my eternity depends always on the present moment. Now, at this present moment, what is my state? Would I like to die just as I am now?"

— Fr. Jean Nicholas Grou

Daily Catholic Wisdom

In spite of the communitarian nature of the Church, then, in God’s kingdom, no one is expendable or exchangeable; no one can be substituted for anyone else. The parable of the lost sheep would be unintelligible if God did not care about the individual as an individual.
—Fr. Roch Kereszty, O.Cist. and Fr. Denis Farkasfalvy, O.Cist.
from their book, “Theology in Practice: Joy: A Beginner’s Guide to the Spiritual Life”

A Prayer from Notre Dame University

Aaron Morris, C.S.C.

Heavenly Father, through the incarnation of your Son, the church bears the divine light of the anointed one. Let each of us bear the infinite measure: Christ alive in us. Overflowing with infinite grace, may we offer more than our life’s work. Give us courage to share the living Christ for all to see, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.