Today’s Reflection

Nothing is more essential than the love of God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtue so necessary, that without it we shall never get to heaven; and it is in order to love God that we are on the earth . . . But the misfortune is that we lavish our love…

St. Paul teaches that this life of ours is like traveling abroad from our home country. He says, As long as we are in the body, we are traveling away from the Lord  (2 Corinthians 5:6). Since we are still traveling in a foreign land, we ought to keep in mind what our home country…

Happy Birthday, Padre Pio! (May 25, 1887- Sept. 23, 1968) In Heaven, everything will be spring as far as beauty is concerned, autumn as far as enjoyment is concerned, summer as far as love is concerned. There will be no winter; but here winter is necessary to exercise self-denial and a thousand other little but…

The duty of the moment is our strategic place. One day at a time. We have this day to open our hearts like doors, and to take in everyone that we can. We have today to love as God loves us. Our daily work, routine or not, exciting or unexciting, monotonous or not, is part…

Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield and that in Paradise we shall receive the crown of victory; that this is a testing-ground and the prize will be awarded up above; that we are now in a land of exile while our true homeland…

O Lord, what is the trust that I can have in this life, or what is my greatest solace among all things under heaven? Is it not you, my Lord God, whose mercy is without measure? When have things been well with me without you, and when have things not been well with me if…

I will live in the present moment and fill it with love. A straight line is made of millions of little points, one united with the other. My life, too, is made of millions of seconds and minutes united one with the other. If I arrange every single point perfectly, the line will be straight.…

The contemplative life is not a life that offers a few good moments between the many bad ones, but a life that transforms all our time into a window through which the invisible world becomes visible. . . Contemplative prayer requires that we listen, that we let God speak to us when he wants and…

One of the most important things you can do to improve your spiritual life and your mental health is to fill your mind with uplifting thoughts. If you hold on to hurtful memories, they will only make you sick. You have a choice. You can reject them. Decide firmly that you will not let the…

God is never absent – it is just our belief system that makes us think that God could not be present when things, according to our judgement, go wrong. The Parable of the Leaven (Mt.13:33) suggests that God is never more present than when things are going wrong. The leaven, symbol of what we regard…