Daily Inspiration Thread

He Is Before All Things,
And In Him All Things Hold Together.
—Colossians 1:17

God Knows—Before The Plane Goes Down, The Disease Hits, The Economy Tumbles, Or Your Child Grows Ill. God’s Gaze Rests On You Before The Betrayal Or The Sin, Before Love Dies Or Grows Stale, Before Your Loneliness Or Selfishness, Before Whatever Season Of Suffering Or Strife May Befall You. See God’s Hands, Strong And Eternal And Able, Holding You Up, Holding Together You And Yours—And The Very World Around You.

Thank you love

God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel.
—Colossians 1:22–23

Fixum est cor meum. My heart is steadfast, O Lord, my heart is set.

Jesus, my heart can be fickle and shifting. Help me to grow more steady. Keep me firmly grounded in you, my heart set upon you. YVW Gutcheck !! =)

Blessed to have you here love. 

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?
—Luke 14:28

Jesus desires for us to love through to completion, because that is the way he loves: completely, fully, to the end, to eternity. YVW Gutcheck !! :)

Bless u love

Only in God be at rest, my soul,
for from him comes my hope.
—Psalm 62:5

Human optimism and divine hope are quite different; the first looks to the earth and humanity and says, “We will work hard to make things better.” The second looks to heaven and God and says, “In Christ, all things are possible.” Where is the source of the power to change? Is it rooted in human optimism or divine hope? The great mystery and delight of the Christian life is that we cocreate. Jesus invites us to cooperate with his grace, and this fills the heart with hope.YVW Gutcheck !! :)

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself and from them he chose Twelve.
—Luke 6:12

Prayer precedes every great work of Jesus. And it precedes the great works of the Church as well. As I watched my brother prepare for the priesthood, six years and then some, I became aware that it was not just my brother who was deciding to become a priest, but a body of men, the Church, those charged with his preparation, who agreed that he was called. They prayed and prepared, and when the day came, they called.

His greatness is unsearchable.
—Psalm 145:3

Lord, we look for you everywhere: in the miracles and mysteries of life, death, and suffering; in the eyes of the poor and those impoverished in spirit; in the kindness of strangers and the courage of the heroic; in daybreak and in sunset; in the beauties of heaven and earth; in the darkness of human sin and human frailty and human hearts. We seek you. We search for you and find you, but never fully and never enough. And so we seek you still.

The Most Holy Name of Mary


Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another . . . And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.
—Colossians 2:12–14

Oh, profane and unloved, put on indifference, meanness, arrogance, harshness, impatience, unforgiveness, and hate. Which list makes your heart lighten and sing? Carry it around in your heart’s pocket today. Breathe it in. Let this little litany seep into the beating rhythm of life that moves you forward.

No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.
—Luke 6:40

St. John Chrysostom, often referred to as “golden-mouthed” for his stirring homilies, wrote, “It is not possible, I say not possible, ever to exhaust the mind of the Scriptures. It is a well which has no bottom.”

We come to the Scriptures to spend more time with the Teacher. We come to enter our training. The sacraments and a holy life: these are our lessons.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
—John 3:17

This is the work of the cross: to save you.

This is the work of the crucifixions of your life: to allow you to join in the saving work of the cross.

Spend some time in meditation before a crucifix today. Ask Jesus to show you what it means to you that he is there.

Our Lady of Sorrows


A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
—Psalm 51:10

Sin soils the soul. None of us escapes this. That’s why confession is so important and necessary. A priest I knew who had received the stigmata said that after he received it, he needed to go to confession far more often; he had a far greater sensitivity to sin after receiving such an extraordinary gift.

Make a commitment to receive the sacrament of reconciliation at least once a month or more for the next year.

St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr


“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. . . . but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here’ and he comes.”
—Luke 7:6–8

This passage goes on to describe Jesus’ amazement at the faith of the centurion who has asked Jesus to heal his sick slave. Can you imagine amazing the King of Kings? How curious that a soldier who spends his day upholding military authority should so respect Christ’s authority. Jesus is here to uphold the authority of his Father.

I will not set before my eyes
any base thing.
—Psalm 101:3

Matthew 6:22 says that the eye is the lamp of the body. We sometimes say it this way: the eyes are the window to the soul.

What are my windows letting in?

Wisdom is vindicated by all her children.
—Luke 7:35

I have too many children fathered by Folly and reared by Selfishness. There would be more were it not for God’s mercy. I pray that more of my children are raised up by Wisdom and Faith, Mercy and Hope.

“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?”
—Luke 7:41–42

The point is not who has sinned more or less. We all owe five hundred days’ wages—and more; we all need much forgiveness. The point is how we can love more. We all owe a countless debt—one God will forgive in an instant. Therefore, we also have the capacity to show great love for God and for the people around us. Today, with full consciousness and intent, do not show a little love—show great love.

Mutual friction among people with corrupted mind, who are deprived of the truth.
—1 Timothy 6:5

Here are the results when we reject the teaching of Christ: corruption, friction, and deprivation. They are ugly words, and I recoil from them. But how do we guard our minds against corruption? How do we protect ourselves from deprivation of the truth? Prayer, the Mass, the sacraments, holy friendships, Scripture study, sacred reading, adoration, and more prayer. Silence and meditation and the time we spend together each day.

Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ.
—Ephesians 4:7, 11–12

Still others are gifted as artists and writers, others as healers, others as intercessors and administrators, others as musicians and liturgical ministers, all as witnesses, our gifts given in service of the Body of Christ.

I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.
—1 Timothy 2:1

True leadership is a charism we can understand poorly. Jesus introduces us to servant-leadership by washing the feet of his disciples and dying on the cross. He was a living, radical reversal of all we understood of authority and the sacrifices inherent in it. Today, let us remember our Church and civic leaders in prayer, asking God to increase their strength, wisdom, courage, and loving stamina to lead as Christ leads and to serve as Christ serves.

For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
—Luke 8:17

St. Pio was well-known for his intolerance of poor confessions. He would send away those whose confessions were insincere, and recommended more frequent confession: “Even a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust; return after a week and you will see that it needs dusting again!”We needn’t fear Jesus’ judgment; it will always be a perfect coupling of justice and mercy. But we are foolish to disregard the consequences of poor confession—or no confession at all.

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.
—Luke 8:21

Here, when Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are outside, he does not reject his family but uses the moment to teach something about what matters most: the word and will of the Father. In a culture that values family ties to the exclusion of almost everything else, his statement is all the more emphatic.

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority.
—Luke 9:1

Priests are not the only ones to whom God gives power and authority. And though we do not serve the Church in the same way priests do (with good reason), all the lay faithful are called to serve as priest, prophet, and king. The chief component of our priestly role is sacrificial. It is in the daily sacrifices we make, the ways in which we live our own lives a gift that Jesus gives us power and authority.

Now thus says the LORD of hosts: / Consider your ways! / You have sown much, but have brought in little; / you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; / You have drunk but have not been exhilarated; / have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed; / and whoever earned wages / earned them for a bag with holes in it.
—Haggai 1:5–6

Haggai is chastising the Israelites for allowing their discouragement to blossom into full-blown procrastination and avoidance. He is reminding all of us that our efforts at building a life without God will ultimately disappoint and dissatisfy. A holy life involves work. If we dedicate our works to God, they will ultimately build something lasting and eternal: virtue and holiness and love.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: / Lo, I will rescue my people . . . / I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. / They shall be my people, and I will be their God, / with faithfulness and justice.
—Zechariah 8:8

St. Jerome has been attributed with this idea: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” What ignorance does this verse from Zechariah dispel? That God has abandoned me, is faithless, unjust, disinterested? That I am not worth saving? That God would never claim me for his own?