The Victor's Crown

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   Generosity There's a prayer that came back to me recently — one I prayed every day in high school. Not because I was a particularly holy teenager, but because my high school had us pray it each morning. The Generosity Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I prayed it every day for four years...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   Everything All at Once One thing my spiritual director reminds me of: we don't need to do everything all at once. It's easy to build a list. Daily Mass. A daily Rosary. Adoration. The Divine Mercy Chaplet. The Angelus. Bible in a Year. This spiritual book, that one. All of it good. All o...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Presence I was visiting family in Virginia recently, and we stopped at a war memorial — one that features sculptures of letters soldiers wrote home across 250 years of our country's history. One of them really hit me. A soldier writing to his wife, closing with this: "When we meet again, I...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   The Price of Love "Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice." — St. John Paul II In our world today, these words are deeply counter-cultural. The secular world peddles the exact opposite — love without sacrifice. Love without conseque...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   The Price of Love "Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice." — St. John Paul II In our world today, these words are deeply counter-cultural. The secular world peddles the exact opposite — love without sacrifice. Love without conseque...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- No Courage Without Fear There is no courage without fear. Courage doesn't mean we aren't afraid. In fact, an action isn't truly courageous unless fear is present. The courageous person does the right thing because it's right — even while afraid to do it. In a similar way, we might assume t...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Fill the Gaps Each day is punctuated by what we do — responsibilities at home and at work, errands, tasks. When someone asks how your day went, that's usually what comes to mind. But amidst all of it, there are gaps. Small lulls. A few minutes here and there. And nowadays, those gaps get f...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   One Constant Following Christ is a lifelong journey — and because it's lifelong, our faith lives will go through many changes. We move houses, move towns. Our families grow. Friends come and go. We switch parishes. A favorite priest gets transferred. And we ourselves change — in ways we...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   Even the Sticks and the Rocks Two things the Lord never tires of: gratitude and appreciation. He is our Creator, after all. Even in the trials and storms, we have more to be grateful for than we often stop to recognize. Think about the world from a child's perspective. Walking along a pa...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   Grateful for the Struggle As unpleasant as it sounds, there's something we should always be grateful for: our struggles. Strange, right? Shouldn't we be avoiding challenges, trials, and temptations? Why be grateful for them? Because our lives are full of struggles whether we like it or n...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com ---   What I Do Not Understand "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate." — Romans 7:15 St. Paul nails it. We know what sin is. We know it's wrong, bad for us, and damaging to our relationship with God. And yet — we still do it anyway. It's not like we...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Hear and do We are called to not just be hearers of God's word, but doers as well. Chances are, you've already heard it all. Between Mass, Scripture, Catholic school, and religious education, most of us have a pretty solid idea of what we should do, what's right versus wrong, and how God i...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- The path to greatness Developing virtue is a balancing act — finding the golden mean between two extremes. Take magnanimity and humility. On the surface, they look like opposites. A magnanimous person strives to do great things and is deserving of honor. That desire lives in all of us. Thi...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- One Step No matter how daunting the road ahead looks — personally, professionally, or spiritually — all we have to do is focus on the current moment. This is especially true for the spiritual life. Let's be honest: most of us are a long way from being saints. It can feel like standing at t...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Set us free Before we receive the Eucharist at Mass, we profess the Mystery of Faith. "Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free." Think about that: You have set us free. Freedom is part of our everyday lives. We talk about it in our country's hi...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- What we desire We've all heard the expression: we want what we can't have. Sometimes that's simply something out of reach. But other times, we end up wanting what we shouldn't have — something bad for us, or even morally wrong. There are degrees to this. We can desire something good, somet...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- The Shallows “ You should choose to enter not immediately into the ocean depths, but rather through small streams, for one should reach more difficult matters by going through the easier ones first.” Saint Thomas Aquinas gave this advice to a pupil who was inquiring about methods of study....

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Who am I At every Mass, we encounter the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. We literally receive our Lord and Savior every Sunday.  In response to this profound truth, we ask: “Who am I? Lord, who am I to receive you?” It’s a valid response, because frankly, we are not worthy...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Profit For all of our endeavors and pursuits, for all of the things that preoccupy our minds and hearts, for all of our worries, concerns, and stresses, for all of the wealth or knowledge we accumulate...  Do our souls profit? “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Slow to speak Too often, we simply don’t think about what we’re saying. If you’ve ever had to give up cursing, you’ve experienced this firsthand. Things just slip out...sometimes unnoticed. In regards to sin, we tend to be more aware of our thoughts and actions. We’re always with our own t...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Think Well “Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven.” —Saint Camillus de Lellis Think, speak, do. Our thoughts, our words, our actions. It’s basic and fundamental. But each day, do we make a conscious effort to control wha...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Rejoice in the Goodness Have you ever struggled with celebrating? It sounds a little silly, but whenever something good happens, do you hesitate? There's almost a self-defense mechanism that kicks in — don't celebrate just yet, it could all be taken away. You might even worry about jinxing...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- The First Battle As followers of Christ, there are a lot of battles to fight. But for all of us, the first battle is within ourselves. We can't give what we don't have. We can't share a faith we don't practice. We can't lead others to holiness when we aren't striving for it ourselves. We c...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Abba The fallen human heart sees God as an adversary. Even as adults, we can act like teenagers — convinced our Father is out of touch, no fun, making rules for the sake of rules. We keep Him at arm's length. We resist Him. We go our own way. But at the core of that problem — and its solut...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- For Others "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:12-13) This is our task on earth. And it's our path to Heaven. We can be so caught up in our own lives that we start to think salvation...