Catholic Daily Reflections

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…” Matthew 5:43–44 Why would we want to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? The fallen natural mind alone reasons that an enemy is someone we should oppose and distance ourselves from,...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20 Imagine a wife asked her husband to go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of potatoes. Being literal, he went to the store, found a pound of potatoes, picked them up, set them back down, and returned home. When...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7–8 Will God grant us whatever we ask for? Though one might conclude this from today’s Gospel, Jesus qualifies His statement by addin...

Read Online While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” Luke 11:29 Today’s Gospel takes place during the midpoint of Jesus’ public ministry. By this time, He had healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, preached many powerful sermons, and changed many h...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” Matthew 6:7–8 Prayer is so essential to our spiritual lives that we should strive to live in a st...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31–32 Throughout history, rulers have vied for power, and countless wars have been fought over...

Read Online At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Matthew 4:1–3 In His great humility and compassion for us, Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, allowed Himself to...

Read Online Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. Luke 5:27–29 Levi’s life changed in an instant. He encountered the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the...

Read Online The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Matthew 9:14–15 Fasting is an essential spiritual discipline. It signifies humility,...

Read Online “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” Luke 9:23–25 Today’s Gospel presents us with one of the great paradoxes of our faith: the only way to...

Read Online Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Joel 2:12–13 Today, as we go forward in procession at Mass to be marked with ashes on our foreheads, we are reminded: “R...

Read Online The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Mark 8:14–15 Jesus and the disciples frequently traveled by boat, visiting many towns and villages along the Sea of Galilee. After a fruitful visit to the Gentile territory of the Decapolis, Je...

Read Online The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Mark 8:11–12 The Pharisees struggled with skepticism, resistance, and trickery, reflecting the tragic reality of hearts closed to...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” Matthew 5:17–18 For many, the Old Testament can be confusing, filled with laws...

Read Online In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” Mark 8:1–3 Early in Jesus’ public mi...

Read Online Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. Mark 7:31–32 Throughout Jesus’ public ministry, His actions, while purely charitable, were often deliberate and provocative. His words and deeds testified to the true m...

Read Online Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. Mark 7:24–25 The context of today’s Gospel is significant. Jesus traveled to Tyre, in modern-day Lebanon, a Gentile city on the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Ty...

Read Online When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” Mark 7:17–19 We experience varying levels of intimacy in our relationship...

Read Online “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘ This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. ’” Mark 7:5–8 Isaiah’s prophecy rings as true for us today as...

Read Online After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. Mark 6:53–54 As soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat, the people “immediately recognized him.” Jesus and the Twelve had spent the previous day on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in...

Read Online Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13 Sodium chloride, also known as salt, is one of the most commonly used substances in the world, used for seasoning, preserving, and purifying. Sodium chloride is a very stable...

Read Online The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” Mark 6:30–31 When a person does something profound and meaningful for the first time, it’s a memorable moment. When a child walks for the first time, parents are elated. When we graduate from high school or college, a natu...

Read Online King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; That is why mighty powers are at work in him.” Others were saying, “He is Elijah”; still others, “He is a prophet like any of the prophets.” But when Herod learned of it, he said, “It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.” Mark 6:14–16 Whe...

Read Online “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Mark 6:10–13 During the first half of Jesus’ public min...

Read Online Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Mark 6:4–6 It’s an old expression that “familiarity breeds contempt.” It is often easier to harbor contempt...