The Victor's Crown

 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...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Arm Yourself For us lay folks, there's a balancing act we have to walk.  We're called to detach from the very world we spend our days in, turning toward the higher things God has to offer. And as much as we might want to spend our days in silent prayer, that's not always our calling.  But...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Roots and Fruit In striving for holiness, we have to balance what you might call the interior life and the exterior life. Faith and works. The contemplative and the active. The interior life is the foundation. Without it, nothing else holds. When we neglect prayer and place all our energy...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Here I am The world tells us we are the masters of our own lives. That we create our own meaning. That we choose our destiny. And in some ways, that’s not entirely false. We have a tremendous — and terrifying — power in the gift of free will. We can make ourselves masters of our lives. We...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- The Gift of Self One of the side effects of modern life is that it's so easy to complicate things. We build massive lists of goals we think will lead to happiness — personally, maritally, in our careers. For raising good kids, we assume they need iPads, expensive experiences, and schedules...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Where's the Good? Oftentimes, what's good for us and what we want are at odds. We know eating right and exercising is good for us — but lounging on the couch with a bag of chips sounds pretty enticing. We know hard work is noble — but YouTube has a way of eating the afternoon. We know pray...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- What we can control When someone treats us with love — does something for us out of love — our hearts naturally respond with gratitude. Or at least they should. Through His sacrifice, Christ has loved us in ways we cannot fully grasp. And more often than not, that involuntary feeling of lo...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Pointing to the Father "Thérèse would move much more easily toward the Father because of having experienced a human father full of goodness and tenderness." We return to that idea of goodness again. And I've been sitting with this one in my own life — as a father of five. There is an oppor...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Confidence in His Goodness Returning to The Extraordinary Parents of St. Thérèse — one of the hallmarks of Louis and Zélie Martin's lives was what the author calls "confidence in the goodness of God." There's an important word in there: goodness. Most of us believe — at least in some sense...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Any State in Life "They learned, little by little, from the Lord that holiness doesn't reside in one state in life but in a trusting and loving response to God's call in daily life." I've been reading The Extraordinary Parents of St. Thérèse, where I came across that line. The Martin famil...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- The Gift of God My parish is holding its 40 Hours this week. In the opening talk, a priest of our diocese said something that really stuck with me: “If you knew the gift of God.” And if my notes are right, that’s from John 4. To someone who has never known God — or who doesn’t understand t...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- A New Land In this time between the Ascension and Pentecost, our Lord's words come back to us: "I go to prepare a place for you." I had a moment this past week where so much of the imagery we hear in Scripture just clicked for me. Here's what I mean. Imagine a father who goes ahead to a ne...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Things I want to do more (part 2) Yesterday I talked about a daily Rosary. Today: daily Mass. And again, this comes from my own personal experience of having five kids. I do not get to daily Mass as much as I'd like to. Now, of course, I have reasons. Like I said: there are five of them, a...

 Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Things I want to do more (part 1) I've thought about a series of reflections titled something like "Things I Want to Do More." And in this month of May, it might not be any surprise that the thing that I would love to do more is pray a daily Rosary. As far as the prayers and devotions that...