“I gave very specific instructions!” How my children dreaded hearing their dad say this. It meant he was displeased because they had failed to properly carry out his instructions in some way. I doubt this ever happened because of outright disobedience. Sometimes it was because, by the time he’d finished the phrase, “I want you…
Every time I read about Mary’s conversation with the angel who was sent to tell her she was chosen to carry the Savior of humanity, I’m amazed. Her simple surrender in Luke 1:38, “I am the Lord’s servant . . . May your word to me be fulfilled,” transformed the world. We don’t know if…
In his book, New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton tells us that the simplest idea of freedom we can experience happens when we have the ability to do the will of God. He fleshes this out more in the book, but this simple definition stuck with me. How do I know God’s will for me?…
Self-interest is restrained within due bounds when love supervenes; for then it rejects evil things altogether, prefers better things to those merely good, and cares for the good only on account of the better. ~St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God I read this quote one morning during my devotion time, then turned to where…
Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. (1 Peter 4:9–10 CSB) Do you think people tend to be self-centered? I do, and I think it about myself, not just others. Self-centeredness seems to…
At the beginning of every year in elementary school, my teacher would hand out a worksheet with a long list of instructions. She would explain that the goal of this project was the complete the task correctly by the end of the day, which was drawing near. The first instruction on the worksheet was always…