Daily Reflections

Ordinary goodness can be harder than it looks. We often prefer revelation to responsibility because revelation asks us to notice, while responsibility asks us to change.

May God continue to transform us into wheat that bears His love.

Hope is not naive optimism; it is trust that God remains present even when darkness rises.

Jesus doesn’t tell them that sabbath laws don’t matter, much less that they can be cavalierly ignored. But he does insist that there are times when they ought to give way for the sake of human well-being.

These realities were true when Jesus spoke them, and they are true now. Love your neighbor and your enemy, treat the other with kindness and dignity, welcome the stranger, welcome the children, forgive the sinner, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

What is it about children that makes them particularly fitted to receive the revelations of God in ways that the “wise and the learned” cannot?

Today’s gospel by Matthew leaves no doubt that Jesus is serious about repentance.

So, whether we receive a prophet or a righteous man, or even give a cup of cold water to a disciple, we recognize in each person Jesus and the one who sent him.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus relates to the large crowd gathered around him the challenges of producing good harvests.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Benedict, honoring his 1,500-year legacy as Father of Western Monasticism, and the patron saint of Europe.