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Daily Reflections

Daily Scripture, July 9, 2025

Scripture:

Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a
Matthew 10:1-7

Reflection:

Hope

Photo Credit: passionistnuns.org

The Passionist community celebrates the feast of “Mary Mother of Hope” today. The origin of this devotion is found in the mission preaching of Thomas Struzzieri, CP, later bishop, who spoke of Mary, the Mother of Hope. This devotion is echoed by Bl. Dominic Barbari, CP. and the martyred Bulgarian Bishop, Eugene Bassilkov, CP.  Pope Francis in his autobiography, “Hope”, reflects poetically on this virtue. Along side our daily readings from Genesis and Matthew, readings from the common of Mary may be chosen. Mass prayers and preface are in the “Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, Volume 1.

In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars which devastated the Church and religious life in Europe, the superior of the Passionists, instead of retrenching with a smaller number of religious, chose to expand, to preach the passion in new places. Dominic Barbari, CP who wanted to go to England, found himself in Belgium as the first religious superior in 1840. It took this rather rotund, gentle and quiet man only two years to lead a few Passionists off to England. He was a theologian and teacher driven to work for unity with the Church of England, something we find in the prayer of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists. In the nine years before his death in Reading, England, although he did not realize his goal, he did receive a great consolation. It was Dominic Barbari who welcomed John Henry Newman into the Church!

Dominic says this of Mary and hope: Hope is that virtue than anchors the ship of our soul in the stormy sea of this troubled world…Though endowed with extraordinary graces and unstained by original sin, Mary never counted on any resource of her own. She knew God as the source of every good. She confided in God, fleeing from persecution from her own country, and she hoped in God even when she saw her divine Son die on the Cross. She encouraged the weak, lifted up the fallen…even now she reaches with a mother’s hand to those who go to her. She is Mother of holy hope.

In 1952 Bl. Eugene Bassilkov, bishop of the church of Bulgaria during the Communist persecution was taken from his prison cell and shot by a firing squad. We have a letter from Bassilkov where he says, ‘things are bad, but as a son of the Province of Our Lady of Hope, (the province in Belgium). Mary, Mother of Hope is my inspiration’.

Advertising uses words to make sales, poetry uses words that make us wonder why we rarely see the obvious until someone expresses it simply. Poetry safeguards not sales but souls. So Pope Francis uses the poetry of Charles Péguy: ‘Faith, he says, is a loyal wife/Charity is a Mother, but Hope is a little girl not even noticed, who will endure worlds. She alone, carrying the others, is lost among her sister’s skirts. Hope, the little one, carries them all./Because Faith sees only what is. But she, she sees what will be./Charity only loves what is. But she, she loves what will be’. There is a saying, “When the seas rise, those without ideas are the first to go under”. So for those without hope. Christian hope is the humble, strong virtue that sustains us and does not let us drown in the many difficulties of life. Hope, the anchor, Mary, the vessel. She pulls us aboard dripping and tired. ‘Here’s a towel, there’s an oar! I knew you were there’, she says.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Daily Scripture, December 13, 2013

Friday of the Second Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 48:17-19 Matthew 11:16-19 Reflection: I have often heard "prosperity evangelists" quote today’s first reading and psalm.  They say, "See?  God intends for you » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 12, 2013

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Scripture: Zechariah 2:14-17 Luke 1:26-38 Reflection: Why only be a Christian when you can be another Christ? To be another Christ we have to » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 9, 2013

  The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary                                          Scripture: Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 Luke 1:526-38   Reflection: The Gift of Mary’s Immaculate Conception Our » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 7, 2013

Saturday of the First Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26 Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8 Reflection: Christmas as a child in the 50’s was the most exciting time of the » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 6, 2013

Friday of the First Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 29: 17-24 Matthew 9: 27-31 Reflection: Eye care professionals most commonly correct bad eyesight, like myopia or hyperopia, through the use » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 4, 2013

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-10 Matthew 15:29-37 Reflection: In today’s Gospel, Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee and encounters "great crowds" of needy folks:  the » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 10, 2013

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11 Matthew 18:12-14 Reflection: At Christmas we celebrate birth and rejoice that God became incarnate in human flesh. It is not » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 3, 2013

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10 Luke 10:21-24 Reflection: I am clear about what matters during Advent. I believe in the sacred seasons of the Church » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 2, 2013

Scripture: Isaiah 4:2-6 Matthew 8:5-11 Reflection: At yesterday’s Eucharist, we prayed that our hearts desire the warmth of God’s love and our minds search for the light of God’s Word. » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 1, 2013

First Sunday of Advent Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24 37-44 Reflection: Today is the first day of December.  Here in the U.S. we are just coming out of » Continue Reading.

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