Tuesday, March 06, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
The person with fortitude is the one who perseveres in doing what his conscience tells him he ought to do. He does not measure the value of a task exclusively by the benefit he derives from it, but rather by the service he renders to others.
-- St. Josemaria Escriva
READINGS FOR TODAY
First Readings: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20
(Justice, Not Sacrifices/ An Invitation from the Lord)
10 You are no better than the leaders and people of Sodom and Gomorrah! So listen to the Lord God:
16 Wash yourselves clean! I am disgusted with your filthy deeds. Stop doing wrong and learn to live right.
See that justice is done. Defend widows and orphans and help those in need.”
18 I, the Lord, invite you to come and talk it over. Your sins are scarlet red, but they will be whiter than snow or wool.

Monday, March 05, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
As iron is fashioned by fire and on the anvil, so in the fire of suffering and under the weight of trials, our souls receive that form which our Lord desires them to have.
-- St. Madeline Sophie Barat

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Daniel 9:4-10
4 I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,

5 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;

6 neither have we listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Friday, March 02, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
Inordinate love for the flesh is cruelty, because under the appearance of pleasing the body, we kill the soul.
-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Ezekiel 18:21-2821 But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
22 None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live.
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

Thursday, March 01, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
Our Lord knew that to draw strength and efficacy from fasting, something more than abstinence from prohibited food is necessary. Thus He instructed His disciples and, consequently, disposed them to gather the fruits proper to fasting. Among many others are these four: fasting fortifies the spirit, mortifying the flesh and its sensuality; it raises the spirit to God; it fights concupiscence and gives power to conquer and deaden its passions; in short, it disposes the heart to seek to please only God with great purity of heart.
-- St. Francis de Sales

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: 1 Esther 12: 14-16, 23-25
14 In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, who kept the concubines: she came in to the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and she were called by name.
15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked at her.
16 So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
Go to your adoration as one would go to Heaven, to the divine banquet. Tell yourself, in four hours, in two hours, in one hour our Lord will give me an audience of grace and love. He has invited me; He is waiting for me; He is longing for me.
-- St. Peter Julian Eymard

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Jonah 3:1-10
(Jonah Obeys the Lord)
1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.
-- St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto
READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Isaiah 55:10-1110 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

Monday, February 27, 2012 (Lenten Weekday)

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers.
-- St. Peter Damian

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
(Laws of Holiness and Justice)
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘You shall be holy; for I Yahweh your God am holy.
11 “‘You shall not steal; neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 “‘You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.