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TODAY’S WORD…

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For I, the Lord your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear,
I will help you.’

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– Isaiah 41:13 (NRSV)

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“Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

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– Luke 21:28 (NRSV)

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REFLECTION…

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A lifelong struggle will be necessary if we are to follow Our Lord in this life

and gaze on Him forever in Heaven.

The Christian life is simply not compatible with self-satisfied mediocrity

or with love of comfort and lukewarmness.

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It is always a good moment to ask ourselves how much we struggle against our own passions, defects, sins and bad inclinations.

Our Lord asks us to keep up this struggle through the whole of our life.

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Very, very often we will hear the Holy Spirit say:

Make a new start…, be constant;

that last failure doesn’t matter;

all the bad things in your life put together don’t matter…,

make a new start with deeper humility, asking your Lord for still more help.

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Our failures can very often lead to progress in our interior life,

but only if we react to them with humility and genuine contrition

and with a firmer determination to follow Our Lord.

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Our Lord wants us to begin again after every failure,

and He tells us: “Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Our hope is based on this.

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QUOTE…

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“Today, as yesterday, heroism is expected of the Christian,

a heroism in great struggles, if the need arises.

Normally, however, the heroism will be in the little skirmishes of each day.”

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– St. Josemaria Escriva

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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My Lord and my God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Give me the grace and humility always to begin again and to persevere.

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[*] Today’s reflection is sourced from the seven-volume work “In Conversation with God” by Padre Francisco Fernández Carvajal.