God's Deep Secrets

God's Deep Secrets

Who do you share your deepest secrets with? Most people only share their inner thoughts with those who are closest to them. People they trust. People they’ve gone through experiences with. Do you know who God shares His secrets with? This Scripture says "to us." As believers, God’s Spirit lives inside of us, revealing to us the heart and thoughts of God Himself. God wants you to know what He thinks about you. He wants you to know about the plans He has for you. He wants to show you things you’ve never seen, heard about or even imagined. You are His child, and you are also His friend. He wants to walk with you, talk with you, and share with you. What a wonderful, amazing thought—we can know God’s thoughts because we are one with Him. Open your heart and allow Him to share His deep secrets with you today.

psalm

psalm

Proclaim His Greatness

When someone gives you a meaningful or costly gift, how do you show your appreciation? Do you tell them how grateful you are? What do you do with that gift? When it’s something you are truly thankful for, you openly and proudly display the gift. When others see and admire it, you probably tell them where it came from and about the generosity of the giver. In the same way, we should give thanks to the Lord and constantly show our gratefulness and appreciation for all He has done for us by displaying the gifts He’s given us. We should also display the characteristics of our heavenly Father. We should display His likeness. We should have His eyes, His mouth and His mannerisms, too. We should display love, peace, joy, kindness and hope. We should live our lives in such a way that our very actions declare His greatness and cause others to take notice. Declare His greatness by living a life of gratitude to Him and let the whole world know what He has done for you!

The bread of life

Saint

Profile

Daughter of Godfrey Venerini, physician in Viterbo, Italy. Following the death of her fiance, she entered a convent; following the death of her father, she returned home to care for her mother.

She invited neighbourhood women to pray the rosary in her home, and formed a sort of sodality. As these friends had little religious education, she began to teach them. Jesuit Father Ignatius Martinelli, her spiritual director, convinced her that she was called to be a teacher instead of a contemplative nun.

With two friends, Rose opened a free pre-school for girls in 1685, which was well received. In 1692, Cardinal Barbarigo asked her to oversee training of teachers and the administration of schools in his diocese of Montefiascone, Italy. She organized schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome, and by the time of her death there were 40 schools under her direction. Friend and co-worker with Saint Lucia Filippini.

Rose often met opposition, some fierce, and some actually violent – her teachers were shot at with bows, and their houses burned. She was never deterred, teaching, and finding people who were willing to face the danger in order to do good. The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, were ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation. Today, the so-called Venerini Sisters work with Italian immigrants in the United States and elsewhere.

 Readings

Saint Rose Venerini is another example of a faithful disciple of Christ, ready to give up all in order to do the will of God. She loved to say: “I find myself so bound to the divine will that neither death nor life is important: I want to live as he wishes and I want to serve him as he likes, and nothing more”. From here, from this surrender to God, sprang the long-admired work that she courageously developed in favor of the spiritual elevation and authentic emancipation of the young women of her time. Saint Rose did not content herself with providing the girls an adequate education, but she was concerned with assuring their complete formation, with sound references to the Church’s doctrinal teaching. Her own apostolic style continues to characterize the life of the Congregation of the Religious Teachers Venerini which she founded. And how timely and important for today’s society is this service, which puts them in the field of education and especially of the formation of women. – Pope Benedict XVI, from the canonization homily of Saint Rose

prayer

prayer

enduring food

Created for Greatness

Created for Greatness It’s easy to go through life thinking that we’re average; we’re ordinary. “There’s nothing special about me. I’m just one of the six billion people on earth.” No, when God created you in His image, He put a part of Himself in you. You could say that you have the DNA of Almighty God. You are destined to do great things, destined to leave your mark on this generation. The truth is, there is nothing average about you; but too many times, we don’t realize who we are. We focus on our weaknesses or what we don’t have. We focus on the mistakes we’ve made or the family from which we’ve come. We end up settling for mediocrity when we were created for greatness! If you’re going to break out of average, you need to remind yourself every day, “I have the DNA of the Most High God. Greatness is in my genes. I come from a bloodline of champions.” If you’ll have the attitude of a champion, you’ll live the life of a champion and boldly embrace the blessings He has in store for you! A Prayer for Today "Father, thank You for preparing me to do the good works You have prepared. I am not average. I am not ordinary. I am created for greatness, and I belong to Almighty God. Thank You for Your faithfulness in Jesus’ name! Amen."

psalm

Saint John

saint

Profile

Graduated from Cambridge with degrees in civil and canon law. Ordained in 1501 and served as a parish priest for four years. Carthusian monk, doing his noviate in the London Charterhouse, and making his final vows in 1516. Prior of the Beauvale Carthusian Charterhouse in Northampton, England. Prior of the London Charterhouse.

In 1534 he was the first person to oppose King Henry VIII‘s Act of Supremacy. Imprisoned with Blessed Humphrey Middlemore. When the oath was modified to include the phrase “in so far as the law of God permits”, John felt he could be loyal to Church and Crown; he and several of his monks signed the oath, though with misgivings. Father John was released, and a few days later, troops arrived at the chapter house and forced the remaining monks to sign the modified oath.

On 1 February 1535, Parliment required that the original, unmodified oath be signed by all. Following three days of prayer, Father John, with Saint Robert Lawrence and Saint Augustine Webster, contacted Thomas Cromwell to seek an exemption for themselves and their monks. The group was immediately arrested and thrown in the Tower of London. True to his Carthusian vow of silence, John would not defend himself in court, but refused to co-operate or sign anything. The jury could find no malice to the king, but when threatened with prosecution themselves, they found John and his co-defendants guilty of treason.

He became the first person martyred under the Tudor persections, dying with Blessed John Haile and three others. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.