March 31, 2025
"We must redouble our efforts and our ordinary duties on certain occasions when the service of God requires it; then God will not fail to increase also our strength and our courage." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
Lord, when your service requires extraordinary effort, my willingness to go the extra mile is so often rewarded with peace and joy. Thank you for this.
March 28, 2025
"These means, press, radio, television, etc., so prodigiously developed, should be utilized to spread the message of Christ. Make friend and servants of them but don't be enslaved by them." ~ Rev. Joseph Jamet, CM
How do I use mass media, Lord? Am I attached to them, or do I use them to spread your word? If changes are needed, give me the courage to make them.
March 27, 2025
"Those who have the management of anything are obliged to manage it well and to use it faithfully, because it belongs to our good God, in as much as it belongs to the poor." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
I will approach my work today with renewed energy, Lord, and make it a matter of conscience to carry it out responsibly.
Act like those good pilots who, finding themselves tossed about by the storm, redouble their courage and turn the prow of their ships against the most furious waves of the sea, which seem to rise to engulf them (V:211).
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March 26, 2025
"Our Lord's sufferings made his words fruitful, and your crosses will do the same to the holy seed that you sow in your hearts." ~ St. Louise de Marillac
Sometimes, Lord, I fail to see your loving hand in the events of each day, especially the painful ones. When will I learn to rely on you and not on myself?
I cannot restrain myself and must tell you quite simply that this gives me renewed, greater desires to be able, in the midst of my petty infirmities, to go and finish my life near a bush, working in some village. I think I would be very happy to do so, if God were pleased to grant me this grace (V:204).
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You have enough to put up with from outsiders and from your duties without creating new trials within the community. These are the most distressing ones and would make of your house a little purgatory, whereas love will make of it a little paradise (V:169).
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The duty of daughters of Our Lord who live and serve Him together and have only one same intention of making themselves pleasing in the eyes of God, is to cherish, help, and bear with one another while showing mutual respect (V:169).
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You are Daughters of Charity, but you would no longer be so if you lived amid misunderstanding, aversion, or mistrust of one another. God grant that this may not be the case among you (V:169).
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Abandon yourself to God’s paternal embrace in the hope that He Himself will accomplish in you what He expects of you and will bless whatever you do for Him. Therefore keep your heart ready to receive peace and joy of the Holy Spirit (V:166).
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March 19, 2025
"When we are satisfied that we have done everything in our power for the happy issue of any affair, we should preserve our tranquility and whatever may be the result." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
How hard it is for me to remain at peace when everything around me seems to be falling apart. At those times comfort me with your healing presence and bring peace to my soul.
March 17, 2025
"The perfection of prayer, as well as an interior perfection, does not consist in prayer or more or less sublimity, but in Charity." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
Lord, sometimes I am more caught up in the feelings I experience in prayer than in its end result. Teach me how to pray as I may love those I serve as much as I know you love me.
March 16, 2025
"God does not ask us to keep an account of the visible fruits of our charity; he asks us simply to love 'with all our strength'. He does not ask to give him the world, but to 'give him ourselves'." ~ Rev. Joseph Jamet, CM
Today, Lord, I offer myself to you will all my gifts, desires and good intentions. I am grateful that you accept me and love me as I am.
March 15, 2025
"Small negligences create the greatest useless expense." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
Being a faithful steward involves attention to many details if useless expense is to be prevented. Lord, teach me how to properly care for what is placed in my charge because these things belong to the poor and not to me.
March 13, 2025
"Some persons look and never see, others see and never look." ~ St. Vincent de Paul
Lord, is it possible to have sight and yet be blind? Never let me be so preoccupied with my own temporal concerns that I blot out the needs of my poor brother and sisters who have so little, while I have so much.
This life is full of annoyances and troubles both of mind and of body; it is a state of continual agitation, which snatches peace of mind from those who think they possess it and eludes those who seek it (V:111).
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March 5, 2025
"Overcome your timidity and go out boldly into the slums and visit those unknown to you who have never come near your parish church." ~ Blessed Frederick Ozanam
What is my attitude toward the homeless, the derelict, the abused or the AIDS sufferer? Lord, give me the courage and compassion to seek out the poor more directly.
