Sunday<\/p>\n
CHRIST\u00a0 (point of view):
\nMY CHILD, so often your thoughts are on unimportant things. You do not center them
\nenough on Me nor on your greatest need. After a few moments of recollection, your
\nthoughts go right back to useless distractions. As a result you rarely get a good look at
\nyourself and your actions. You hardly know your real worth because you take so little
\nnotice of your desires, motives, and intentions. You fail to be impressed by your many
\nfaults because you are blind to what is going on within your heart. Your interior motives
\nare often selfish and corrupt. Consequently, your external actions are very imperfect and
\nunsatisfactory. From a pure heart come the<\/p>\n
Prayer: Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.<\/p>\n
Monday
\n2. External activity proceeds from internal vigor. If you serve Me only by external
\nobservances, you are no true follower of Mine. You must apply the ax to the root of your
\ntroubles. Learn to control this selfish nature of yours, and you will possess My peace. I
\ndaily offer you My grace for this divine purpose. Do not keep looking at your weakness.
\nDo not be afraid to make the attempt. Nothing is impossible to Me. Fix your eyes on Me
\nand make a sincere effort to follow My Will. Your difficulties will gradually vanish.<\/p>\n
3. Try as you will, you will always make a number of unavoidable mistakes. Still, with a
\nlittle violence to yourself, you will gradually be able to serve Me with more ease. If you
\nrooted out of your life one single fault each year, you would soon become a perfect man.
\nNowadays, however, people seem to be at their best at the beginning of their conversion.
\nThey consider it a great accomplishment if they do not become worse with time<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 O my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
\n*Act of Contrition<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tuesday
\nMY CHILD, learn wisdom from the folly of worldly people. See how hard they take their
\nworldly losses! For an earthly gain men will labor and suffer so much, but their spiritual
\nlosses are so easily forgotten. They are often interested in matters which have little or no
\nvalue, and they negligently pass over matters which are important. Their entire attention is
\noften absorbed by external affairs. Unless you fight to control your thoughts, you too will
\nbe enslaved by the passing events of the present moment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0\u00a0 Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with Thy Glory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wednesday<\/p>\n
2. How foolish are those who do not realize their miserable condition, making this passing
\nearthly life the only object of their desires! Some cling so to this life that, if they could
\nremain here forever, they would not care at all for the Kingdom of God. They would prefer
\nto stay on earth even though they might have to strain and struggle for the bare necessities
\nof this earthly existence.<\/p>\n
3. How foolish and blind these people are! They lie buried so deep in earthly things that
\nthey enjoy only the pleasures of the senses. In a short while, they will come to the end of
\ntheir earthly life. Then they will have a bitter realization of the uselessness and nothingness
\nof what they loved.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0\u00a0 Christ with me, Christ before me, Thursday Prayer:\u00a0 Soul of Christ, sanctify me, Body of Christ, save me Blood of Christ, inebriate me, Water from Christ’s side, wash me, Passion of Christ, strengthen me, O good Jesus, hear me, Within Thy wounds hide me, Suffer me not to be separated from Thee, From the malicious enemy defend me, In the hour of my death call me, And bid me come unto Thee, That I may praise Thee with Thy saints, and with Thy angels, Forever and ever, Amen.<\/p>\n Friday Prayer:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0O Come let us worship and fall down before Christ, O Son of God, Who didst rise from the dead, save us who chant unto Thee, Alleluia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Saturday<\/p>\n Death, judgment, Heaven, and hell-these are the four last things toward which we are By keeping this eternal goal ever before us, we shall think straight when life’s problems and Prayer:\u00a0 O come, let us worship God our King. Sunday CHRIST\u00a0 (point of view): MY CHILD, so often your thoughts are on unimportant things. You do not center them enough on Me nor on your greatest need. After a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15941,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15940\/revisions\/15941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nChrist behind me, Christ in me,
\nChrist beneath me, Christ above me,
\nChrist on my right, Christ on my left,
\nChrist when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
\nChrist when I arise,
\nChrist in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
\nChrist in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
\nChrist in every eye that sees me,
\nChrist in every ear that hears me.
\n(St. Patrick\u2019s Breastplate prayer excerpt)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe best way to realize the quickly-passing value of earthly attractions, is to look at them
\nin the past. Where are the enjoyments of last year? What became of the glory for which I
\nstruggled so hard five years ago? What’s left of last summer’s pleasures? Gone! All finished
\nand gone! Do I want to go on living for that kind of happiness or do I want perfect, allsatisfying-
\nnever-ending happiness? Only a fool would hesitate in answering this question.<\/p>\n
\nThe Four Last Things
\nFEW THINGS in this earthly life are absolutely certain. The most undebatable of these is
\ndeath. Every man, even the atheist, will admit this much. Death, however, is not the very
\nlast event in this life of ours. Right after death, we shall be judged. Our private judgment
\nwill be repeated on the Day of judgment, when all men will know us for what we are.
\nOur judgment will depend on how we live this earthly life of ours. If we have honestly
\ndone our best and followed the commandments of Christ, we shall be rewarded with the
\nperfect life of Heaven. If, however, we have disregarded His loving directions and refused
\nto make use of His generous help, we shall be condemned to hell.<\/p>\n
\nmoving each hour of the day and night. They will never frighten us if our conscience is
\nclear. If we love God in our daily life, that is, if we are sincerely trying to know and follow
\nHis holy Will, we have no reason to fear.<\/p>\n
\ndifficulties face us. In making the following meditations, we must strive to become
\neternity-minded. We must seek to guarantee to ourselves, as far as is in our power, the
\nunending success and unmarred happiness of Heaven.<\/p>\n
\nO come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God.
\nO come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"