Then we need to be reminded that our cup of sorrow is also our cup of joy and that one day we will be able to taste the joy as fully as we now taste the sorrow.

From my daily devotional: When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. The sorrow overwhelms us, makes us throw ourselves on the ground, facedown, and sweat drops of blood.

from my daily devotional: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ROMANS 12:12 (ESV) Be patient in tribulation. I needed to hear that.

Calvary will be a nagging reminder that only goodness can drive out evil and only love can conquer hate.

With forceful love. What a magnificent lesson! Generations will rise and fall; [people] will continue to worship the god of revenge and bow before the altar of retaliation; but ever and again this noble lesson of

From my daily devotional: Jesus eloquently affirmed from the cross a higher law. He knew that the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with

From my daily devotional: It is so little, so unspectacular, yes, so hidden, this Eucharistic life, but it is like yeast, like a mustard seed, like a smile on a baby’s face. It is what keeps faith hope and love alive in a world that is constantly on the brink of self-destruction

from my daily devotional: God is supremely nonviolent; I’ve learned that from the saints and mystics that I have read and met and heard about. That many holy people cannot be wrong.

Resiliency is the ability to emerge from fire, a little closer to the person God created us to be.

From my daily devotional: I’ve heard the saying that God never gives us more than we can bear, but I don’t believe that’s true. In my experience, it is exactly the crushing experiences that force us to shed old, ineffective ways of coping with life.

From my daily devotional: Standing with confidence before the Son of Man” no longer just refers to the end of time, but opens for me the possibility of living confidently, that is, with trust (the literal meaning of confide) in the midst of hostility and violence.

From my daily devotional: Without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love.

from my daily devotional: "Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ." GALATIANS 1:10 (NRSV)

From my daily devotional: Saintliness means living without division between word and action. If I would truly live in my own life the word I am speaking, my spoken words would become actions, and miracles would happen whenever I open my mouth

from my daily devotional: If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. --Hermann Hesse

from my daily devotional: Transformation is a process. The accurate language for faith is not that “we are saved” but that we are “being saved".

from my daily devotional: "Let us always love the best in others--and never fear their worst."

From my daily devotional: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 unschooled and ordinary..... ACTS 4:13 (NIV

Only when we are truly free will we hand ourselves over to the fire of love that purges our thick layers of selfishness and transforms us into another Christ. Then will we be able to call ourselves Christian and really mean what we say.

From my daily devotional: All that we hope for in this world cannot be realized without our transformation and participation. If we truly seek the will of God, then we must seek the path of love that will lead us to truth and from truth to freedom.