Five Catholic Things That Caught My Eye Today

1. The Gospel of John continues to be the best commentary on our lives, times, and the news. From today’s first reading:

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

2. Start again. Right now. Every morning. This is a nice reminder from a young Dominican brother with a nuclear engineering degree.

3. God’s love is not a soap opera, the pope says.
(He also said it’s like an almond blossom, which, since I’m a city gal who might have thought almonds came from the grocery store, certainly got me thinking…)
Back to love, he said, according to Vatican Radio’s translation:

“He who loves knows God; he who does not love has no knowledge of God because God is love”. But, Francis stressed: “it’s not the love of a ‘soap opera’. No, it is solid, strong and eternal. “It ‘manifests’ itself in the Son, in the Son of God who has come to save us. It is a concrete love made of works and not of words. To know God we must walk through life in love, love for our neighbor, love for those who hate us, love for all”

4. The meditation of the day in Magnificat today (do subscribe if you don’t and you can) is magnificent –- and also what we need. Some of it, from Mother Teresa:

Jesus wants me to tell you again….how much he has for each one of you—beyond all you can imagine. I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus…. have you seen with the eyes of your soul how he looks with you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus—not from books but from being with him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words he speaks to you? Ask for the grace; he is longing to give it. Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear him saying, “I thirst” in the hearts of the poor.

It continues:

How can we last one day without hearing Jesus say, “I love you” — impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead — meditation only thinking.

She continued: