Saint of the Day
St. Catherine of Siena
St. Catherine of Siena was a 14th-century Dominican mystic and Doctor of the Church who cared for the sick, counseled popes, and wrote profound letters to the powerful and powerless alike. She lived a life of radical compassion grounded in mystical prayer.
Scripture Reading
Colossians 3:12-14
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Reflection
Paul describes the Christian life as an act of daily dressing — putting on virtues the way you put on clothes. Compassion, kindness, humility, patience: these are not feelings you wait to spontaneously feel, but choices you make each morning. And overarching all of them is love, the outer garment that holds everything together. What do you need to deliberately put on today before you walk out the door?
Prayer for Today
Father, you know our hearts and share our sorrows. We are hurt by our parting from those whom we loved: when we are angry at the loss we have sustained, when we long for words of comfort, yet find them hard to hear, turn our grief to truer living, our affliction to firmer hope in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Amen.