Daily Devotional

How do you hope to find peace after cutting a person’s life short? No amount of pleasure, luxury or thrill can deaden your heart to the pangs of guilt, knowing that your present “success” is the result of someone’s blood. Even Herod, king of Israel, never found peace after beheading John the Baptist. Herod silenced John the Baptist physically, but he couldn’t stop his heart from hearing John the Baptist’s voice day and night.

By asking them to “take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics” (Luke 9:3), Jesus revealed to them the power of contentment. Truly, contentment (concretely expressed as the vow of poverty) is an all-important ministry instrument.

Don’t just hear these words without changing something in you. St. James says: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on-going away, immediately forget what they were like.” (James 1:22-24)