"Health is Gods great gift, and we must spend it entirely for Him. Our eyes should see only for God, our feet walk only for Him, our hands labor for Him alone; in short, our entire body should serve God while we still have the time. Then, when He shall take our health and we shall near our last day, our conscience will not reproach us for having misused it." St. John Bosco
Today's Meditation
“We will never be free of trials and temptations as long as our earthly life lasts. For Job has said: ‘Is not the life of human beings on earth a drudgery?’ (Job 7:1). Therefore, we should always be on our guard against temptations, always praying that our enemy, the devil, ‘who never sleeps but constantly looks for someone to devour.’ (1 Pet 5:8), will not catch us off guard. No one in this world is so perfect or holy as not to have temptations sometimes. We can never be entirely free from them. Sometimes these temptations can be very severe and troublesome, but if we resist them, they will be very useful to us; for by experiencing them we are humbled, cleansed, and instructed. All the Saints endured tribulations and temptations and profited by them, while those who did not resist and overcome them fell away and were lost. There is no place so holy or remote where you will not meet with temptation, nor is there anyone completely free from it in this life; for in our body we bear the wounds of sin—the weakness of our human nature in which we are born.”
—Thomas á Kempis, p. 31
Daily Verse
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." Matthew 7:21
Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli
Saint of the Day
Bl. Gennaro Sarnelli (1702 – 1744) was born to a noble family in Naples, Italy. He was very well educated, and completed his doctorate in civil and canon law at the age of 20. He gave much of his time to caring for the incurably sick, through which he discerned a call to the priesthood. He was ordained in 1732. He became good friends with St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists. Shortly afterward, Blessed Gennaro became a Redemptorist priest. Gennaro's special work was preaching to those who were the most spiritually deprived, while also caring for the temporal needs of impoverished children. He was a great defender of the dignity of women, and worked intensely to free women and girls from forced prostitution. Blessed Gennaro was also a talented writer, penning over 30 books ranging in subjects such as theology, law, prayer, spiritual direction, and contemporary moral issues. He worked so hard that his health suffered, and he died when he was only 42 years old. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1996. His feast day is June 30.