Give God Thanks:

Offer a simple thank-you to God for the life you have been given, for the things you have chosen for yourself, for the things others have chosen for you and for the circumstances that have occurred over which you had no control. God is with you, always.

Cross - Faith:

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asserts that if we want to follow Him, then we will have to take up our crosses. These “crosses” are the sacrifices and the struggles of “dying to ourselves” when we try to live the Gospel values of forgiveness, generosity, service to the needy and the like.

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Now many possible miseries are prevented from happening to someone; therefore, God wills against them. The proof that this is true with regards to present misery goes in just the same way. For no misery is eliminated unless God wills against its being present in someone; and quite often, many miseries are eliminated.

- Blessed John Duns Scotus (1266 - 1308)