Today's Pause+Pray celebrates the symbols of our faith! đź’¦
March 5, 2025
Dear John,
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Our Rebuilding God’s Church themes are: Rediscovering God, Healing Relationships with God and Others, Listening to God, and Following God. We are in the process of organizing our resources around these themes. Today is Ash Wednesday. On this day, we remember our frailty and finiteness. Unto dust we shall return. But we are so much more than dust. We are loved children of God. Moving forward together, it is my prayer that Franciscan Media help you rediscover this truth more deeply.
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If you enjoy these daily inspirations sent to your inbox every morning, we humbly ask you to consider donating to Franciscan Media today to help us in Rebuilding God's Church! Â
With profound gratitude,Â
Deacon Matthew Halbach, PhD President & Publisher,
Self-denial is never an end in itself but is only a help toward greater charity—as the life of Saint John Joseph shows.
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John Joseph was very ascetic even as a young man. At 16, he joined the Franciscans in Naples; he was the first Italian to follow the reform movement of Saint Peter Alcantara. John Joseph’s reputation for holiness prompted his superiors to put him in charge of establishing a new friary even before he was ordained.
Obedience moved John Joseph to accept appointments as novice master, guardian and, finally, provincial. His years of mortification enabled him to offer these services to the friars with great charity. As guardian he was not above working in the kitchen or carrying the wood and water needed by the friars.
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When his term as provincial expired, John Joseph dedicated himself to hearing confessions and practicing mortification, two concerns contrary to the spirit of the dawning Age of Enlightenment. John Joseph of the Cross was canonized in 1839.
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Reflection
John Joseph’s mortification allowed him to be the kind of forgiving superior intended by Saint Francis. Self-denial should lead us to charity—not to bitterness; it should help us clarify our priorities and make us more loving. John Joseph is living proof of Chesterton’s observation: “It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own” (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, page 101).
Make this Lent a season of transformation. Let St. Anthony Messengerbe your guide!Â
The Franciscan path is different because it does not ask, “what would Jesus do?” but “how does Jesus live in me?” For the Franciscans, the Incarnation is intrinsic to human personhood. What we are about as humans and what we are to become as children of God is integrally related to the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is not merely a person we follow, as if following John or Jim, nor is salvation about the “dos and don’ts” of being saved. Rather Christ, the Word incarnate, is the person in whom each person finds his or her unique meaning and origin. The logic of the Franciscan imitatio Christi is God’s self-emptying love which is incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. To say that Jesus is the theophany or manifestation of God means that in the form of Jesus’ life, God has been fully revealed.
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Jesus Christ is the image of God because Christ is the “Word” or the perfect self-expression of the Father. Therefore, it is Christ who is the perfect image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
In this Lenten season, may today’s prayer celebrate the sacred symbols and objects of our faith.Â
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Pray
God, the ashes that we received in the shape of the cross upon our foreheads to mark the start of this Lenten season are the burned, stripped palms from last year’s Passion. When we hold green palms again, we will contemplate the cycle of death and rebirth.  The ashes that blow away, the green that returns. All of it loving life. Loving, loving you.
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Act
From blessing ourselves with holy water to praying a rosary, our rituals and sacramental objects enhance our spiritual lives. Sit quietly and reflect on the things that are bringing you closer to God.Â
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Today's Pause+Pray was written by Maureen O'Brien. Learn more here!
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