It doesn’t have to be monumental. Every small act of kindness can change a life. You don’t know that simple act inspired and comforted someone,

Meditating upon the Core

Reflect
For St. Bonaventure, his structure for reality began with the Trinity: the self-diffusive, creative force of love shared in relationship between the Father, Spirit, and Son. What would it look like to imitate this same dynamic in our own lives?

Pray
Lord,
You are the fount of goodness and love.
Help me flow like you do.
You are a creative force, loving all into existence.
Help me create from that centered space.
You are relationship at the core reflected in the perfect unity
between Father, Spirit, and Son.
Guide me with family, friends, strangers as we, too, move toward unity.
You are dynamic in self-giving.
Help me open my own heart and mind to serve and give and trust
How you desire to flow through me.

Act
You don’t have to be a philosopher or intellectual to consider the structure or metaphysics of reality. Contemplating the truth of reality can help anchor us in our values and spiritual truths we have discovered. What do you believe is at the core or life itself? How does this impact your faith and how you live your life?
Admire God’s Creativity and Generosity

As we look around us in the cathedral of nature, we see so much beauty—the green trees, the blooming flowers of late summer, and the flowing water of our rivers and lakes. Where did they originate? Who designed them? How did they come to be here? Have we ever looked at a blade of grass in all its simplicity? Why has one flower five petals and another ten or even twenty or more? Why do roses have thorns and pansies do not? Trees come in so many different forms. Some have needles and others have leaves. Even the bark differs from one tree to another. Red pine trees have red on their bark while white pine trees have white on their cones. Think of all the varieties of maple, oak, elm, and birch trees. The difference between trees and shrubs, the varying age of trees in the woods—all mirror the creative and generous abilities of our God.
Your generosity, O God, is so great—surpassing anything I could possibly imagine. How did you put all this together in these few acres? Francis expressed his praise in his “Canticle of the Creatures.” Somehow, I can only say thanks and thanks again. Trying to express this beauty in a painting or in words seems so futile. I do not know how to paint the light coming off the water in sparkling diamonds or the subtle differences in the trees. How can I describe them so others can see? Photos can pick up some of the beauty but not all. It needs to be experienced. Thank you. Amen.
—from the book Eucharistic Adoration: Reflections in the Franciscan Tradition
by Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer executed for refusing to fight for Nazi Germany, is pictured in an undated photo. (CNS photo)

Saint of the Day for June 7
(May 20, 1907 – August 9, 1943)

Blessed Franz Jägerstätter’s Story
Called to fight for his country as a Nazi soldier, Franz eventually refused, and this husband and father of three daughters—Rosalie, Marie and Aloisia—was executed because of it.
Born in St. Radegund in Upper Austria, Franz lost his father during World War I and was adopted after Heinrich Jaegerstaetter married Rosalia Huber. As a young man, he loved to ride his motorcycle and was the natural leader of a gang whose members were arrested in 1934 for brawling. For three years he worked in the mines in another city and then returned to St. Radegund, where he became a farmer, married Franziska and lived his faith with quiet but intense conviction.
In 1938, he publicly opposed the German Anschluss–annexation–of Austria. The next year he was drafted into the Austrian army, trained for seven months and then received a deferment. In 1940, Franz was called up again but allowed to return home at the request of the town’s mayor. He was in active service between October 1940 and April 1941, but was again deferred. His pastor, other priests, and the bishop of Linz urged him not to refuse to serve if drafted.
In February 1943, Franz was called up again and reported to army officials in Enns, Austria. When he refused to take the oath of loyalty to Hitler, he was imprisoned in Linz. Later he volunteered to serve in the medical corps but was not assigned there.


During Holy Week Franz wrote to his wife: “Easter is coming and, if it should be God’s will that we can never again in this world celebrate Easter together in our intimate family circle, we can still look ahead in the happy confidence that, when the eternal Easter morning dawns, no one in our family circle shall be missing—so we can then be permitted to rejoice together forever.” He was transferred in May to a prison in Berlin.
Challenged by his attorney that other Catholics were serving in the army, Franz responded, “I can only act on my own conscience. I do not judge anyone. I can only judge myself.” He continued, “I have considered my family. I have prayed and put myself and my family in God’s hands. I know that, if I do what I think God wants me to do, he will take care of my family.”
On August 8, 1943, Franz wrote to Fransizka: “Dear wife and mother, I thank you once more from my heart for everything that you have done for me in my lifetime, for all the sacrifices that you have borne for me. I beg you to forgive me if I have hurt or offended you, just as I have forgiven everything…My heartfelt greetings for my dear children. I will surely beg the dear God, if I am permitted to enter heaven soon, that he will set aside a little place in heaven for all of you.”
Franz was beheaded and cremated the following day. In 1946, his ashes were reburied in St. Radegund near a memorial inscribed with his name and the names of almost 60 village men who died during their military service. He was beatified in Linz on October 26, 2007. His “spiritual testament” is now in Rome’s St. Bartholomew Church as part of a shrine to 20th-century martyrs for their faith. Blessed Franz’s liturgical feast is celebrated on August 9.

This sounds like Army resiliency training. It will teach leftist radicals to not be triggered so easily and to have thicker skin and learn to tolerate other points of view even if you disagree with them and the same thing for those conservatives who don't have resiliency training they'll learn to be polite but firm when dealing with a radical leftist that doesn't like other points of view and who's current Administration pretends to be the protector of democracy but they actually shadow ban and sensor other points of view as we have discovered through Elon Musk buying Twitter and the Freedom of Information Act. Everybody should get along and not attack the person when that person has a better argument than you. For some reason, those on the left like to do that, they claim to have diversity equity and inclusion but they become racist and vulgar sometimes when you point out obvious flaws in their Doctrine. Republicans and conservatives are not perfect either but they should be courteous and respectful of others even when others feel cornered and have to attack your personal traits instead of focusing on the subject.