Dear Catholic Parents,
Note from Deacon Michael: Still away - still without the laptop. Today's send comes from Iron & Altar, our daily formation offering for men - rooted in the day's Mass readings, with a sacrificial offering carried for someone specific each Friday. If Iron & Altar is new to you, learn more at WeAreDomus.com. We'll be back to the daily news recap on Tuesday, June 2.
Today's Readings
1 Pt 4:7-13; Ps 96:10, 11-12, 13; Mk 11:11-26 Full readings at USCCB
The Reading
Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins. - 1 Peter 4:8
Reflection
The fig tree had leaves. From a distance it looked like it had fruit. Jesus came looking for fruit and found none. The withering was swift. The lesson is not about fig trees. It is about the gap between the appearance of faith and the substance of it - leaves promising something the tree could not deliver.
Do not be surprised by the trial by fire. Peter says this because the first response to suffering is almost always surprise: this should not be happening. He names it in advance so the surprise does not become the crisis. Rejoice to share in Christ's sufferings. The rejoicing is not performed contentment. It is the reception of the trial as participation in something Jesus knows from the inside.
Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. But when you stand to pray, forgive whoever you have something against. The mountain-moving faith and the forgiveness are not separate instructions. The unforgiveness is the fig-tree problem: leaves of prayer without the fruit of the forgiven heart.
The Challenge
When you stand to pray, forgive. Name the specific unforgiveness you are carrying - the person, the wound, the situation you have not released. Forgive it as a decision, not a feeling. Then bring the offering for [name] to the Lord with the forgiven heart: Lord, let him not be surprised by the trial by fire. Let him rejoice to share in Christ's sufferings. The glory is coming.
Friday Sacrificial Offering
Lord, I offer this sacrifice for [name] today - that the intensity of love would cover in him what logic says should not be covered, and that the trial by fire he faces would produce the joy of sharing in Christ's sufferings rather than the bitterness of being surprised by them. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.
Also Today
Rosary: The Sorrowful Mysteries
Iron & Altar also includes a weekly small group discussion guide for men - available at WeAreDomus.com or through the & Altar app, now live in the Apple App Store.
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For teens, young adults, and the parents raising them: Young Disciples is daily Scripture written in the language teens (13-17) actually speak, with a weekly small group guide. Try Young Disciples free for 7 days → Ostium Catholic is daily Scripture for young adults in their 20s - the years between leaving home and building one. Try Ostium free for 7 days → |
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In Christ,
Deacon Michael Halbrook
wearedomus.com
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