There are days when we need an extra dose of strength to help us keep reaching higher. Ultimately, our strength as Christians comes from the Lord. Thanks be to God that He has given us His Word to draw from as a source of comfort, strength, and encouragement. It is not infrequent, I have found, that I stumble upon a meditation or devotional that I follow via email that confirms what I sense the Holy Spirit is telling me at some point. In my charismatic background, we would call this “having confirmation” when multiple sources are all pointing us in the same direction, it might be God trying to get our attention. It might not, depends on the message.
While I am not saying you should automatically read every devotion or meditation and immediately embrace it as a personal message to you from God (this is where discernment comes in), good posts, rooted in Scripture, can extrapolate stories from the Bible that the Holy Spirit may choose to illuminate to you, and therein, you find the strength to keep going. It’s humbling to think that God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, is willing to use us to help the spiritual journey of others. My hope is that someday, maybe one of my own posts will help someone out there too. But even if that never happens, they are out there into the great unknown, a reminder of God’s faithfulness.
Perhaps you’ve already discovered this and have found a number of encouraging devotionals to follow. If so, that’s wonderful! I’m so glad to hear that! If you’re just starting out, or maybe looking for new ideas, here is a short list (in no particular order) of people I regularly refer to that you might find helpful on your own journey:
Mark Mallett. A singer who blogs, his posts on the current state of cultural events are powerful and challenging, and unmistakably traditional Catholic. Catch his mass readings for a rich delving into the Scriptures.
Proverbs 31 Ministries. Multimedia-friendly with the option to listen to devotions, has pin-able quotes, related media, etc. Spot on usually.
Blessed Is She. Women-centric, constantly well-written reflections on the Gospel message of the day. They also put out a lovely planner, which I’ve blogged about here.
Divine Mercy Daily. Brief quotes from The Diary of St. Faustina, and a short, related prayer. It literally only takes a minute or two to read.
Runner-Up:
Daily PS. I learned about them in the past couple of weeks and subscribed via WordPress. Since then, I’ve found their posts to be really helpful. I haven’t gone back into the archives to exhaustively read through their whole website but maybe you’ll find something helpful here.
I’ll see about adding to this list as I find new resources to share. Let me know if you’ve got any good recommendations and I will check them out too.
Lauren Miller 