Morning Briefings

If you have ever wondered if the economic principles that govern business practices are compatible with the biblical principles that govern our personal practices, consider the fact that Paul uses an opportunity-cost argument in Philippians 3:7-8.

– Randy Raggio
Devotional Venture: 60 Inspiring Devotions by Business Professionals by Business Professionals

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.

– Kent M. Keith
Anyway–The Paradoxical Commandments: Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World

We acquire our true valentines through time, nurturance and experience. Unknown to us, we acquire them every single day.

– Gina Moffa, Opinions Columnist, The Greyhound, the student newspaper of Loyola University Maryland
Valentine’s Day is just another day of the year

Advent has two feasts of Our Lady: 8 December — The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 12 December — Our Lady of Guadalupe.

– Margaret R. Miles
Maiden and Mother

Stockings are filled while children are sleeping. Nicholas did his gift giving secretly, under the cover of darkness. He didn’t want to be seen and recognized as he wanted those he helped to give thanks to God.

–
St. Nicholas Center website

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

– Saint Augustine
from The Pope & The CEO Facebook page

According to some sources, the idea for All Saints’ Day which is celebrated globally goes back to the fourth century when the Greek Christians kept a festival on the first Sunday after Pentecost (in late May or early June) in honor of all martyrs and saints. Other sources say that a commemoration of ‘All Martyrs’ began to be celebrated as early as 270 CE but no specific month or date is recorded. Pope Gregory IV made All Saints’ Day an authorized holiday in 837 CE. It is speculated that the chosen date for the event, November 1, may have been an attempt to supplant the pagan Festival of the Dead.

–
timeanddate.com

As St. Ignatius of Loyola would say, ‘The longest journey you’ll ever take is from your head to your heart.’

– Subscriber and Mentor to the Morning Briefing editor,
Myrna Larson

If I am Thy child, O God, it is because Thou gavest me such a mother.

– St. Augustine

Saint Ignatius Loyola advises that if I’m having problems believing or if I know in my head the right thing to do but my heart is resisting, then I should act as if I do believe until I do. Oftentimes, when my faith wavers, I take great consolation in this advice. This is why the church values ritual so much. It allows my body and my voice to move me through the barren deserts of my spiritual life.

– Mark E. Thibodeaux
God, I Have Issues