Morning Briefings

The Church’s calendar begins with Advent. Its liturgical color is purple, denoting sorrow for sin and doing penance. Advent begins on or about 30 November and always includes four Sundays.

– Margaret R. Miles
Maiden and Mother

I’ve been asked to write a book featuring some of our Morning Briefings. I’d love to hear from you on your favorites, those that most touched you and any comment you would care to share. Simply add a comment or reply to any Morning Briefing email. Don’t worry about giving the exact quote or prayer. Just tell me what you remember and I should be able to figure it out.

– Thanks and many more prayers,
Leslie Bianco, Executive Editor

We take the occasion of Thanksgiving in America to express how blessed we have been through the company we keep. As we sit down with our families and other friends this holiday, please know that you will continue to be in our humble prayers of thanks.

– In the Company of Prayer

We remember now to thank our Creator for all that we are and all that we have. May our sharing with one another embody the generosity made possible for us by the Giver of the original gift.

– Philip Foubert from
Graces: Prayers for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions

Enter the gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

– Psalm 100: 4-5

The table is where we mark milestones, divulge dreams, bury hatchets, make deals, give thanks, plan vacations and tell jokes. It’s also where children learn the lessons that families teach: manners, cooperation, communication, self-control, values.  It’s where we make up and make merry. It’s where we live, between bites.

– Doris Christopher
Come to the Table: A Celebration of Family Life

Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people. I think back to who I was–resentful, wound tight with anger, a single hardened link in a long chain of ungrace. Now I am trying in my own small way to pipe the tune of grace. I do so because I know, more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness or goodness I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God.

– Philip Yancey
What’s So Amazing About Grace?

One minute they’re playing house with their baby dolls, and the next thing you know they have homes and lives of their own. We all complain about spending too much time at the office, but who among us regrets having spent too much time with our children?

– Doris Christopher
Come to the Table: A Celebration of Family Life

One of the greatest arrows in any leader’s quiver is the ability to say these words: ‘I was wrong.’ ‘Forgive me.’ ‘Thank you for challenging me.’ Be wary of resenting those who dare to sit down, look you in the eye, and call you to account.

– Richard D. Phillips
The Heart of an Executive: Lessons on Leadership from the Life of King David

Besides the earth, man’s principle resource is man himself. His intelligence enables him to discover the earth’s productive potential and the many different ways in which needs can be satisfied.

– Pope John Paul II