The Victor's Crown

Here I Am

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/] --- Here I am The world tells us we are the masters of our own lives. That we create our own meaning. That we choose our destiny. And in some ways, that’s not entirely false. We have a tremendous — and terrifying — power in the gift of free will. We can make ourselves masters of our lives. We can create our own meaning. But in doing so, we pit ourselves against God. We place our will against His. And that is a dangerous game. This is the banner of our times: unrestricted freedom to do whatever I want. It’s an enticing trap. But as Christ tells us, “For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.” (Matthew 7:13) As Christians, we’re called to a different path. To take the freedom God has given us and choose — freely — to follow His will. When God calls, we don’t answer with “but that’s not what I want.” We answer with “here I am.” It’s only in cooperating with His will that the path opens for us. So today, let’s ask Him: What do you want for me? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, You have given us power and freedom. Help us to make the most of it. Help us to always do Your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Gift of Self

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/] --- The Gift of Self One of the side effects of modern life is that it's so easy to complicate things. We build massive lists of goals we think will lead to happiness — personally, maritally, in our careers. For raising good kids, we assume they need iPads, expensive experiences, and schedules packed to the margins. And we often think sainthood means moving to India, starting a religious order, and changing the world. It's too much. Too many things to track, too much to execute on any given day. Here's what I keep coming back to: happiness, good parenting, holiness — all of it starts with simply giving our time. Being present. To our spouse, our children, our neighbors, our coworkers. St. John Paul II called this the gift of self. And it's the simplest path to holiness and happiness there is — one that transcends time, place, and culture. No laundry list required. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, give us the strength to offer ourselves as a gift to those around us, to those that You have put in our lives, so that we may always do Your will and become one of Your saints. In Jesus' name, amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Where's the good?

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/] --- Where's the Good? Oftentimes, what's good for us and what we want are at odds. We know eating right and exercising is good for us — but lounging on the couch with a bag of chips sounds pretty enticing. We know hard work is noble — but YouTube has a way of eating the afternoon. We know prayer is good for us — but so does another ten minutes of sleep. What's good for us loses. Not to something bad, necessarily. Just to something less good. If we want to grow in our faith, we have to learn to recognize the good in front of us. And then we have to cultivate the habit of actually acting on it. Once isn't enough. It has to be habitual. That is virtue. So today — where's the good? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us to see as You see, to see the good, and to act on it. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

What We Can Control

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/] --- What we can control When someone treats us with love — does something for us out of love — our hearts naturally respond with gratitude. Or at least they should. Through His sacrifice, Christ has loved us in ways we cannot fully grasp. And more often than not, that involuntary feeling of love or gratitude is simply missing when we're in His presence. The heart doesn't cooperate the way we'd like it to. But our faith is not a feeling. It's taking what we profess to believe and living in accordance with it. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, that means calling to mind what we know to be true — and responding accordingly. Praise. Adoration. Love. What happens when we don't feel it? The truth is, many times we won't. But what we can control is our wills. We can use our intellects to acknowledge what is true, and then submit our wills to that truth. That is faith. Let us pray.  May the heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Father

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/] --- Pointing to the Father "Thérèse would move much more easily toward the Father because of having experienced a human father full of goodness and tenderness." We return to that idea of goodness again. And I've been sitting with this one in my own life — as a father of five. There is an opportunity before fathers in particular that I don't think we talk about enough. To be, in some real sense, the face of the Father for our children. Not just to model the faith — though that matters — but to let ourselves be, as best we can, a reflection of God's goodness and tenderness in the home. The downstream effects of that are hard to overstate. A child who grows up experiencing a father who is present, good, and loving will find it easier to believe that God is present, good, and loving. That's not a small thing. St. Louis Martin didn't just raise saints. He gave them a picture of fatherhood that pointed beyond itself — toward the Father. That's the calling. Just goodness and tenderness, pursued faithfully, day after day. Let us pray. Jesus, You revealed the face of the Father. Help us to do the same in whatever way You want. Amen.  Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe [https://www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]