LIVE IT TODAY: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 | Advent Weekday
You are never forgotten—My heart pursues you personally and relentlessly.
LIVE IT TODAY: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 | Advent Weekday
A GREAT WAY TO BEGIN TODAY!
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GOD’S DECLARATION TO YOU TODAY
You are never forgotten—My heart pursues you personally and relentlessly.
INVOCATION
Come, Holy Spirit! Through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, open my heart to hear and receive all that You desire for me. Draw me ever more deeply into the Love and Life of the Blessed Trinity!
GOSPEL | Matthew 18:12–14
Jesus said to his disciples:
“What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”
EVERY DAY QUESTION
What struck you? Challenged you? Inspired you? What questions did it raise?
GOING DEEPER
The Father’s Heart for the One
Jesus asks His disciples a question that exposes their assumptions: “What is your opinion?” He knows that human instinct protects the majority—“cut your losses, keep the ninety-nine safe, don’t take unnecessary risks.” But the Kingdom does not operate on efficiency. It operates on love.
The shepherd’s decision would have shocked ancient listeners. Shepherds did not abandon large portions of their flock. The Greek word for “go astray”—planēthē—suggests wandering, drifting, being pulled off course. It is the same root for our word “planet,” reflecting something that moves unpredictably. Jesus is describing not rebellion but vulnerability—souls who drift because they are fragile, distracted, or wounded.
And the shepherd does not wait for the sheep to return. He goes. The initiative is always God’s. The joy, too, is startling: the shepherd rejoices “more” over the one than the ninety-nine. This is not a dismissal of the faithful but a revelation of the Father’s tenderness. Heaven’s joy is not distributed mathematically; it flows where healing breaks in.
This Gospel matters deeply for families. Every home knows the ache of “the one”—the child who struggles more, the spouse carrying hidden pain, the teen drifting spiritually, the adult child who has pulled away, the parent burdened by shame or regret. Jesus reveals the Father’s heart: no one in your home is expendable, overlooked, or written off.
Here is the paradox of divine love:
The Father can love each person as if they were the only one, without loving anyone else less.
Your home becomes a place of Gospel power when you allow the Father’s heart for “the one” to shape your relationships. Instead of frustration, compassion; instead of dismissal, pursuit; instead of blame, mercy; instead of fear, intercession. The domestic church is where the lost are sought, the wounded tended, the drifting drawn home.
Parents, imitate the Father’s heart. Pray over your spouse and children by name, especially the ones carrying unseen burdens. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where each person feels lost, to silence the Enemy’s lies of unworthiness, to heal wounds that fuel wandering, and to anchor every heart in the Father’s relentless love.
“God’s love is everlasting; He never tires of reaching out.” (CCC 2786)
LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS
THE ONE IN YOUR LIFE
Who is the “lost sheep” Jesus is inviting you to pursue with compassion and patience?
THE FATHER’S HEART
How can you reflect the Father’s relentless love toward someone who feels distant or difficult to reach?
REJOICING IN RETURN
What would it look like for your family to celebrate even small steps of return, healing, or openness?
FAMILY LIVE IT
Make some time today to gather together and, going around, share one person—inside or outside your home—whom you want to lift up as “the one” Jesus seeks to restore.
Then take a moment to pray over each person by name, asking the Holy Spirit to pursue their hearts, remove obstacles to grace, silence lies of abandonment, and draw each one into the Father’s embracing love.
Daily Challenge: Reach out today—through a text, call, gesture, or prayer—to someone who may feel unseen, forgotten, or spiritually distant.
DAILY PARENT & GRANDPARENT BLESSING
LORD JESUS CHRIST, let Your holy anointing be upon each of our children, grandchildren, and godchildren this day and week, including all to whom they are called in vocation, and all future generations! In Your Sacred Name we claim them for You! We renounce all whispers, lies, and influences of the Enemy! We pray right now that each know Your loving Presence, be forged in virtue, and be flooded with an abundance of Your Holy Spirit to live fully their identity and mission in You now and through all eternity, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother! Amen.
PARENT BLESSING PROJECT: bit.ly/ParentBlessing
GOING VERTICAL
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Just as the vertical beam upholds the horizontal beam of the Cross, so too does undistracted, dedicated daily turning to God as our lifeblood uphold and strengthen every part of life. Start with just three minutes. Wait patiently for the breakthrough beyond the noise. Let Him speak.
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TODAY’S SPONSORSHIP
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WE WANT TO PRAY FOR YOU!
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