LIVE IT TODAY: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
You were not made for comfort—you were made for courage. True love costs everything, but it gives you everything in return.
LIVE IT TODAY: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
A GREAT WAY TO BEGIN TODAY!
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GOD’S DECLARATION TO YOU TODAY
You were not made for comfort—you were made for courage. True love costs everything, but it gives you everything in return.
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 | Luke 14:25–33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
EVERY DAY QUESTION
What struck you? Challenged you? Inspired you? What questions did it raise?
GOING DEEPER
The Cross doesn’t crush love—it proves it.
These are not words for the faint of heart. Jesus turns to the “great crowds,” people swept up by His miracles and charisma, and draws a dividing line through their enthusiasm. The word He uses for “hate” (miseō) is not the hatred of hostility—it’s the hatred of preference. In Semitic idiom, to “hate” means to “love less.” Jesus is not commanding contempt for family, but comparison. Even our deepest natural loves must be reordered beneath the blazing love of God.
This isn’t cruelty—it’s clarity. The call to discipleship is not about adding Jesus to our list of priorities; it’s about surrendering every list altogether. “Renounce all your possessions” (apotassetai) literally means “to say farewell.” To follow Christ is to say goodbye to every attachment that competes with His lordship—possessions, plans, even the illusion of control over our own lives.
And yet, this renunciation is not subtraction—it’s transformation. The tower and the battle are not warnings against trying, but blueprints for victory. The disciple who counts the cost and still chooses love becomes unshakable. For it is only the one who has nothing left to lose who can give everything away.
In the family, this truth takes flesh in daily sacrifice—the parent who wakes in the night for a crying child, the spouse who forgives again, the teen who resists peer pressure for faith’s sake. Every “yes” to love is a small renunciation of self, a hidden crucifixion that makes room for resurrection.
Holiness is costly because it’s real. Love that costs nothing changes nothing. But love that costs everything changes the world.
“To become a disciple of Jesus is to accept the invitation to belong to the family of God, to live in conformity with His way of life.” (CCC 2233)
LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Counting the Cost: What “possessions” or attachments in your life most compete with your full “yes” to Christ?
Tower of Love: In what area of your life do you need to stop building on your own strength and let God complete the work?
Cross and Home: How can your family bear the daily cross of love together—with joy and perseverance instead of resentment?
FAMILY LIVE IT
Make some time today to gather together and, going around, name one area where each person struggles to “let go” and trust God—perhaps time, approval, comfort, or fear. Encourage one another to make one concrete sacrifice of love this week that costs something real.
Then pray over one another by name: Lord Jesus, give [Name] the courage to take up their cross with joy. Free [Name] from fear, and teach our family to love You above all else—so that in losing ourselves, we may find Your life burning within us.
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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