July 14

Our Lady of the Bush
Portugal (1118)

Gospel: Matthew 11:20-24
(Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin)

Image created using Google AI Image Creator.


Today’s Gospel is Jesus rebuking the towns that watched His miracles up close and still didn’t change, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, towns He says would have repented in sackcloth if they’d seen what Tyre and Sidon saw. Your proximity to the miraculous doesn’t guarantee a changed heart.

It’s possible to be surrounded by grace and stay exactly the same, to go to church for years, to know the right answers, to have witnessed real goodness up close, and never actually let any of it move us. Familiarity can dull what should astonish us. We can watch the miracle and shrug because we’ve seen it before.

Let today break that familiarity a little. Notice something about your faith that you’ve stopped noticing: the fact that you’re forgiven, the fact that you’re loved without condition, the fact that our Lord absolutely loves you. Don’t let nearness to grace turn into numbness toward it. Let it astonish you again, the way it should have astonished Chorazin.

Today, the Marian calendar acknowledges Our Lady of the Bush in Portugal, 1118, devotion kept alive by people who refused to let familiarity dull their wonder. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, remembered today as well, kept that same fresh astonishment toward Christ even amid real hardship and rejection. Consider this today: What grace in your life has gone quietly unnoticed because it’s become too familiar to you? Ignite the flame of God’s love in your life with a rejuvenated, deep commitment to loving the Lord with all your heart and all your soul.


Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.

Location: Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA

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