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Today's Devotional

Denying ungodliness, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world—Titus 2:12.

When we have to reply to someone who speaks harshly to us, we must always do it with gentleness. If we are angry, it is better to keep silence.—St. Alphonsus.

Christianity would have all men to be temperate, sober, pure, industrious, meek, peaceful, just, and loving; in which case Paradise would again spring up among us, and earth would be a lovely image of heaven. Were it perfectly obeyed, it would establish the happiness that is attainable here below; and to these virtues, imperfectly as they are practiced, are owing whatever quietness, security, and good order we now enjoy.—J. P.

About the author and the source

The author of the first selection, Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787), was a Catholic bishop and a prolific author. He founded the Redemptorists to teach and preach in slums and other impoverished places. First Thoughts, whose author is identified only as J. P., provided a short Bible reading for each day of the year—usually three lines or less—and a short commentary that indicated the gist of the text. J. P. wrote that the book: “assumes that the true Christian desires…that his ‘first thoughts’ should be holy thoughts.”