Daily Devotion

“The Italian Jesuit Lodovico Buglio (1606-1682) was the first Catholic missionary to reach Sichuan. After Zhang Xianzhong conquered Sichuan in 1644, Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães were pressed into his service; after Zhang's death Buglio was taken to Beijing in 1648, where after a short captivity he was left free to exercise his ministry, and he later suffered in the persecution under the Kangxi Emperor. He wrote and translated more than eighty works in Chinese, including Parts I and III of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, the Roman Missal, the Breviary and the Ritual. He died in Beijing in 1682, was given a state funeral, and was buried in the Zhalan Cemetery.”

Wikipedia · Wikipedia, "Lodovico Buglio" (from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

Scripture

1 Timothy 1:19 Let us hold fast to faith and a good conscience. Some people have abandoned their conscience and have been wrecked in the faith.

Reflection

Life is like a vast ocean, and worldly temptations and life's vicissitudes are like the sudden, turbulent waves. Paul warns us that abandoning conscience will capsize the ship on the journey of faith. Often, we try to stabilize our lives with wealth, fame, or human cleverness, only to find that when the storm comes, these material defenses are as fragile as paper. Today I need to examine myself: Faced with the impact of reality, do I still hold fast to pure faith? In steering my life, do I let my desires drift with the tide, or do I take Christ's love as my guide? Only by anchoring our lives in the Lord can we sail steadily and far through the storms.