A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings January-June, 2024

A couple of years ago, after writing a book on the Christian (mostly Catholic) history of herbal medicine, I was invited to write semi-weekly Gospel Reflections for the Catholic publication, Missio Dei. This began my specifically Catholic writing. Being a convert to Catholicism, from Protestantism, I was unsure how my writing would be received. But, the feedback was very encouraging and gave me the confidence to write my conversion story, resulting in my book Confirmation, An Autobiography of Faith. Eventually, I became a regular writer for Missio Dei and was also invited to join the Catholicism Rocks team.

The impetus that led me to begin exploring Catholicism while I was attending a Southern Baptist university was my knowledge of the Bible. I had made a habit of reading the Bible through each year since I was working in a Methodist youth ministry. I had a strong desire to be a part of a church whose doctrine agreed entirely with the Bible. To my surprise, I found that the only church whose doctrine is entirely in accord with the Bible is the Holy Catholic Church and I had no choice but to become Catholic.

I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed reading it. Spending some time with each day's Gospel and reflecting on it has been spiritually enriching for me. I have made every effort to be accurate in my representation of Catholic teaching. Some topics and opinions in this book may surprise you though... as you may know if you listen to my podcast, "The Uncensored Catholic", I am not timid. I am a traditional, orthodox Roman Catholic, who is politically conservative and very opinionated.

The Douay Rheims is my favorite English language translation of the Bible and the one I chose to quote for the daily Gospels. Occasionally I quote from modern Catholic Bibles, especially the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. Regardless, I made sure that all Biblical text came from approved Catholic Bibles.