Daily Devotional

When you go for confession, and a priest says, “Your Sins are forgiven,” know that you are enjoying the Divine Mercy of God because the priest has received the Holy Spirit at ordination and has been empowered by Jesus to forgive sins. In the sacrament of penance, you are not confessing to a man; you are confessing to someone reborn through the breath of Jesus, as we read in today’s Gospel passage.

Regardless of the apostles’ weaknesses, Jesus still entrusted them with the mission: “Go into the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” You don’t have to be perfect to become God’s instrument of salvation. You only need to be willing to accept correction and to develop a strong daily desire to improve. Do you notice that the apostles did not defend themselves or offer excuses, unlike Saul? They did not pass the blame like Adam and Eve; they accepted their faults, learned their lessons and moved on stronger.

Peter’s failure that night was God’s way of telling Peter that he is called to be a fisher of men (not of fish). It was also God’s way of teaching him about divine providence. Are you experiencing failure in some aspect of your life? It is time to ask: “Am I doing what God wants of me?” If God has given you an assignment, it will be hard to succeed in something else if you abandon God’s call.