“In his own image he made them.” (Sirach 17:1)
From the time you were very small, people were probably telling you that you look like this or that member of your family. “You have your father’s nose, your grandmother’s eyes, your sister’s chin.” Or maybe they said things about your temperament: “You act just like your father at that age!” But did you know that even more than your biological parents, you resemble your heavenly Father? Today’s first reading outlines how we are created in God’s image all the way to the core of our being. Sometimes, though, we need someone to point it out before we can see it for ourselves.
Think again about your childhood. Did you ever pester people with lots of questions? Did you like to draw and make things? Were you ever naughty, and you knew it even without someone telling you? These things might seem totally ordinary, but they are all signs that you bear God’s spiritual DNA. He gave you eyes and ears to help you discover his presence and engage with the world around you. He put an inventive heart in you so that you could share in his act of creating and fashioning things from this earth. That part of you that, even as a little child, knew right from wrong? That’s his divine gift of conscience—his own voice helping you to understand and to follow his ways!
All of these qualities point to something else, too. They show that you were created as a child of eternity. God himself is your Father; you belong to him. They also show that you belong to heaven—that it is your birthright, an inheritance that your Father longs to see you take hold of.
Today, take some time to reflect on your identity as a child of God. Let him show you the ways that you reflect his holiness, his beauty, and his glory. Ask him how certain aspects of your personality resemble his character. Let these insights fill you with joy and confidence. You are not just an “ordinary person.” You are a child of God. You have a marvelous destiny. You belong to eternity!
“Father, help me to see our resemblance. Show me who I really am in your eyes.”
Psalm 103:13-18; Mark 10:13-16
Gregory VII — his name had been Hildebrand before becoming Pope — was born about the year 1020. For two years he was a Benedictine monk of Cluny (1047-1049), then he became a cardinal, and finally, in 1073, Pope. A strong character with a remarkable personality, he easily takes a place with the greatest popes in the Church's history. 
Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, a highly gifted mystic, had made a vow of chastity at the age of ten. She entered the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Florence, because the practice of receiving holy Communion almost daily was observed there. For five years her only food was bread and water. She practiced the most austere penances and for long periods endured complete spiritual aridity. Her favorite phrase was: "Suffer, not die!" Her body has remained incorrupt to the present day; it is preserved in a glass coffin in the church of the Carmelite nuns at Florence. 
St. Urban, who succeeded Pope St. Callistus (cf. October 14), reigned from 222 to 230. During his pontificate the Church enjoyed peace, because Emperor Alexander Severus forbade the persecution laws to be enforced. Of special interest is a decree ascribed to Pope Urban regarding use made of the gifts offered at Mass. "The gifts of the faithful that are offered to the Lord can only be used for ecclesiastical purposes, for the common good of the Christian community, and for the poor; for they are the consecrated gifts of the faithful, the atonement offering of sinners, and the patrimony of the needy" (Breviary). 
Under the guidance of her brother Madeleine Sophie Barat became at an early age proficient in Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian. The brother, nine years her senior, was a stern disciplinarian. If her work was bad, she was punished — sometimes by a box on the ears - but if she did well, no word of praise was uttered. She was never allowed to relax from this discipline — even walks were forbidden unless they were strictly necessary for exercise; and when, in a moment of mistaken tenderness, she gave her brother a present, he threw it on the fire. She was ten when the French Revolution occurred in 1789. Afterwards, and still under the influence of her brother, she met Father Varin who desired to found a female counterpart of the Jesuits which should do for girls' education what they did for boys' education. On November 21st, 1800, Madeleine with three companions dedicated herself to the Sacred Heart and so the New Congregation was begun. From the first house at Amiens it was to spread in the lifetime of its foundress all over Europe and to Africa and America, and its boarding schools have become famous. 
