What blessed encouraging words to all who love and serve Him, are those of God by Malachias, They shall be my special possession saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day that I do judgment. If there is a day coming in which God will declare His people to be His special possession, His own valued property, His jewels, let us think much of it, and be ourselves every day preparing for it. Let us regard it as sure, fixed, and approaching; and let the thought of it be our support and comfort under present trials. Let us be assured that the dead in Christ are not lost, nor gone, because dead. We know not how near they are to Christ; how precious to Him, how blessed in Him; nor how great benefactors they may still be to us, in their prayerful remembrance of us. The Church continually bids us remember some of them, who counted not their lives dear to themselves, that they might finish their course with joy. Though we may not be called to be martyrs, we are called to be saints, and in a loving service of Christ, and a daily holy life, to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Let us keep in mind, all through the day, that God claims us now; that we are not our own, but belong to Him; and so let us glorify Him with our bodies and spirits which are His, and have been bought with a price to be His special possession.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp