LISA M. HENDEY
devotional Jesus Every Day
Jesus Every Day
JESUS EVERY WAY
Copyright © 2025 Lisa M. Hendey
All rights reserved.
The Scripture quotations contained herein cited are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible: Catholic Edition , copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover art credits: Neil Johnson/500px/Getty Images, zhen li/Moment/Getty Images
Interior art credit: RLT_Images/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images, youngID/ DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images
Back cover author photo: UCLA Campus Photo Studio
ISBN: 978-0-8294-6009-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025938419
Published in Chicago, IL
Printed in the United States of America
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 31 32 33 Marquis 10 9 8
To Greg, my best friend, every day and in every way.
Letter from the Author
Dear Friends,
Welcome to a journey of exploration and discovery! Seeking Jesus every day, in every way, has forever changed how I will live my faith. Whether you are someone who has been praying your whole life or someone who is skeptical about Jesus, I invite you to ponder Jesus anew: deeply, every day, and in every way. This book will help you do just that.
My parents gifted me my faith, teaching me from my earliest days to know and love Jesus, and I can’t recall a day I knowingly skipped saying my prayers. My understanding of prayer is that this is how I communicate with the God who knows and loves me just as I am. But over the years, I found that too often, I was “doing” prayer as a series of tasks–albeit worthy ones–that I desired to complete. If I missed a part of my process, I derided myself. I don’t say this to disdain traditional prayer. But in my desire to get prayer “right,” I sometimes fell into the trap of going through the motions.
In undertaking the work of writing this book, I decided to set aside the tried-and-true morning prayer ritual I have lived for decades. My desire in doing this wasn’t to quit praying, because prayer is my lifeblood. Instead, I hoped that by intentionally shaking things up, I could find a way to fall in love all over again with prayer, with freshness of spirit and hope.
So I suspended my normal rituals. I began to focus on the beautiful gift of encountering Jesus every day, everywhere I went. I had long been in the practice of daily time in Scripture, but I began
to read it differently, keeping my heart squarely centered not only on the theological meaning of the passages but also on their intersection with my day-to-day life. I luxuriated over my Bible, lingering with it in coffee shops, at the library, and at my kitchen table. I also began to strive to encounter Jesus in the everyday stuff of life, those places where I live the many hours of my week when I am not sitting in church or my favorite prayer corner at home. Making these changes helped me to free myself of spiritual malaise. I found myself seeking quiet so that I could simply be with Jesus. Usually, no words were needed. Stilling myself to encounter the divine in the mundane set my heart free from needing to “do prayer” properly. I fell more deeply in love with Jesus, yes—but I also realized that this newfound way of praying is, for me, a transition.
The beautiful, centuries-old spiritual practice of Lectio Divina , which is Latin for “Divine Reading,” teaches seekers to come to know God’s word by praying over it methodically, purposefully, and slowly. In our world so full of bustle and distraction, it can be tempting to turn to our devices to help us pray with the Bible. But the prayer process of Lectio Divina asks us to set this aside and turn both inward to the quiet of our hearts and outward toward the object of our affection: God. This process invites us to
withdraw, even if only for a moment, with the Word; read, listening intently; pause to reflect upon a word or passage that speaks into our hearts;
dialogue with God or with Jesus, deeply sharing what the meaning of the word is for us; and then enter our lives changed and renewed by what we have read and heard.
For each of the Gospel passages in this book, I engaged in moments of Lectio Divina before putting any words on paper. Often, I repeated this interval of deep listening multiple times in different places. I
adopted a new prayer practice: After poring over Scripture, I printed out the passage and tucked it into my pocket so that it was always close to my heart. Throughout the day, I pulled the printed passage out, placing myself alongside Jesus as I read the words again. By doing this, I could continue with Lectio Divina during my daily walk, at the hospital where I volunteer, in the front seat of my car, at my desk, or even at my favorite getaway spots, Disneyland and the beach. I let my mind carry me into the heart of the Scripture passage, exactly as though I were right there alongside Jesus and his disciples, no matter where I found myself. This change-up in the setting often prompted big, challenging questions I wanted to ask Jesus. It also helped me consider how the words of Scripture relate to what I call the “everyday divine” in my life, including the places where the beauty of Jesus’s love for me had never really felt so vivid, tangible, and relevant to the ebb and flow of my days.
This book is a tool to help you seek Jesus every day and in every way. Feel free to read the chapters as I laid them out or pick a week that speaks to your heart.
There are five elements to each weekly mini-journey. First, I begin each chapter by offering a passage from the Gospels. Although the Scripture passages alternate between the four Gospels, they do not appear in sequential order.
Second are the personal stories about how the passage relates to the everyday ordinariness of my life, each shared in the hope that they will lure you into writing or pondering your personal points of intersection where the gospel applies directly to your lived experience. Third, I offer daily quotations that strike me as particularly relevant to the word of the Lord. Some come from saints and Scripture, but most come from literature, poetry, and movies. I think you’ll agree with me that encountering Jesus in culture offers unique benefits. Mondays feature a quote from a saint or “saintly” soul. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we look at quotes from literature and notable writings such as speeches and letters. Wednesdays are poetry days, and each Friday is a Movie Night, with quotations inspired
by popular films. On Saturdays and Sundays, our quotations come directly from the pages of Scripture. My hope is that these examples of finding sacred themes in popular culture will encourage each of us to keep our eyes and ears open for new and wonderful ways to connect with Jesus everywhere.
Fourth, I include in the daily reflections questions you can pray or journal about.
And finally, every chapter ends with a prayer. I invite you to pen your own prayer for each chapter, a prayer in which you direct words from the depth of your heart directly to Jesus.
My greatest desire for this little book is that it unlocks in you a sense of being held, accompanied, and cherished. I hope these words invite you to consider the everyday divine in the real life of your world—its messiness and its beauty, the moments of elation and the moments of sorrow. Please know that as I let this work go out into the world, I do so with a desire to walk this journey with you. Although we may never have met, every time I sat down to work on this book, you were in my heart. At each writing, I asked Jesus to send words to help you feel what I have been feeling. When you feel the need for human companionship along your journey into Jesus’s arms, invite me along. I am active on social media @lisahendey but can also be reached through my website, www.lisahendey.com. Jesus gave us with all of our humanity to one another, knowing that we can best live his call to love and serve one another when we do this communally. Reach out with your burdens and blessings, and I promise to do the same.
In the early 2000s, my husband Greg and I checked off a mutual bucket list item when we purchased a 1974 Volkswagen bus from the son of a man who had recently passed away. We christened our treasure “Arnold” after its original owner, a mechanic who had kept it in pristine condition. Although we owned two perfectly reasonable cars, Arnold, even with all its finicky driving ticks, became our favorite mode of transportation. Arnold took our family on hikes, to the beach, and on all kinds of other adventures. When we drove
Arnold to church every Sunday, people shared our joy when they saw us coming. While our adolescent sons lamented their parents’ choice of a vehicle that often left us stranded on the side of the road, they quickly understood that riding in Arnold meant seeing the world around us in a different way.
I thought of Arnold regularly while writing the pages of this book. Just like my current mission to encounter Jesus every day in new and profound ways, our time in our bright red bus taught me to live in the moment, to savor the beauty around us, to return the smiles of those who passed us on the highway, and to whisper copious prayers!
Arnold is now living its best new life as a bright purple kombucha demo venue and influencer vehicle. But the worldview that quirky bus taught me has helped me realize that the divine can and should be encountered anywhere and everywhere.
So let’s get ready to journey together. Jesus awaits us every day and in every way.
Blessings,
SUNDAY WEEK 1
Offering Our Gifts
The Visit of the Wise Men—Matthew 2:1–12
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
MATTHEW 2:10–11
HAVING HEARD OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS , wise men from the East followed a star that led them toward Bethlehem. When they stopped and made inquiries in Jerusalem, King Herod summoned them, questioning them about their journey. Selfishly troubled, Herod sent them along to find the child in Bethlehem and return to inform him about Jesus’s whereabouts. They ventured onward, led by the star. Arriving where the star came to rest, they laid their royal treasures before Jesus and worshiped him. Then, heeding a dreamt warning, they ignored Herod’s command and returned home by another route.
Years ago, I penned a children’s novel where my protagonists traveled in time to witness firsthand the Nativity story. In the story, my main characters, twins Patrick and Katie, met Mary and Joseph when they were traveling from their Nazareth home toward Bethlehem. The plot kept the twins close to the Holy Family through their flight into Egypt. I spent many hours praying and daydreaming with my young readers in mind, poring over the Gospel infancy narratives. I permitted myself to have Katie and Patrick’s childlike vantage point. Meditating with the heart of a child, I heard the choirs of angels, the sheep bleating, and the hooves of the Magis’ camels as they trudged onward, following the star in the Eastern sky.
Gospel commentaries point to the symbolism of the wise men’s offerings. They bestowed gold for a king, frankincense to signify his divinity, and the embalming oil myrrh, a symbolic foretelling of Jesus’s passion and death.
What gift will I give Jesus? I often asked myself while writing. The question has hung with me for years and is now part of my daily morning-reflection routine. Glancing over my schedule, I try
to imagine the moments during each busy day when I will have time for worship. Too often, this praise happens on the fly, in moments stolen between appointments and work.
But encountering the divine in the everyday stuff of life has helped me discover that life is a continual opportunity to bestow gifts on the King. When I consciously recognize Jesus’s face in the countenance of those I meet daily, I am one with him. My gifts are a loving heart, a listening ear, and a creative mind. In sharing these with others, I lay them before my Lord Jesus.
My Sunday Reflection
What gift will I give Jesus today?
MONDAY
But the love of benevolence makes our heart pass out of itself, and exhale itself in vapours of delicious perfumes, that is, in all kinds of holy praises . . . poured out to the glory of him . . . whom we can never right worthily magnify.
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES, TREATISE ON THE LOVE OF GOD
How have I recently poured out my gifts for the glory of Jesus?
TUESDAY
When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.
RICK WARREN, THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE
Why is it essential to share my love for Jesus by giving the gift of my time?
WEDNESDAY
Let God and the world know you are grateful. That the gift has been given.
MARY OLIVER, “THE GIFT”
What is one gift I have received recently? How have I expressed my gratitude to the giver as well as to Jesus?
THURSDAY
Gratitude is at the very heart of faith, especially for a believer. A Christian who cannot say thank you is simply someone who has forgotten the language of God.
POPE FRANCIS, HOPE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
How is gratitude at the heart of my faith in Jesus? Why does being grateful sometimes challenge me?
FRIDAY
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas, he thought . . . doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
What creative gifts might I share with others to help them understand that Jesus loves them as I myself love them?
SATURDAY
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 CORINTHIANS 9:6–7
How might I give more cheerfully to Jesus and my loved ones?
Let us pray.
Jesus, King of peace, you came to us humbly, an epiphany of true love.
Accept the humble gifts I lay before you as a sign of my devotion.
As I seek your presence in my daily life, open my heart to give generously to those I encounter each day.
By loving them, I adore you.
Amen.
SUNDAY WEEK 2
Today’s Temptations
The Temptation of Jesus—Mark 1:12–13
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and angels waited on him.
MARK 1:12–13
JOHN THE BAPTIST BOLDLY PROCLAIMED Jesus’s coming and preached a baptism of repentance. Crowds gathered by the river Jordan to seek forgiveness. Among them was Jesus, sinless yet there to be baptized. As he emerged from the water, a heavenly voice announced that he was God’s beloved Son. Then Jesus was immediately driven out into the wilderness to live among the beasts for forty days. There, Satan tempted Jesus.
Mark’s account of Jesus’s temptation is concisely contained in two verses. The evangelist omits the robustly presented details of Matthew’s Gospel and gives only the essential facts. This sparseness provides ample space to place ourselves alongside Jesus in the wilderness.
Jesus prepared himself to enter his public ministry by going without food, protection from the elements, and companionship. He must have experienced brutal heat, blistering wind, and relentless thirst. Satan came to tempt Jesus physically and emotionally, offering not only bodily nutrition but also power and wealth. Our Lord, fully human even in his divinity, must have struggled mightily. But angels came and ministered to him, God’s beloved son. He emerged, ready.
I live only a few hours from Southern California’s desert spaces, and I have a deep love and a healthy respect for the desert. I know enough to enter that wilderness with a full gas tank, ample water, and sun protection. However, few places are as spiritually fruitful for me as those expansive vistas, where Jesus’s presence feels tangible. Our local deserts are now gathering places for makeshift music venues. The lure of earthly wealth, carefree partying, and easy companionship makes these events a hot ticket. Some things that tempt me mightily happen on those festival weekends.
But I don’t have to be in the desert to be tempted. Influencer culture beckons me away from my real world into the promise of doing, wearing, eating, and living as everyone else thinks is best. Temptations come via my device, envy, exhaustion, or emotional hunger and thirst. In my weakness, I am tempted to click, follow, and consume.
But God never sends me into these moments alone. Jesus, who faced very human challenges and temptations that were placed in his path, walks alongside me. I, too, am beloved.
My Sunday Reflection
What is tempting me to forget how much Jesus loves me?
MONDAY
For You, I sacrifice everything willingly. I offer you my body with all its weakness, and my soul with all its love.
ST. GEMMA GALGANI
What weakness of body or spirit causes temptation? How can I invite Jesus into this struggle?
TUESDAY
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.
C. S. LEWIS, MERE CHRISTIANITY
Why is resisting temptation so challenging? What spiritual tools might help me?
WEDNESDAY
I’d been tempted before, I couldn’t be lured, I knew of the heartache and pain it caused.
MARIA SHAW, “TEMPTATION”
When I was tempted in the past, how did loving Jesus help me avoid falling?
THURSDAY
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
MARK TWAIN
Why am I tempted by things that are not good for me? How might I reframe these longings with prayer?
FRIDAY
You’re like the thief who isn’t the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he’s going to jail.
GONE WITH THE WIND
What would happen if I took my challenges to Jesus honestly and sincerely?
SATURDAY
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:13
When has Jesus been faithful in helping me withstand temptation? How does knowing he is in my life give me strength?
Let us pray.
Jesus, you were driven into the desert alone, hungry, and vulnerable.
Yet because you knew your divine mission, you never gave in to Satan’s lures.
Help me, Lord, when I fall prey to life’s temptations.
May I always recognize that the riches that overflow in my life come from loving and giving myself to you.
Amen.
About the Author
Lisa M. Hendey is the founder of CatholicMom.com and the bestselling author of several books for adults and children, including The Grace of Yes, The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion, and I’m a Saint in the Making. Lisa’s children’s project, the Chime Travelers fiction series for elementary school readers, which dynamically combines time travel and the lives of the saints, is read in schools, children’s groups, and churches worldwide. It is now streaming as an animated series.
The host of the “Lisa Hendey & Friends” podcast, Lisa has produced and hosted multiple programs and has appeared on EWTN, CNN, CatholicTV, and various radio outlets. Her articles have appeared in Catholic Digest, America Magazine, National Catholic Register, and Our Sunday Visitor. Hendey travels internationally, giving workshops and retreats. She was selected as an Elizabeth Egan Journalism Fellow. Lisa has traveled and shared her writing from Rwanda, Tanzania, Colombia, the Philippines, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Australia, and India to serve several nonprofit organizations and share their messages of hope and service.
Lisa M. Hendey is ready to share her insights with your group. She is available to speak on a variety of topics, including faith, family, work-life balance, cancer survivorship, and healthy living.
For more information about Lisa Hendey and her work, visit her website at www.LisaHendey.com. You can also connect with her on social media at @LisaHendey. Lisa and her husband Greg are active members of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California.