The Victor's Crown

Mark Quaranta

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Christianity
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Daily Catholic reflections to help you pursue the imperishable crown. Each reflection offers wisdom from scripture and the saints, and practical insights to start your morning and grow in holiness. Hosted by Mark Quaranta. www.thevictorscrown.com

18m ago

Once more

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- "The secret of all progress and of every victory is, in fact, to 'know how to begin again', to learn from a failure, and to try once more." — Georges Chevrot Three of my kids are playing soccer for the first time this year, and it's been great to watch. My 10-year-old is playing with girls who've been at it for years. My 9-year-old is up against boys who clearly know what they're doing. My 7-year-old is still at the age where everybody just runs around in a pack — which is its own kind of beautiful. What's been especially fun to watch is how they respond to failure. Getting the ball stolen. Completely flubbing a kick. Realizing they're not the best one out there. Every practice, every game, is a lesson in beginning again. When I came across this quote, it clicked. Because that's the spiritual life too. Chevrot wrote it in the context of Simon Peter — and Peter is the perfect example. He gets a bad rap, because he dropped the ball so many times. But he was the one actually going up against the challenges. Failing, getting back up, trying again. It's not surprising that he became the first pope. He's the model precisely because he knew how to begin again. We'll face the same. We hit snooze and miss our prayer time. We fall to the same sin for the umpteenth time. We face some trial we've never encountered before and don't handle it the way we wanted to. Begin again. Learn from it. Try once more. Let us pray. Lord, when we fall help us to get back up. Give us the heart of Peter: willing to fail, willing to try again, and never too proud to begin. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
1d ago

Guardian

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- At the end of September and into October, we celebrate two feasts back to back: the Feast of the Archangels and the Feast of the Guardian Angels. If you're a Pray on Paper Club member, you'll be seeing this reflected in your envelope this month. I recently came across this prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas. When you read it, it will probably sound familiar — what Aquinas wrote is, in a sense, the original. The version most of us grew up with was adapted from this one to rhyme, and became one of the first prayers many of us were ever taught. God has committed each of us — personally, individually — to the care of a guardian angel. Not a watchdog. Not a boss. A guardian. Someone to protect, to help, to lead. That's another example of His merciful love for us. Your guardian angel is with you right now. Spend a few minutes with that this month. Let us pray. O angel of God, to whose guardianship I have been committed by Divine Mercy, enlighten and guard, rule and govern me. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
2d ago

That Close

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- In the Gospels recently, we heard about Jesus healing the sick, curing people, driving out demons. And again and again, we hear this phrase: He laid hands on them. I'll be honest — sometimes I can feel like Christ is playing a game with me. Like He's tapping my left shoulder and standing on my right. I turn around, and He's just out of my periphery. Always close, but never quite where I'm looking. But when I sit with the image of Jesus laying hands on someone, what comes to mind is a parent cradling a child's face. Not a grandparent pinching cheeks — but gently, two hands on either side, holding that face still. It's so intimate you can't help but look into each other's eyes. That's how close He was to the people He healed. That's how close He wants to be to us. He's not playing games. He's not just out of reach. He's asking to be intimately close — healing, helping, teaching, loving — the same way He was two thousand years ago. Spend a few minutes with that image today. Let us pray. Lord, help us to be still enough to feel Your hands. Draw us close to You. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
5d ago

A Fruitful Floor

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- My wife and I were talking recently about an idea I've come across before but never quite in these terms. It's called a success floor — the minimum you're going to allow yourself to do and still consider yourself on track. You see it talked about in business and health, but I think there's a parallel here for the spiritual life. "Successful prayer life" might not be the right framing — maybe "fruitful" is better. But the question is the same. What's your fruitful floor? Most of us have a plan A. Something like: get up early. Morning prayer. Daily Mass. A Rosary. An examination of conscience before bed. Good plan. But some days that plan flies out the window entirely. So what's the minimum you're going to hold yourself to? The floor you're not going to go below, no matter what the day throws at you? Maybe it's a morning offering. Maybe it's an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be before your head hits the pillow. Whatever it is — name it, and hold yourself to it. So that you don't wake up weeks from now and realize you haven't prayed in a long time. Let us pray. Lord, on the days when we can give You much, may we be generous. And on the days when we can only give You a little — help us to give that little faithfully. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
6d ago

A New Leaf

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- I should probably address the elephant in the room: I've missed a couple of weeks of these reflections. Between family vacations and a busy stretch of work, August got away from me. I apologize — and I'm probably going to start building in an August break going forward. But here we are. Turning over a new leaf. One thing I've noticed about myself — and it applies directly to writing these reflections — is that I need mental and sometimes physical space to think clearly. That's not a groundbreaking insight. But it does point to something worth considering in our prayer lives. It's hard to sit in quiet, still prayer when we're surrounded by chaos. Which suggests a couple of things. First, it might mean getting up early — before the house fills up, before breakfast and work and the demands of the day get underway. That early morning quiet is hard to replicate at any other point in the day. Second, our actual prayer space matters. As clean and clutter-free as we can make it. Some people function fine in a cluttered environment, but I think most of us pray better when the space around us isn't competing for our attention. As I get back into writing these reflections, that's what I'll be working on. I'd encourage you to take the same look at your own prayer space. Let us pray. Lord, help us to create the space — in our homes and in our hearts — to hear You. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
Aug 21

Prayer Warrior

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Prayer Warrior As members of the Body of Christ, we all have different roles to play. There are really only a few vocations — but they are lived out so differently, and that's part of what makes our faith and our Church so beautiful. One thing we all share: we can, should, and have an obligation to pray. At least speaking for myself, I tend to think of myself on the receiving end of God's graces. During our own times of trial and temptation, we receive help from people we'll never know — whose prayers are quietly at work in our lives. But there's another dimension to prayer that I don't always think about: our prayers can obtain grace for other members of the Body of Christ. That moment we stick it out in morning prayer, or pray a Rosary we don't feel like praying — God can use those offerings, those small sacrifices, to benefit someone else entirely. Someone we've never met. We have an opportunity to be not just prayer recipients, but prayer warriors. Let us pray. Lord, help us to pray not just for ourselves, but for the whole Body of Christ. Use our small offerings for the good of others, known and unknown. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
Aug 20

Talk to God About Your Kids

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- Talk to God About Your Kids I can't remember who told me this — so if you're reading this, thank you. Talk to God about your kids more than you talk to your kids about God. With five kids ten and under, I have no shortage of behaviors I'd like to curb or habits I'd like to help form. And by the end of the day, I notice how many of my interactions have felt nitpicky. Correcting this, redirecting that. It adds up. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on: when do I need to say something — and when do I need to keep my mouth shut and bring it to the Lord instead? When do I need to trust that He's got this, and that my job in that moment is to pray, not to lecture? My vocation as a father is real and it matters. But it isn't only about getting my kids to chew with their mouths closed or even to make good decisions. It's also to pray for them. To bring them to God. To ask their guardian angels for help. That's part of the job too. Maybe the most important part. Let us pray. Lord, help us to bring our kids — and the people we love — to You before we try to fix them ourselves. Give us wisdom to know when to speak and when to pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe
Aug 19

My Father

Get the written version in your email inbox every morning by subscribing for free at TheVictorsCrown.com --- My Father Yesterday we reflected on how the Father delights in us. Today I want to take that one step further. Depending on our upbringing — depending on what fatherhood looked like for us, good or bad — it can be easy to keep God at a certain distance. We know He is our Father. But there’s a difference between our Father and my Father. In my own prayer recently, that distinction hit me. How personal this relationship actually is. Not just a Father to humanity, not just a Father to the Church — but my Father. In Scripture, Jesus calls God Abba. It’s an intimate word. Some translate it as Daddy. Maybe Papa, or just Dad, would be more relevant to us. Whatever word carries that weight for you — the word a child uses when he knows he is loved and safe — that’s the word. If that’s never come naturally, that’s okay. However we get there, that’s the invitation: to approach God not just as the Father, but as my Father. Maybe sit with that in prayer today. Let us pray. Father — thank You for claiming us as Your own. Help us to know You not just as the Father, but as ours, as mine. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us Get full access to The Victor's Crown at www.thevictorscrown.com/subscribe

See All (148)

Creator

Mark Quaranta
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

148
Rating

Clean
Show Website

The Victor's Crown

The Victor's Crown

Episodes

Once more

Guardian

That Close

A Fruitful Floor

A New Leaf

Prayer Warrior

Talk to God About Your Kids

My Father

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