What’s the first thing you think about when you wake up? What’s the last thing you think about when you go to sleep? What’s the focus of your life? 

Although Blessed Peter to Rot only lived to be thirty-three years old, he had learned to be laser-focused on one thing—God. From a young age, Peter considered becoming a Catholic priest. But he ended up marrying instead, having three children, and serving as a catechist in Papua New Guinea, where he lived for his entire life. As World War II raged, Japan took over the island he called home, and made it illegal to practice Catholicism freely. But this didn’t change things for Peter too much—he was more focused on what God wanted than the rules of the invading army. 

But violence wasn’t the only threat of the Japanese takeover. When their authorities legalized polygamy, Peter was outspoken against it, even protecting a local woman from being kidnapped and married off. Between his Catholic faith and his views on the sanctity of marriage, Peter caught the attention of the Japanese officials, who arrested him and killed him with a horrific beating and lethal injection. Peter wasn’t just a martyr for the Catholic faith—he was a living testament to the power of focusing on the right things. 

But how can we learn to focus on the right things in our own lives, today? By making God the central object of our attention. Not self or success, not pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, or sloth. God.

It makes sense. The more we think about ourselves, the unhappier we become. The more we make ourselves available to God, the happier we become. The more we dedicate ourselves to serving our neighbor, the more our souls are flooded with joy.

What was the central object of your attention when you woke this morning? What will be the central object of your attention when you wake tomorrow? Will your life be changed?

There is a moment during the Mass when the bread and wine are no longer merely bread and wine, but are transformed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. That moment of transformation is unimaginably powerful.

There is a moment in our lives when the central object of our attention is no longer something worldly, when our singular attention shifts, and from that moment on the central object of our attention becomes God. That moment is unimaginably powerful.

Will that moment happen for you today?

Feast Day: July 7

Feast Day Shared By: Blessed Maria Romero Meneses, Saint Willibald of Eichstätt

Patron Saint of: Married couples. Catechists, Rakunai

Symbols: Martyr's palm, crucifix worn as a necklace

Beatified: January 17, 1995

Beatified By: Pope John Paul II