October 23, 2026 // Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time //Optional Memorial of Saint John of Capistrano, Priest

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 

Reflect on the Word // 

On an average day I probably see over three hundred faces before 10 a.m. Faces tell us a lot about people. With a quick glance across my classroom I can take in the faces of all my students and know, generally speaking, how class is going to go that day. I know especially that if a certain student in the corner has a mischievous grin there’s a scheme afoot to derail the lesson with some hypothetical, “Sister, what if . . . ?”

I have to ask myself, though, as I take in all the faces I encounter throughout a day, am I seeking the One face that truly matters?

“Lord this is the people that longs to see your face” (Psalm 24:6). Do I recognize that in every face, in every person I encounter throughout the day, I can seek the face of the Lord? In every circumstance, every decision, in every moment, am I seeking the face of the Lord present in time and in eternity? As the Creator of the universe, His “are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it.” (Psalm 24:1).

It is easy to glance superficially at my day and miss out on opportunities to recognize the ways the Lord is speaking to me through a conversation with a friend, an interaction with a student or co-worker, a beautiful sunset. How often I let those things roll off my back and move on to the next encounter without pausing to ask the Lord to show me where He was in that moment.

We are “the race that seeks for Him” (Psalm 24:6), seeking to “stand in his holy place . . . [desiring] not what is vain” (Psalm 24:3-4). To do that, though, we have to look beyond what we notice at first glance. We have to be a people who acknowledge that He is present to us always, longing to show us His face in a myriad of ways so that we can truly come to know His love for us and, gazing upon His face, to truly know Him, our Savior and Redeemer.

Relate to the Lord // Pray for the grace to “seek His face” in the faces of those you meet today.