November 7, 2025 // Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 98:1-4
Reflect on the Word //
When I started teaching at the university level, I was sad to think my days of evangelizing were over. Before that, I had been teaching at the small Christian school my children attended. I knew that shifting to a college setting would make my new focus less about the faith and more about the academic subject. I worried that this job wouldn’t feel meaningful if I couldn’t talk about Jesus.
In one of my earliest semesters, a student pulled me aside after class and asked to talk. “Professor Balducci,” she said, “I know you don’t talk about it in class but I can tell that you believe in Jesus. It shows in how you treat us.” My eyes filled with tears and I felt a wave of gratitude. Jesus was there, with me in the classroom.
God will have His way. He can use us even when we can’t use words. Even when we fall short, when we don’t have the words or perhaps aren’t free to use them, we can share the love of God because we have His presence within us.
As the Psalmist penned in today’s Psalm, “The LORD has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice” (Psalm 98:2).
After my conversation with that student, I realized that the Lord was in the center of whatever path I was on. He was leading the way and guiding my steps. He could use me—with or without words—to share the good news of His saving power. The Lord reveals it. He makes His salvation known. My job is to be in tune with going where the Holy Spirit leads me.
The reality of preaching the good news of Jesus is that it is the Lord Who reveals His saving power, not us. We don’t have to do anything except what the Lord asks of us, and offer Him our desire to reveal Him to others.
Relate to the Lord // Prayer Prompt Written by editors around weekly theme
Pray Mother Teresa’s “Radiating Praying”, which is based on Saint John Henry Newman: “Make me preach thee without preaching—not by words, but by my example, and by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do [. . .] the evident fullness of the love our heart bears to Thee.” Amen.” (source)
Rachel Balducci has a Masters degree from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia and teaches at Augusta University. She and her husband Paul have five sons and one daughter and are part of an intentional Christian community in Augusta, Georgia. Rachel is the author of several books and is the co-host of The Gist of CatholicTV. Find out more about her here.
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