June 4, 2026 // Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8–15

Reflect on the Word //

The popular Christian song “Love You to Death” by Josiah Queen and Strings and Heart perfectly captures the guilt I sometimes feel as a 21st-century Catholic in the western world. The song talks about wanting to love and follow Jesus but worrying that our faith isn’t as great as that of the early disciples and martyrs, like Saint Stephen or Saint Peter. How can we claim to have faith when it doesn’t cost us what it cost those first Christians? 

I often question in the same way: Do I love Jesus fully if I am living a safe, cushiony modern life? 

In today’s First Reading, Saint Paul shares his own experience of loving Jesus to death and answers my modern-day question too. From his prison cell in Rome, Paul writes about his sufferings as a follower of Jesus during that time: “Remember Jesus Christ [. . .] such is my Gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal” (2 Timothy 2:8).  Paul beautifully sacrificed his life for the Lord, yet instead of comparing himself to others, he invites all disciples to live this way with Jesus too: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12). Even if our faith does not incriminate us as it did Saint Paul, we can still choose ways to spiritually die and persevere for Jesus in our lives today.

Sister, what chains or crosses might the Lord be asking you to bear? Let Paul’s words remind us that our modern chains of discipleship are good and holy too, even if they don’t look like first-century incarceration or martyrdom. Let us love Him to death in whatever way He is calling us in our lives today, so that we may live with Him forever in the life to come.

Relate to the Lord // What would it look like to bear your cross for love of Jesus today?