October 6, 2026 // Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of Saint Bruno, Priest // Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, Virgin [In the Dioceses of the United States]

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

Reflect on the Word // 

Meal planning, grocery shopping, and food prep for family coming over? Done.
A clean-ish kitchen and dishes put away? On the to-do list. 

Set out some napkins, candles, and fluff the pillows on the couch? I’ll do that in the last five minutes before people arrive.

I have a penchant for multi-tasking and list-making. And while this is a system of efficiency, and I’d like to say this efficiency is intended for the good of everyone gathering (I think Saint Martha would agree!), it’s not always a system that allows for interruption. And sometimes, the interruption that comes is the more important thing. Or “the better part,” as Jesus told Martha (Luke 10:42).

Years ago, I read a short and powerful excerpt from a Henri Nouwen book (Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, page 52), where he mentioned a professor who once said, "My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work." 

Maybe the interruption as we go about our day is a neighbor who stopped by, or a phone call from someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, a text from a friend who needs your intercessory prayers, or your husband who is asking for your advice. Maybe it’s the person behind the checkout counter at the grocery store. Maybe the interruption feels like a nuisance. But maybe it’s Jesus. 

To fully attend to it and truly see, we have to slow down, we have to loosen our hold of that to-do list and its importance. We have to be available and present, as Mary was to Jesus. 

Relate to the Lord // Think of Jesus in the quiet moments between errands and work–ask for the grace to see the “better part” throughout your day.