August 21, 2026 // Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Reflect on the Word // 

Growing up in the Church as a “cradle Catholic,” I was exposed to a variety of prayer nights, styles of worship, devotions, etc. What I remember as I was growing in my faith was the distance I put between myself and the presence of the Holy Spirit. There were opportunities to invite the Holy Spirit into my life in prayer but I wanted no part. I believed the Holy Spirit was for those people—the crazy Christians.

In today’s First Reading, the Lord sends out the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy over the dry bones. I can’t help but to think of the “dry bones” in my life that I’ve left for dead. Hopes, dreams, relationships, shortcomings that I’ve piled on to this graveyard—succumbing to the fact that there once was life, and now there is not. But I do not have the final say. The Lord invites me to revisit and speak life into these areas. I may not always have the answer and sometimes I accept defeat. But how I wish for the courage to speak life over those areas.

The words in today’s Scripture bring me comfort: “I will [ . . .] put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:6). What a relief to come to the realization that it is not going to be by my efforts or my striving that life will come to these dead places. It is by the Spirit Himself, the One I was once afraid of getting to know, the One Who has befriended me and given me such hope in desolation, courage in difficult times, and a profound love for the God Who created me. 

Sister, we don’t have to be afraid because we don’t have the last word. Even the graveyard we have occupied with our own disappointments over the years can begin to rattle with the new life the Lord has promised you and me. 

Relate to the Lord // Today, invite the Spirit into your heart and explore those places where you need to prophecy over. May the Lord direct you and empower you with His Spirit.