May 29, 2026 // Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time // Optional Memorial of Saint Paul VI, Pope
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Mark 11:11-26
Reflect on the Word // I paused as the word on the page leapt out at me: “home.” Heart racing with joy, I quickly jotted down what I perceived the Lord was revealing to me—this word, and no other, was what He wanted to use to shape and sanctify my soul in the year to come.
A common spiritual practice among Catholics, adopting a word (and Saint!) of the year had recently become one of my favorite ways to partner with God’s plans for my life and ponder the hard questions necessary to grow in holiness.
This year was no different. While “home” held many connotations known only to Christ and me, it also challenged my heart to examine my domestic habits. Did I recognize my home as holy ground? Was I rightly honoring it as a sacred space set apart for loving and serving Him and others? Or was a proper table-turning cleanse in order (see Mark 11:15)?
“My house shall be called a house of prayer [. . .] But you have made it a den of thieves” (Mark 11:17). In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls out the inordinate worldly customs eclipsing the honor due to His Father alone, and He is swift to deconstruct the “den of thieves” that His beloved sons and daughters have built outside of worshiping Him.
Friend, what are the “thieves” that rob your attention, your time, your headspace, your heart? The Lord is well aware of what is in us and what needs to be driven out. What if we invited Jesus to purge everything in us that is not of Him? What if it could be said of our souls, “He did not permit anyone to carry anything through” (Mark 11:16)? What if we could be fully cleansed by and for His love?
Sister, we can be.
In my holy imagination, I picture it playing out like this:
Entering the temple area of our hearts, Jesus “[looks] around at everything” (Mark 11:11) and, pleased with what He sees, exclaims, “My house is, indeed, a house of prayer.”
And we, His unworthy hosts, respond with joy, “Welcome home.”
Relate to the Lord // Welcome Jesus into the home of your heart again and again today.
Cathy Webb is a consecrated virgin for the Diocese of Wilmington and the creator of the Sacred Heart to Heart prayer journal. A full-time Library Assistant, she finds joy in embracing the sacrament of the present moment and spreading the fragrance of Love everywhere she goes. She also treasures large cups of tea; her Chihuahua, Lucy; and anything Saint Therese. When she’s not writing and creating for the Kingdom, she can be found wearing a pretty dress while adoring the Heart of her Divine Spouse in the Eucharist. She is a contributing author to Blessed Conversations: Home. Find out more about her here.
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