Saturday, July 26, 2025
Happy Saturday, friend! We are so excited to share with you what's coming up this week as we all prepare our hearts by praying with readings for Sunday, the day of rest with our Lord.
Live Liturgically // This Week’s Feast Days
Saturday, July 26 (today!) // Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sunday, July 27 // Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Tuesday, July 29 // Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Wednesday, July 30 // Optional Memorial of Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Thursday, July 31 // Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Friday, August 1 // Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Letter from the Editor //
Dear Sister,
Abraham was held up as a model for us last Sunday, and we can learn from him again in the First Reading for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Abraham knows the Lord and trusts in His merciful heart as he pleads for the hypothetical innocent people of Sodom, a city the Lord is ready to destroy because of their widespread sin. He reasons and persists with the Lord, and the Lord listens to him. We can come to our own knowledge of the depths of the Lord’s mercy, when we consider the words of Saint Paul: “even when you were dead in transgressions [. . .], he brought you to life along with him” (Colossians 2:13). The Lord does not wish harm to any of His creatures, especially us humans, who were made in His image.
While He allows evil—because part of being made in His image is having a will free to choose (or not choose) the good—He will always bring about our good in the end when we persistently seek and turn to Him. As we grow in our relationship with Him, we sometimes might feel like He is not listening to our prayers. We ask again and again, but do not receive what we ask for. Sister, the Lord reminds us in the Gospel that He knows better than we do that which we need. He will always give us “our daily bread and forgive us our sins” and the “Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:3-4, 13). With the Psalmist, let us trust Him and pray, “When I called you answered me; you built up strength within me” (Psalm 138:3).In Christ’s Love,
Susanna
Read the Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time:
First Reading // Genesis 18:20-32
Responsorial Psalm // Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8
Second Reading // Colossians 2:12-14
Gospel // Luke 11:1-13
Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Devotions Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer and editor and a teacher-in-training living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of all of the Blessed is She Gospel Meditation Studies. She was narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God and a contributing author and editor for our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up. She is the Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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