November 11, 2025 // Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Wisdom 2:23–3:9

Reflect on the Word // 

Ever since I was young, I remember adults encouraging me not to worry.  I am conscientious by nature, but I did not know that word or concept at the time. My parents would help by telling me who was responsible for the thing I was worrying about, or by helping me to fulfill the task that worried me.  The Lord quickly put a beautiful-hearted music teacher in my life who listened deeply, and it was through her loving understanding that I gradually was able to blossom and open up. 

The dramatic imagery of the First Reading is another reminder not to worry, and it consoles me. The Lord brings my heart to rest in the familiar rhythm and logic of the book of Wisdom like a pylon in the depths of a raging ocean. I feel His constancy in the words: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead [. . .] But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).

He gently reveals to me how I don’t have to be overcome by the daily griefs of life. Our good Jesus shows to me that after many battles and trembling prayers over many years, I don’t have to look around and ahead at things like a foreboding, tormenting storm. Because of His fidelity,  I now know that daily crosses can be more like thin mist that the Father dissipates easily at every new day. 

Our task: hold on to Him.

While He proves and tries His beloveds like gold in the furnace (see Wisdom 3:6), our good God shows us that He is our true hope. His desire is for our good, for “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them” (Wisdom 2:23). Sister, He wants us to have peace in this life, and we attain it through clinging to Him through all that comes our way. And through it He will form us to be more like Him. 

Relate to the Lord // Are you worried? How can you hold onto Jesus today instead of your fears?