February 21, 2026 // Saturday after Ash Wednesday // Optional Memorial of Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 5:27-32

Reflect on the Word // 

I shut the front door and was surprised by the voice I heard in my heart: You just had a bad blueprint. 

I’d been absentmindedly mulling over a difficult situation and my response to it. As usual I was blaming myself for not only what happened, but also how I perceived what had happened. Shame was often my go-to lens, but it wasn’t until I heard the Lord speak that I remembered: This is only a pattern and patterns can be broken.

Often when I read the account of the call of Saint Matthew (Levi in today’s Gospel), I romanticize his call to conversion. At the words of Jesus he responded wholeheartedly and unhesitatingly, “leaving everything behind” (Luke 5:28). But I’m sure this was only the beginning of his ongoing conversion, the same way we are continually being changed in relationship with the Lord. 

I think back on my own conversion of heart. It wasn’t a single moment but rather a continuous series of incremental yeses that have added up to decades of discipleship. That path probably looked similar for Matthew. While he had a profound, life-defining moment of encounter with Jesus, he no doubt had thousands of conversions in his lifetime. Every Christian does.

We all have patterns that need to be purified. We learned one way of relating, but Jesus shows us another. We have ways of communicating the need to mature. Our worldview, subtly and consistently formed by the world around us, has to be reshaped by the Gospel. How we spend our time and money, what we watch and listen to, are all territories that need to be conquered and converted to live in line with the Kingdom of God.

Conversion is not one and done. It is the process of every single part of our lives and souls becoming more and more ordered toward God’s Heart and will, toward Heaven. Each and every time we encounter another area that has been untouched or unhealed by Jesus, we are invited into conversion. 

Today and every day, Jesus comes and calls: “Follow me” (Luke 5:32). 

Relate to the Lord // Is there an area or relationship currently in need of conversion? Invite Jesus in.