Saturday, September 27, 2025
Letter from the Editor //
Dear Sister,
“Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called” (1 Timothy 6:12), Saint Paul implores us in the Second Reading on the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. He makes it sound like something we can grasp and hold on to, and in one sense, it is. The choices we make reflect whether we have laid hold of eternal life or not. We can choose to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness” and “compete well for the faith” (1 Timothy 6:11-12). The Gospel and the First Reading give us a clearer picture of what this looks like.
The Gospel shows us a rich man suffering in the netherworld, a rich man who spent his whole life focused on himself and his own pleasure. Every day, he ignored the man Lazurus who was lying at his door in poverty. Amos gives us a similar image as he warns the rich of his time that “their wanton revelry shall be done away with” and they will be the first to go into the Babylonian exile (Amos 6:7). Part of our call to lay hold of eternal life is to start seeing the poverty of those we encounter and pass by every day. Poverty looks like a homeless human person, suffering on the corner, whom we can relieve through showing love with a kind word and material aid. Poverty can also be something harder to identify that dwells in the lonely human heart, the anxious teen, the angry commenter online. The Lord is inviting us to “[secure] justice for the oppressed” and “[give] food to the hungry” (Psalm 146:7), showing them His merciful love with patience and gentleness.
In Christ’s Love,
Susanna
Read the Readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time:
First Reading // Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm // Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Second Reading // 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Gospel // Luke 16:19-31
Live Liturgically // This Week’s Feast Days
Saturday, September 27 (today!) // Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest
Sunday, September 28 // Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday, September 29 // Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels
Tuesday, September 30 // Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Wednesday, October 1 // Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Thursday, October 2 // Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels
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 the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew , Listen to Him: A Meditation on Mark, and Abide in His Love: A Meditation on John. 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 was the Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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