March 16, 2026 // Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 4:43–54 Reflect on the Word // There’s a quiet tension in waiting for God to act after He’s already spoken. I’ve been there and often find myself there—praying, sensing a promise or a direction from the Lord—and then I wake up the next day to . . . nothing having changed. The circumstances look the same. The ache is still there. And in that space, it’s so easy to start questioning: Did I hear Him right? Did I make that up? Faith, I’ve realized, isn’t just believing that God can act; it’s trusting that His word is already at work, even when I can’t yet see the result. In today’s Gospel, a royal official comes to Jesus pleading for his dying son. He begs Jesus to come with him, but instead, Jesus simply says, “You may go; your son will live” (John 4:50). That’s it—no sign, no journey together, just a sentence to cling to. And the Gospel says, “The man believed what Jesus said to him and left” (John 4:50). That line always stops me. He had to walk the whole road home holding nothing but a promise. Yet, somewhere along the way, before he even reached his house, the miracle had already begun. That’s what real faith looks like, not certainty that we understand everything, but quiet confidence in the One Who speaks. The man’s belief didn’t make the miracle happen, but it allowed him to walk in peace while it was unfolding. Sister, may we learn to take Jesus at His word, to walk forward before the proof appears, trusting that when He speaks life, life is already on its way. For even when we can’t see it yet, His word never goes unfulfilled. Relate to the Lord // Where is Jesus inviting you to believe? Make an act of trust today.

March 14, 2026 // Saturday of the Third Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Hosea 6:1-6 Reflect on the Word // I find myself sleepless most nights, partly because of physical discomfort and partly because of the many thoughts floating around in my head. My daughter’s arrival is near. At thirty-nine weeks pregnant, I am familiar with this rhythm: I anticipate the aches, the load of to-do’s, the wonders and worries. I often ask myself: Have I done enough today?  Many of us ponder this question, don’t we? We begin to measure our value or productivity based on the day and what we were able to cross off of a list. At times, I feel so accomplished! I made it to Mass again today. I spent time in the Word. I read my book and drank water. I spent time outside with my children and husband. So it must be good then, right? It was enough for you, wasn’t it Lord? Today’s First Reading is the reset I often need—especially now. I’m comforted by the words in the first reading, “For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). The Lord sees all the things, the productive moments, the sacrifices for my family, the opportunities I take for some “me” time. And yet, He loves me despite doing all the things or not. See, when we are occupied with taking time to complete tasks or goals, He is occupied with the matters of our heart. Nothing we do earns more love, yet everything we do should be done in response to His love.  At the end of the day, when we prepare to lay down our heads and examine our hearts, let us ask ourselves if we have loved well or if we’ve missed the opportunity to return and humble ourselves before the Lord—totally aware of the reality that we are actually so in need for Jesus to be everything. If we fail to run to Him in our need and let Him be present in our day, we take away the opportunity to receive His healing love and share it with others. When we humble ourselves, we come so low that our posture is simply to sit at His feet. There, “He will come to us like the rain” (Hosea 6:3), and make us whole again.  Relate to the Lord // Take some time to pray with this truth: “Nothing we do earns more love, yet everything we do should be done in response to His love.”

March 13, 2026 // Friday of the Third Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Mark 12:28-34  Reflect on the Word // “Which commandment is the most important?” The question came from the middle of the room during our lesson preparing for First Reconciliation. It was printed in their workbooks, spoken in Scripture, and alive in the heart of every child who wants to know what God really asks of us. I smiled, knowing that this was one of those teacher moments that truly matter, and I needed His grace to help me explain it well. We opened our Bibles and read together what Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). My students and I discussed how loving God and loving others go hand in hand. When we love God first, our hearts learn how to love everyone else. The children started sharing ideas. One said, “I love God when I am praying at Mass.” Another said, “I try my best to be kind to my brothers and sisters, most of the time.” Their answers were simple and honest. They understood the heart of it. That is the beauty of this passage. Even a child can understand the importance of loving God and neighbor, yet it gives every adult something to keep growing into. We are each invited throughout the day to love both God and our neighbors. How will I show my love for God today, and where is He asking me to love more generously? In quiet prayer, we can place our ordinary moments before Him and ask for the grace to love more fully. We are all lifelong learners in this journey of faith. Whether we are in a classroom, at work, or at home, the call is the same: to love God fully and to love others generously. When Jesus told the scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34), He was speaking to us too. Every time we choose love, we move even closer to His glorious Kingdom. Relate to the Lord // Pray with this prompt: How will I show my love for God today, and where is He asking me to love more generously?

March 12, 2026 // Thursday of the Third Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 11:14-23 Reflect on the Word //  I cried on my son’s third birthday. Right there, in the only place that a mother can truly be alone, I felt hot, fat tears roll down my cheeks as I lathered shampoo into my hair.  I didn’t intend for the outburst of emotions that day, but I suppose that is how trauma works—it creeps up in the middle of the joy and celebration and reminds you of the fact that hurt and fear still reside within you.  It was the remembrance of that day that did me in, the reminder of my unexpected uterine rupture and the doctors who scurried around me in a panic as they told me to count backwards and then sent me into the blackness of medicated sleep. It was the midwife whom I awoke to with her somber face and resolute instruction for us to avoid having children at all costs, despite our ardent desire for the contrary.  I know the oppression that can overtake a person—the fear, the sorrow, the trauma it all leaves in its wake. Today’s Gospel is a beautiful reminder that we are not meant to live in the captivity of our suffering. Luke 11:22 tells us that there is One Who is stronger that can overcome, One Who seeks to free and restore us. He is with us, at our side always, working for our good, even in the midst of life’s trials. I don’t know what sort of strongholds you are living with, whether it is depression that is enslaving your mind or addiction that is grappling for your soul. I don’t know if you feel lost or scared or lonely, but we have a Savior Who is stronger than the torment you are facing, One Who seeks to break the chains of the oppression on our hearts. We may feel divided within ourselves, but He can make us whole. So, turn to Him, sweet sister. In your fear, in your weakness, in your hurt—let His love set you free.  Relate to the Lord // Share your fears with Jesus, in the chapel or the shower. Turn to Him and talk to Him from your heart.

March 11, 2026 // Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19 Reflect on the Word // As I came out of a season of deep anguish, I found it profoundly difficult to trust God again. The pain that I had experienced caused my heart to be suspicious of His voice and promises. I feared that He was out to take away everything I loved, which caused a whirlwind of self-reliance to take place within me. I kept my trust in Him at arm’s length. The assumptions that I created about Him, based on my pain, seemed easier to believe than the truth of Who He is. The depth of my wounds created a blockage around my heart. I wasn’t able to fully receive His Heart.  My suffering and confused heart created a fog, making it difficult for me to recognize His presence. In today’s Gospel, I was struck by Jesus’ words to His disciples: “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus does not come to take away, but to fulfill, and give abundantly. In my pain, He is not out to destroy or harm me, but to draw near, to love me exactly where I am. Jesus has a history with me, a history of leading and loving, just as God (including the Son Who became Man) had with the ancestors of the disciples He was speaking to in the Gospel. Jesus speaks to His disciples of the importance of following and believing in the law, the law the Lord gave them to help them become holy (see Matthew 5:19). Through this I am reminded of the importance of coming into agreement with His Word and promises. His Word will forever stay the same. He will never change.  Sister, Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are true: He will fulfill, not abolish (see Matthew 5:17). The flame of His Sacred Heart will never be dimmed, nor diminished. His Heart that burns for you will never change. The Heart, love, and providence of Jesus are not scarce, but abundant. May we not become fearful of destitution, but instead, little by little, grow in confidence toward His providential abundance. Let us believe in Who He says He is.  Relate to the Lord // Remind yourself of Who God is today. What do you know to be true and unchanging about Him?

March 10, 2026 // Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35  Standing together in the church social hall, my husband and I reflected on forty years of married life with our audience of wide-eyed newlyweds, weary parents, and weathered grandparents. They laughed as we recounted stories of poor communication, and listened intently to the challenges of learning to love more deeply in our brokenness and pain. During the Q & A time, a woman inquired, “How often did you find yourselves needing to forgive each other? Was it difficult?” Smiling, I replied, “At least seventy times seven. Without God’s help, it’s not only difficult, it’s impossible!” In today’s Gospel, Peter poses a very practical question to Jesus about the limits of extending forgiveness, particularly to family and the close community of believers, whose daily interactions are often occasions for conflict and offense. While Peter generously suggests seven times, a biblical number signifying fullness and perfection, Jesus responds with a new standard for forgiveness: “ . . . not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). The original Greek can also be translated as  “seventy times seven.” This number expresses a continuous, boundless act of mercy that extends far beyond human capacity and understanding. Jesus then tells a parable to explain forgiveness in the Kingdom of Heaven. As a servant in this kingdom, I’m painfully aware of my utterly impossible situation. Humbled before my merciful, compassionate King, my debt of sin cancelled, I am set free to live and love as a true citizen in his Kingdom. But do I? It is often so difficult to forgive others, to offer even a small measure of the patient forgiveness God has shown to me, and bitterness and resentment can take root. On my own, “Kingdom” forgiveness is impossible.   Today, our merciful King and Master offers us an invitation to gratefully reflect on His infinite mercy. Faced with such immense generosity, let us ask Him to give us the supernatural capacity to express Kingdom forgiveness in our daily lives. Relate to the Lord // Did someone come to mind as you read today’s Gospel and devotion? Ask Jesus for the grace to forgive them, again and again if necessary.

March 9, 2026 // Monday of the Third Week of Lent // Optional Memorial of Saint Frances of Rome, religious Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 4:24-30 Reflect on the Word //  With my heart open and a bit tender, I bring before the Lord the places where rejection has left its subtle sting. Not the dramatic moments but the quieter ones. The hesitations. The misunderstandings. The times I felt unseen or dismissed, even when I believed I was standing exactly where He asked me to stand. It is the post on social media and the realization that I was not invited. It is the sharing of a great joy, and feeling unheard and unseen. It is the experience of deep sorrow that has no safe place to land. It is the advice given but not well received. It is the offering of myself and still not feeling like enough. In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth, the place where He learned to walk, where He grew up, where neighbors knew His family, His trade, His story. And instead of celebrating Him, instead of receiving Him, they reject Him. They question His authority. They narrow Him to what they think they know. Jesus, steady and unshaken, responds to their dismissal of Him, “No prophet is accepted in his own native place” (Luke 4:24). His words aren’t bitter. They’re not defensive. They’re simply His lived experience. His identity is not rooted in human approval, but in His Father's love for and knowledge of Him. He knows exactly Who He is. He knows Who His Father is. And because of that, even when He is rejected, misunderstood, and overlooked, He does not collapse inward. He does not panic or plead. He simply moves on—humble, anchored, unmovable, held. How often do we brace ourselves against rejection? How often do we shrink back from acting boldly because we are afraid of being misunderstood, afraid of being “too much," and afraid of being unwanted in the very places we expect to belong? Jesus' return to Nazareth stands as an invitation for us all: Rejection is not the end of the story. It is often the opportunity we need to become more deeply rooted in our Father's heart for us. Relate to the Lord // How have you experienced rejection? Open that tender place to the Lord and share your heart with Him.

March 7, 2026 // Saturday of the Second Week of Lent // Optional Memorial of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Reflect on the Word // I do the same thing again and again—the sins I cannot get out of, the habits that I don’t want to keep, the embracing of the uncharitable attitudes and thoughts which flutter into my mind. I squander my “share of [the Father’s] estate” daily (see Luke 15:13). I do not usually do this in big, dramatic ways but in little acts of turning away that harden my heart to those I am called to love—God, my family, my co-workers, my students, my friends. I freely waste the grace God gives me, and then find that the grace is gone, that I am living in a famine. And then my whole being cries out for a change, for I know what it is to live in the Father’s house, to feast at His table. I then return to the Lord, Who is waiting for me—in the person of the priest in the Confessional, in the Real Presence of the Eucharist. Like He did for the prodigal son in today’s Gospel (see Luke 15:1-3, 11-32), the Lord is watching and waiting for my return. He is ready to cover me in His “finest robe,” put His ring on my finger and sandals on my feet, to claim me as His daughter again. He wants to transform me into Himself, take me into His divine life, make me one with Him. And He does this when I accept His love, receive His Sacraments with devotion, turn back to Him with my whole heart, repent of squandering my inheritance in Him, and resolve to stay close to Him. Sister, at our Baptisms we were made God’s adoptive daughters. Nothing can undo that. He is always waiting for us, always ready to cover us in His grace, whether we have wandered far or let our little sins accumulate over time. This Lent, He calls us back. This Lent, He wants to make us whole again. And at Easter, He will celebrate with us, that His daughter who “was dead [. . .] has come to life again” and who “was lost, has been found” (Luke 15:32). Relate to the Lord // How is Jesus making you whole this Lent?

March 6, 2026  // Friday of the Second Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a Reflect on the Word // “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the words and my soul shall be healed.” I’ll never forget the first time these words from the Communion Rite of the Mass really hit me. I saw what it meant to allow the Lord “under my roof” and how I had been trying to keep the interior of my being hidden from him. I wanted only the shiny, presentable parts of me to be seen by God, not the broken, hurt, and wounded parts. I needed to have a deeper experience of God’s love but I was not convinced I was lovable enough to be loved.  The opening line of today’s First Reading might feel like a shocker: “Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age” (Genesis 37:3). Can a father really have a favorite? That seems wrong. Perhaps hearing there is a favorite makes someone feel left out and unloved, as we see among Joseph’s brothers.  But what if instead of hearing that line from a place of lack or deficit, I hear it from a place of love, knowing that the Father’s love is limitless. I am the apple of the Father’s eye; I am God’s favorite. I rejoice that Joseph was the favorite because I, too, know the joy of being a favorite. It’s not pride to live in this truth; it’s embracing what the Father has revealed to each one of us. And when we operate out of this love, this knowledge of the Father’s love, we can reject envy and fear. We are chosen and beloved by God, each one of us deeply and thoroughly chosen and beloved. To receive that love is all that we need.  You are God’s beloved. You are His chosen one. You are the apple of God’s eye; you delight Him. Each one of us must embrace this truth and this love, to allow God to love us in every part of our inner being—the healed whole parts and the broken and hurting parts as well.  Relate to the Lord // Pray with this truth today: you are God’s favorite.

March 5, 2026 // Thursday of the Second Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10  Reflect on the Word // That’s the truth, I muttered to myself when reading the verse “more tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) As a younger mother, I joked about wishing that my children came with user manuals; how easy it would be if I wasn’t guessing about their troubles but knew with certainty what they needed. I dream about how many arguments could be avoided, how much better I could love my family, how much sorrow I could avoid if I simply understood their hearts. My longing to understand has resulted in me reading dozens of books, bingeing podcasts, and consulting more-seasoned wives and mothers. When that knowledge doesn’t satisfy, it’s so easy to text a friend, venting about struggles in relationships. Yet not even the best psychologist or wisest woman can begin to truly understand—or explain—the human heart. As our Creator, God alone knows the hidden workings of hearts. A priest once reminded me to look to Jesus on the Cross, and learn from Him. As the Lord’s words to Jeremiah remind me today, “Blessed is the man who trusts the LORD, whose hope is the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:7). When I renew my trust in the Lord and seek His direction first, I find that He never fails to show me how to love. He is the best teacher of serving others patiently, listening compassionately, and forgiving readily. And when I plant myself beside His stream, His grace flows in and through me.  We may never understand each other’s hearts fully, sister, and we don’t need to. Looking to Jesus, the Lover of Souls, as our example, we’ll find the remedy to our frustrations. We can place our trust in Him, surrender our hearts to His, and let Him love through us.  Relate to the Lord // How have you been seeking solutions apart from Jesus? Instead, try turning to Him today when you have a question, frustration, or concern.

March 4, 2026 // Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent // Optional Memorial of Saint Casimir Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 20:17-28  Reflect on the Word  Birds warbled their same familiar, neighborhood song as my sister and I swung open the squeaky back door, breathless from hours of playing pioneer and picking berries in the yard. Our weekend afternoons often looked like this, our imaginations running wild as we plotted games we could fill our time with. Our mother often called out to us to remind us of our chores, knowing we had likely become lost in our play. My little sister would spring up with delight, as if pulled by the opportunity to help, while I often grumbled under my breath, trudging up the stairs toward the incessantly buzzing washing machine, wondering, Why does she like doing chores? Years later, as I prayed with Jesus’ humble words from today’s Gospel, “[T]he Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27), I realized that Jesus Himself likely split wood with Saint Joseph and heeded His mother’s call around the house. Like any child, the proposition of play constantly tugged at His arm, but Jesus always prioritized obedience. He continued to serve into adolescence and adulthood, washing the feet of His disciples and ever so patiently addressing each of their misunderstandings and doubts. This was His delight. He arose every morning, pulled by the opportunity to help His people whom He had finally drawn so close to, walking amongst them, hearing the echoes of their laughter, and feeling the firm shake of their hands. He served because His Sacred Heart brimmed with love, a love which meant ultimately giving Himself for us entirely in Jerusalem. We may think we are worlds separated from childhood, but as adults, we are not much different. New whims and opportunities tug at our arms daily, but we must not forget the example of our Lord. His kingdom is a different kingdom, one where the King serves His people. Let us become like our King, and willingly drink the chalice of pouring our lives out in love. Relate to the Lord // How can you spring up in obedience to Jesus—to love—today?

March 3, 2026 // Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent // Optional Memorial of Saint Katharine Drexel, Virgin [In the Dioceses of the United States] Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 Reflect on the Word //  “And then tell her, ‘I need to say this, so it doesn’t fester and come between us.’”   I sniffled and nodded softly as the priest’s tender counsel confronted the depths of the delicate, yet complex, family dynamic that had brought me to the Sacrament of Confession. Father had listened deeply and compassionately while I unpacked the hurtful actions of a loved one that often left me feeling ignored and unseen. In the past few weeks, a sharp pebble of hurt had encroached on my heart, and I knew that Satan’s ploy to twist it into a boulder of bitterness would prevail if I continued to hold onto it. But here, before the font of mercy, I finally knew how to move forward in love as Father gave me the gentle language to use that would invite healing and repair. The conversation it required wasn’t going to be easy, but with the Lord’s help, we could tend to the wound and start anew.    “Come now, let us set things right,’ says the LORD” (Isaiah 1:18). In today’s First Reading, our loving God coaxes us to “put away” all that poisons our souls and keeps us estranged from Him (see Isaiah 1:16). The season of Lent is a sobering reminder that when left to ourselves in our frail humanity, we are prone to fall, which is why the Lord doesn’t admonish us to repentance only to abandon us to our own devices. No, through the prophet Isaiah, “the instruction of our God” shows us how to reorient our hearts: “Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good” (Isaiah 1:16). Thankfully, all the misdeeds that have widened the chasm between us and the Father’s gaze can be washed away in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We need only come to Him to experience this holy restoration.   Because here’s the truth, sister: Nothing is irreparable for God’s redeeming love. Even if our sins are “like scarlet” (Isaiah 1:18), we can be made clean. This is the invitation and the promise.  The instructions are just a bonus. Relate to the Lord // What needs to be set right between you and the Lord? Talk to Him about it.

March 2, 2026 // Monday of the Second Week in Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 6:36-38 Reflect on the Word // Our seventh-grade teacher was infamous. Students feared her. She ripped notebooks apart if the penmanship was unacceptable. I can still remember her stiff hand slamming against the chalkboard as she reiterated something we didn’t understand. For a long time my siblings and I wondered why she treated her students so harshly. As time passed and we grew older, as did she, we began to see her with more tender eyes and laugh at these moments instead of lamenting them. As I read today’s Gospel passage from Luke, I think about this teacher and wonder with what measuring rod she was measured. I think about what her own life might have been like, her childhood, her teenage years. Was she treated very strictly? Perhaps she was raised with more justice than mercy? When Jesus says “Be merciful [. . .] For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Luke 6: 36, 38), I think about the many times that I have been strict with others, demanding from them behavior or attitudes that I could not even muster myself. Judging and looking down on others for not being the form of holiness I thought they ought to be. How wrong I have been—yet, the Lord has mercy with me as He always does.  As the Lord treats me kindly, allowing me to know this mercy deep in my bones, I am able to extend mercy to others. To measure others by the standards of His love and mercy, not my own standards of justice or piety. He Who sees the heart and still has mercy has become my only teacher in this school of love. Sister, pray with me today that you and I can begin again as students in this school of His and allow Him to teach us His ways, to be merciful as He is merciful (see Luke 6:36), forgive as He forgives, and love as He loves—radically, generously, with all we’ve got.  Relate to the Lord // How has the Lord been merciful to you? How can you share that mercy with others? 

February 28, 2026  // Saturday of the First Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 5:43-48 Reflect on the Word // Throughout my faith journey, God has slowly revealed to me the traditional beauty of the Catholic faith. When I discovered a parish that offered a more reverent liturgy, it was a clear next step. I tried to stay active in my former parish because many of my friends were there. But keeping one foot in each place was exhausting, and I knew I had to choose the parish where I encountered Jesus most intimately in the Sacred Liturgy. Slowly, however, friendships from my old parish that I thought were strong felt strained. I tried to keep in touch, but invitations stopped, and I found myself on the outside. While their lives looked full, lively—sunny even—I felt alone. Did I make the right decision? Then Sunday came, and with it, clarity, through the beauty of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As I imagined myself at the Foot of the Cross, the Lord brought to mind these words from today’s Gospel: “But I say to you, love your enemies [ . . . ] for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45). Were these friends now my enemies? Of course not. Did they hurt me? Yes. Jesus understands rejection more than anyone. He was shunned by those He grew up with in Nazareth. Many people turned away when His teachings were too hard. Even His Apostles abandoned Him when He needed them most. Throughout life, my sister, we will encounter rejection from friends, classmates, coworkers, even family. Each time, we are invited to respond not with justice, but with supernatural charity, so “that [we] may be children of [our] heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:45). Each day, the sun rises on the good and the bad things of life, inviting us to love no matter the cost. It may be hard and it may not ease the pain, but it is an act of trust in a God Whose mercy is deeper than our wounds. Relate to the Lord // Share your heart with Jesus today in a few moments of honest, conversational prayer.

February 27, 2026 // Friday of the First Week of Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 5:20-26  Reflect on the Word //  How can I apologize for something I haven’t done? This question racked my brain as my upstairs neighbor continued to repeatedly stomp on my ceiling. I had been living alone in my first apartment for a month when the stomping began. The older gentleman above me had taken it upon himself to reprimand me for the cigarettes he was convinced I was smoking and therefore harming him with. Running into him a few times, I tried to explain that it wasn’t me, that I wouldn’t do that to either his well-being or mine. But unfortunately, he didn’t believe me and demanded I stop and say sorry, and in the meantime, he would kick, curse, and yell until I “stopped.” The Gospel today reminds us that it is human nature to choose anger and violence during conflicts; yet, Jesus desires for us to turn away from sin and turn back toward one another in peace and kindness. Describing my housing situation perfectly, Jesus warns that “whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement,” no matter what side of the argument is “right” (Matthew 5:22). Jesus doesn’t focus on what begins strife, but on whether we handle it with grace, holiness, and mercy.  Our Lord continues, “Go first and be reconciled with your brother, then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court” (Matthew 5:24-25). When it comes to discord among one another, instead of fighting for first place,  Jesus asks us to be proactive, to be humble, to be sacrificial, and to be haste-minded toward a peaceful and just resolution. It is up to us to do so.  No one wins when we turn sin into something akin to a boxing match. We also can’t expect our brothers and sisters in Christ to step away from sin if we push them straight back toward it with our own behavior. During this Lenten season, we can ask for the grace to turn opponents into neighbors and strife into an opportunity to pick up our own cross and love others with it.  Relate to the Lord // Have you been falsely accused? Share your pain with Jesus Who understands.

February 26, 2026 // Thursday of the First Week in Lent // Optional Memorial of Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25 Reflect on the Word //  My bed was a padded church pew, and I lay weeping silently, for fear of troubling a parent or sibling. My parents had received eviction notices, but were hoping and praying for a last-minute miracle. I’d tried my hardest to believe, but knew I had doubted, and now we were forced out of our home. Thankfully, our pastor offered temporary shelter in the church to our family of ten. My whole body cried out to God from the pew in the dark: God, I know You are good. My parents don’t deserve this; maybe it’s my fault. Please! Only You can save us! In today’s First Reading Queen Esther recalls how she was taught of God’s goodness before crying out to God to save her and her people. I, too, was taught of God’s goodness. Unfortunately, I’d also ingested the idea that God punishes those who fail to perfectly demonstrate faith in Him. When I bring this to Jesus, He leads me to ponder these words from Esther’s prayer: “Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness” (Esther C:25). The enemies I most often face are lies about Who God is and who I am in relation to Him. He wants me to know His goodness to my core, to trust that He loves me even in my weakness. We can make Esther’s prayer our own. Jesus delivers us from every lie, doubt, and fear that attacks our faith. When we turn to Him in mourning, He enters our sad hearts, expanding our capacity to receive joy and gladness. If sorrows fragment and exhaust us,  He strengthens and gathers our scattered parts, making us wholly alive in Him. He saves us! Relate to the Lord // What lie, doubt, or fear do you need to share with Jesus so He can save you?

February 25, 2026 // Wednesday of the First Week in Lent Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19 Reflect on the Word // My mom looked at me with a furrowed brow and skeptical gaze. We were talking about marriage and commitment, and she wasn’t worried about my boyfriend staying faithful to me, but about me staying faithful to him. She knew how much work a relationship took and that I had a tendency to be impulsive and flighty. She wondered if I would have the fortitude to be faithful during the good and bad times.  Part of me was insulted, but another part of me knew it was a valid concern from a mother’s heart. However, that boyfriend is now my husband of twenty-six years, and I have remained faithful and steadfast because I was motivated by love and strengthened by God’s grace.  In today’s Responsorial Psalm, we pray, “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me” (Psalm 51:10). This is my constant prayer because I know I can be self-serving and fickle in my relationship with God if I am not careful.      When I close my eyes and pray, I imagine Jesus looking at me. I smile at Him but then notice something over his shoulder and I’m distracted and look away from Him. With a gentle touch on my chin, Jesus gently turns my head back to Him. He knows me and my tendencies. He never tires of turning my gaze back to Him. As I grow in my relationship with our Lord, my desire to keep my gaze on Him grows, also motivated by love and strengthened by His grace.  This Lent is the perfect time to examine what things are hindering us from having a clean heart that desires God above all else. Spending time with our Lord in prayer, reading Scripture, and receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist will draw us closer to God and serve to renew a steadfast spirit within us. Let this be the moment that we allow Jesus to turn our gaze back to Him. Relate to the Lord // Spend some time in imaginative prayer today simply looking at Jesus. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you say to each other?