October 14, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Romans 1:16-25
Reflect on the Word //
The shirt said “110% Catholic,” but the girl wearing it didn’t always live it. I wasn’t afraid to be known as Catholic, and obviously walking around with a shirt proclaiming my superior status as one meant that my faith was no secret, but actually living that faith, giving witness to the person of Jesus? Nope! Why? Because I didn’t know the power of the Gospel, I was afraid of what I didn’t know. I was happy to wear the merch, but to live fully the holiness I knew I was called to, that was a challenge I felt ill equipped to handle.
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). How blind I was to the true intensity of God’s Word, the effective truth He proclaims in Scripture. I read Scripture, but I didn’t pray with it. I knew Scripture, but I didn’t let it penetrate my heart to transform me and change my heart. I was ignorant of the capacity of the Scriptures, the living Word of God, to reveal to me not only Who He is, but who I am, to make known the awesomeness of His saving power.
God has made Himself known to us, “able to be understood and perceived in what He has made, and “[a]s a result [we] have no excuse” (Romans 1:20). We have been given the gift of Sacred Scripture, revealing to us the love God has for us, His plan for our salvation, and the glory of the eternal life for which He created us. When we encounter the beauty of creation, we encounter God. When we encounter the goodness of another person, we encounter the goodness of God. When we immerse ourselves in Sacred Scripture we are fed with the very truth of Who and what God is.
May we always live our lives with eyes wide open to all that God has revealed and seek Him, neither exchanging “the truth of God for a lie” nor worshiping “the creature rather than the creator” (Romans 1:25).
Relate to the Lord // How will you be a witness to the Gospel of Jesus today?
Sister Maria Fatima grew up in Rhode Island and entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in 2005. She holds a MA in Theology from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. Sister is in her eleventh year of enlightening middle school minds and drawing hearts to Jesus while teaching religion and history. She currently resides at the motherhouse in Ann Arbor, MI, having previously taught in Texas, Florida, and Ohio. She is a contributing author to our Lent devotional All She Had.
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