November 3, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, Religious
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 14:12-14
Reflect on the Word //
The woman stirring a pot of rice in our kitchen mesmerized me. And if I’m honest, she frightened me a little too. Irma was a Cuban refugee who had been welcomed into our home by my generous parents. She looked different, sounded different—and her food sure smelled different. Little me, a preschooler at the time, didn’t know what to think of her, this strange person from a strange land suddenly sharing our family’s space.
The secular world wouldn’t have known what to think either. After all, in an age where most things, even relationships, are transactional (“you do this for me, I’ll do that for you”), giving freely without expectation of return is foolish. Gullible. Nonsensical. Why would you share your home with someone you don’t know, someone who can’t—in any human way—possibly pay you back?
But my parents weren’t thinking in worldly terms. They were looking at Irma and her situation through a Christ-centered lens. They saw Him when they saw her. And they knew that in the reward of being united to the One Who gave them all they have, what they’d receive would surpass anything she, or anyone, could give them in a worldly sense.
We are challenged to do the same by the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. He specifically invites us to open our homes (and we can extend that to our hearts, too, our inner sanctuaries) to those who cannot possibly pay us back. How would such radical generosity challenge and change us? We can only find out by taking Him at His word and doing as He says. After all, when we flip the script, we realize that truly, we are refugees from Eden who can never repay God for His redemptive, merciful love. With that in mind, sister, how can we say no?
Relate to the Lord // Who will you open your heart (or home) to today?
Claire Dwyer writes with the desire that all women see the sacredness of their stories in light of Salvation History. Speaker, Retreat Leader, Author of This Present Paradise, senior copywriter and content editor for Avila Foundation / Spiritualdirection.com, and co-founder of the PraiseWriters community, she knows firsthand the power of words to set a fire on the earth. She lives in Phoenix with her family. Find out more about her here.
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