May 22, 2026 // Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter // Optional Memorial of Saint Rita of Cascia, Religious
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel for the Memorial of Saint Rita: Luke 6:27-38
As we made the Sign of the Cross and began to thank God for the day, my husband shifted the prayer to intercede for someone who had passed away. It was a person few would think to pray for; others might feel repulsion at the thought. Yet, at that moment, my husband’s heart was not filled with opinions, politics, prejudices, or judgment. His heart was filled with mercy.
“Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:27-28). This was not a recommendation. It was a command given by the One we proclaim is King and Lord. He asks me to love my enemy and do them good (see Luke 6:35).
The greatest good I have and could wish for another is the Lord. Therefore, to pray for my enemies, to beg for mercy for them, to intercede on their behalf is me giving the best gift I have (see Luke 6:38) and it returns in abundance to me. To pray for my enemy—to wish them good even when I don’t feel that they deserve it or when my emotions would have me do or say otherwise—this act of obedience to His call and the work of His grace in me, blesses them and changes me. I am transformed by His mercy to the measure that I can be merciful and forgiving to others, especially to the ones who are my “enemies.”
Yet, the “enemy” we are called to love (see Luke 6:27) is not always the big bad monster that first comes to mind. The enemy that needs loving is sometimes simply our neighbor who let her dog walk on our lawn, the stranger who drove past us drenching us with dirty rain water, or the colleague who made rude remarks about our efforts. Sometimes the enemy that needs loving, forgiving, prayers, and mercy looks a lot more like ourselves than we’d like to admit.
May we ask the Lord for strength to be kind and merciful as He is. So that in giving mercy radically, we might also receive it generously (Luke 6:35,48).
Relate to the Lord // Today’s Saint, Saint Rita, forgave the men who killed her husband (source). Ask her to intercede for you to have a more forgiving heart. Saint Rita, pray for us.
