06/01/2026
MONDAY, June 1 THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Luke 1:46-47. And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
I grew up near Lake Superior, and even now, even though I live in landlocked Switzerland, I still love lighthouses. My favorite, the Split Rock Lighthouse, guided ships from 1910 to 1969, first by kerosene lamp and then by a thousand-watt bulb. While its official range was twenty-two miles, Split Rock’s beacon was sometimes spotted more than sixty miles away.
All this from a single light source. But it’s not just the light: it’s the light plus a lens. Split Rock had a third-order Fresnel lens, which uses concentric sections to refract and reflect. Its multiple prisms radiate outward to magnify the light inside.
We all have a light inside—the light of Christ, the spark of our Creator—and we all have a Fresnel lens. Like lighthouse keepers, it’s our duty to keep our lenses clean, to wipe away the soot and the grime, and to amplify Christ’s light so that it’s visible far and wide.
MOVING FORWARD: How do you keep your “lens” clean? What spiritual practices might help?
PRAY for the Diocese of Aba (Nigeria)
1 Samuel 2:1-10 | Psalm 113 | Romans 12:9-16b | Luke 1:39-57