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Dallas - Fort Worth Lay Dominicans, Irving, TX (2026)

09/08/2026

Go Preach!
September 8

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Matthew
(1:1-16, 18-23)

Glory to you, O Lord

The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection
Word to the Wise

The logic is simple. Mary was a human and all humans, even Jesus, have a birthday. Devotion to the Mother of God and her role in the plan of salvation took awhile to take hold in the church and arose, at least in the beginning, in the Eastern Church.

The reflection could be contentious but was, in part, resolved at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. when Mary was given the title theotokos, meaning "God-bearer."

Marian theology can be as complex as any relationship can be and Mary has thousands of titles. But a birthday has a way of bringing things "down to earth." I am fond of a book entitled, OUR LADY OF THE LOST AND FOUND by Diane Schoemperlin that has a very down to earth yet respectful approach.

In the book, Mary knocks on the door of a rather skeptical author and asks to stay at her home to take a break from her many duties! This is the kind of portrait that could include the celebration of a birthday! The date is arbitrary in choice but so what? It has to be on a date to be a birthdate. And we all know from experience that it's not a good idea to forget Mom's birthday.

AMEN!

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Preacher Exchange for the reflection.

09/06/2026

Amen.

09/06/2026

Go Preach!
Monday, September 7

Love, Life, Mercy and Service are for every day of the week. That’s God’s way! That’s God’s plan!

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Luke
(6:6-11)

Glory to you, O Lord

On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.

The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us." And he rose and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" Looking around at them all, he then said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored.

But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection

• Context: This passage presents Jesus who cures a man with a withered hand. Different from the context of chapters 3 and 4 in which Jesus is alone, now here He is surrounded by His disciples and the women who go around with Him.

Therefore, here we have Jesus always moving. In the first stages of this journey the reader finds different ways of listening to the Word of Jesus on the part of those who follow Him and which, definitively, could be summarized in two experiences, which recall, in turn, two types of approaches: that of Peter (5:1-11) and that of the centurion (7:1-10).

The first one encounters Jesus who invites Him after the miraculous catch to become a fisher of men; then he falls on his knees before Jesus: “Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man” (5:8).

The second one does not have any direct communication with Jesus: he has heard people speak very well about Jesus and he sends his envoys to ask for the cure of one of his servants who is dying; he is asking for something not for himself, but for a person who was a favorite of his.

The figure of Peter expresses the attitude of the one who, discovering himself a sinner, places all his acts under the influence of the Word of Jesus. The centurion, showing solicitude for the servant, learns to listen to God. Well, between these itineraries or attitudes which characterize the itinerant journey of Jesus, is placed the cure of the man who presents the withered hand.

This event of the miracle takes place in a context of debate or controversy: the ears of corn picked on the Sabbath and on the act of curing on a Saturday, precisely the withered hand. Between the two discussions there is the crucial role played by the Word of Jesus: “The Son of man is master of the Sabbath” (6:5). Continuing with this passage we ask ourselves what is the meaning of this withered hand? It is a symbol of the salvation of man who is taken back to the original moment, that of creation. The right hand, then, expresses human acting. Jesus then, gives back to this day of the week, Saturday, the deepest significance: it is the day of joy, of the restoration and not of limitation. What Jesus shows is the Messianic Saturday and not the legalistic one: the cures that He does are signs of the Messianic times, of restoration, of the liberation of man.

• The dynamic of the miracle. Luke places before Jesus a man who has a withered –------ hand, dry, paralyzed. Nobody is interested in asking for his cure, much less the one concerned. And just the same, the sickness was not only an individual problem but its effects had repercussion on the whole community. But in our account we do not have so much the problem of the sickness as that of the aspect that it was done on Saturday. Jesus is criticized because He cured on Saturday.

The difference with the Pharisees is that they on Saturday do not act on the basis of the commandment of love,which is the essence of the Law. Jesus, after having ordered the man to get in the middle of the assembly, formulates a decisive question: “Is it permitted on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil?” The space for the answer is restricted: to cure or not to cure, or rather, to cure or to destroy (v.9).

Let us imagine the difficulty of the Pharisees: it is forbidden that evil be done on Saturday or lead man to damnation, and even less to cure, because help was permitted only in case of extreme need. The Pharisees feel provoked and this causes aggressiveness in them. But it is evident that Jesus’ intention in curing on Saturday is for the good of man and in the first place, for the one who is sick. This motivation of love invites us to reflect on our behavior and to found it on that of Jesus who saves.

Jesus is not only attentive to cure the sick person but is interested also in the cure of His enemies: to cure them from their distorted attitude in their observance of the Law; to observe Saturday without freeing their neighbor from their misery and sickness is not in accordance with the will of God. According to the Evangelist, the purpose of the Sabbath is to do good, to save, like Jesus has done during His earthly life.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Ocarm Lectio Divina for the reflection.

09/05/2026

Go Preach!
Sunday, September 6

True love corrects lovingly!

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Matthew
(18:15-20)

Glory to you, O Lord

Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection by Pope Francis:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 18:15-20) is taken from Jesus’ fourth discourse in Matthew’s account, known as the discourse on the ‘community’ or the ‘ecclesial’ discourse. Today’s passage speaks about fraternal correction, and invites us to reflect on the twofold dimension of Christian existence: community, which demands safeguarding communion — that is, the unity of the Church — and personal, which obliges attention and respect for every individual conscience.

To correct a brother who has made a mistake, Jesus suggests a pedagogy of rehabilitation. And Jesus’ pedagogy is always a pedagogy of rehabilitation. He always tries to rehabilitate, to save. And this pedagogy of rehabilitation is articulated in three passages. In the first place he says: “tell him his fault, between you and him alone” (v. 15), that is, do not air his sin in public. It is about going to your brother with discretion, not to judge him but to help him realize what he has done. How many times have we had this experience: someone comes and tells us: ‘But listen, you were mistaken about this. You should change a little in this regard’. Perhaps in the beginning we get angry, but then we say ‘thank you’, because it is a gesture of brotherhood, of communion, of help, of rehabilitation.

And it is not easy to put this teaching of Jesus into practice, for various reasons. There is the fear that the brother or sister may react badly; at times you may lack sufficient confidence with him or with her. And other reasons. But every time we have done this, we have felt it was precisely the way of the Lord.

However, it may happen that, despite my good intentions, the first intervention may fail. In this case it is good not to give up and say: ’Make do, I wash my hands of it’. No, this is not Christian. Do not give up, but seek the support of some other brother or sister. Jesus says: “if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (v. 16). This is a precept of Mosaic law (cf. Deut 19:15). Although it may seem a disadvantage to the accused, in reality it served to protect him against false accusers. But Jesus goes further: the two witnesses are called not to accuse and judge, but to help. ‘But let us agree, you and I, let us go talk to this man or woman, who is mistaken, who is making a bad impression. Let us go as brothers and speak to him or her’. This is the attitude of rehabilitation that Jesus wants from us. In fact Jesus explains that even this approach — the second approach, with witnesses — may fail, unlike Mosaic law, for which the testimony of two or three witnesses was enough to convict.

Indeed, even the love of two or more brothers or sisters may be insufficient, because that man or woman is stubborn. In this case — Jesus adds — “tell it to the church” (v. 17), that is, the community. In some situations the entire community becomes involved. There are things that can have an impact on other brothers and sisters: it takes a greater love to rehabilitate the brother. But at times even this may not be enough. And Jesus says: “and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (ibid.). This expression, seemingly so scornful, in reality invites us to put the brother in God’s hands: only the Father will be able to show a greater love than that of all brothers and sisters put together.

This teaching of Jesus helps us a great deal, because — let us consider an example — when we see a mistake, a fault, a slip, in that brother or sister, usually the first thing we do is to go and recount it to others, to gossip. And gossip closes the heart to the community, closes off the unity of the Church. The great gossiper is the devil, who always goes about saying bad things about others, because he is the liar who seeks to separate the Church to distance brothers and sisters and not create community. Please, brothers and sisters, let us make an effort not to gossip. Gossip is a plague more awful than Covid! Let us make an effort: no gossip. It is the love of Jesus, who had embraced the tax collectors and Gentiles, scandalizing the conformists of the time. However it is not a sentence without an appeal, but a recognition that at times our human attempts may fail, and that only being before God can bring the brother to face his own conscience and responsibility for his actions. If this matter does not work, then silence and prayer for the brother or sister who has made a mistake, but never gossip.

May the Virgin Mary help us to make fraternal correction a healthy practice, so that in our communities ever new fraternal relationships, founded on mutual forgiveness and above all on the invincible power of God’s mercy, may be instilled.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to the Vatican for the reflection.

09/05/2026

Go Preach!
Saturday, September 5

Some Pharisees are just disrrupters.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Luke
(6:1-5)

Glory to you, O Lord

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesús Christ

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Reflection:

• The Gospel today speaks about the conflict concerning the observance of the Sabbath – Saturday. The observance of the Sabbath was a central law, one of the Ten Commandments. This was a very ancient Law, the value of which was stressed after the Exile. During the Exile, the people had to work seven days a week from morning until evening, without any provisions to meet and meditate on the Word of God, to pray together and to share faith, their problems and their hopes.

Therefore, there was an urgent need to stop at least one day a week to get together and encourage one another during the very difficult time of the exile. Otherwise they would have lost their faith. It was then that faith was reborn and the observance of Saturday was re-established.

• Luke 6:1-2: The cause of the conflict. On Saturday the disciples were walking across the cornfields and they were picking ears of corn. Matthew 12:1 says that they were hungry (Mt 12:1). The Pharisees invoke the bible to say it was a transgression of the law of the Sabbath: Why do you do what is not permitted on the Sabbath?” (cf. Ex 20:8-11).

• Luke 6:3-4: Jesus’ response. Immediately Jesus responds recalling that David himself also did things which were prohibited, because he took the sacred bread from the temple and gave it to the soldiers to eat because they were hungry (I Sam 21:2-7). Jesus knew the bible and referred to it to show that the arguments of others had no foundation. In Matthew, Jesus’ response is more complete. He not only recalls the story of David, but also quotes the legislation which permits the priests to work on Saturday, and He quotes the prophet Hosea: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice”.

He quotes a biblical text or a historical text, a legislative text, and a prophetic text (cf. Mt 12:1-18). At that time there was no printed bible as we have today. In each community there was only one bible, hand written, which remained in the synagogue. If Jesus knew the bible so well, it means that in the 30 years of his life in Nazareth He participated intensely in the life of the community, where every Saturday the scriptures were read. We still lack the same familiarity with the bible and the same participation in community that other had then.

• Luke 6:5: The conclusion for all of us. Jesus ends with the following statement: The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath! The Lord of Saturday! Jesus, Son of Man, who lives in intimacy with God, discovers the meaning of the bible not from outside, but from inside. He discovers the meaning starting at the roots, beginning with His intimacy with the author of the bible, who is God Himself. Because of this, He calls Himself Master of the Sabbath . In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus revitalizes the law of Saturday, saying, “Saturday was instituted for man and not man for Saturday”.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to Ocarm Lectio Divina for the reflection.

09/05/2026

Let us pray,

Almighty and eternal Father, receive the souls of our departed friends, relatives and benefactors whom you have taken to yourself.

In life, they served you and our Dominican Family well and now in death We pray, grant pardon of all sins committed, welcoming them into your heavenly family.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

09/03/2026

Go Preach!
Friday, September 4

Let us be prudent and careful in how we welcome and keep the New Wine of God's Grace! We need to possess converted and renewed hearts, joyful hearts in order to fill them with the life and love of God.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Luke
(5:33-39)

Glory to you, O Lord

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.”

Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection by Pope Francis:

Do not have fear of making changes according to the law of the Gospel: “The Church asks all of us for a few changes. She asks us to leave aside fleeting structures; they aren’t necessary”. Instead leave room for the “Law of the Beatitudes”, for “joy” and for the “freedom which leads us to the newness of the Gospel”. These were the words of Pope Francis at morning Mass.

The Pope drew upon the reading from the Gospel of Luke (5:33-39) from the day’s liturgy. “These scribes, these Pharisees wanted to put Jesus in difficulty, they wanted to trap him”. Reminding him that John and his disciples fasted, they ask him: “You are such friends with John and your disciples are friends, who seem to be just, why don’t you do the same”?. To which “Jesus replies, speaking of two things: he speaks to us of a feast and he speaks to us of newness”.

The Pontiff explained that Jesus primarily “tells us about a feast, a wedding feast, and he says: but we are in a time of feast! There is something new here, there is a feast! Something has fallen and something is renewed, made new”. And it is “curious”, the Pope pointed out, that Jesus “at the end uses the image of wine” such that “when this verse is read it is impossible not to connect this wedding feast to the new wine of Cana”. Basically, “everything is a symbol” which speaks of newness”; above all when Jesus says: “no one puts new wine into old wineskins”. Thus “for new wine, new wineskins”. This “is the newness of the Gospel”. Francis then asked, “what does the Gospel bring us? Joy and newness”.

However, he continued, “these doctors of the law were locked up in their commandments, in their rules”. So much that “St Paul, speaking about them, tells us that before faith came — that is, Jesus — we were all held as prisoners under the law”. But this law was not cruel: “held but as prisoners, waiting for faith to come”. Indeed, “that faith which would be revealed in Jesus himself”.

The Pope affirmed that the people had the law that Moses had given. And then so many of these customs and little laws that the experts and theologians had decreed”. Thus “the law held them, but as prisoners. And they were waiting for freedom, for the definitive freedom that God would give to his people through his Son”.

The Pope recalled that St Paul tells us, “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem”. And “the newness of the Gospel is this: it is for redemption from the law”. In this regard the Pontiff observed: “One of you may tell me: but father, don’t Christians have laws? Yes! Jesus said: I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it”. And the “fullness of the law, for example are the Beatitudes, the law of love, total love, as He, Jesus, has loved us”.

Thus, the Bishop of Rome continued, “when Jesus reproaches these people, these doctors of the law, he admonishes them for not having safeguarded the people with the law” but for having made them “slaves of so many little laws, of so many little things that they had to do”. And to have done it “without the freedom that he brings us with the new law, the law that he had sanctioned with his blood”.

This then “is the newness of the Gospel, which is a feast, it is joy, it is freedom”. It is “that very redemption that the whole of mankind were waiting for when they were held by the law, but as prisoners”. And this is also “what Jesus meant to tell us: what do we do, Jesus, now?”. The answer is: “To what is new, newness; to new wine, new wineskins”. For this reason, the Pope explained, one need not “have fear of making changes according to the law of the Gospel, which is a law of faith”. St Paul “makes a good distinction: sons of law and sons of faith. To new wine, new wineskins”. This is why “the Church asks us, all of us, for a few changes. She asks us to leave aside fleeting structures; they aren’t necessary! And get new wineskins, those of the Gospel”.

Pope Francis then pointed out that “it is not possible to understand the mentality, for example, of these doctors of the law, these Pharisee theologians, with the spirit of the Gospel. They are different things”. In fact, “the Gospel’s approach is a different approach, which leads to the fulfillment of the law”. But “in a new way: it is the new wine in new wineskins”.

To the question posed by those Pharisees and scribes, the Pope observed, Jesus basically responded: “We cannot fast as you do during a feast. Days will come when the bridegroom is taken away”. And saying this “he was thinking of his passion, he was thinking of the times of the passion of so many Christians, where there will be a cross”.

The fact remains, however, that “the Gospel is newness, the Gospel is a feast. And one can fully live the Gospel only in a joyous heart and in a renewed heart”. In this perspective the Pope asked the Lord for “the grace of this observance of the law: to observe the law — the law which Jesus brought to fulfillment — in the commandment of love, in the commandments which come through the Beatitudes: those commandments of the renewed law of the newness of the Gospel”.

May the Lord, Pope Francis concluded, “give us the grace of not being prisoners, but may he give us the grace of joy and of the freedom which brings us the newness of the Gospel”.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to the Vatican for the reflection.

09/03/2026

Go Preach!
Thursday, September 3

All disciples are called to bring others to Christ!

A Reading from the Holy Gospel
According to Luke
(5:1-11)

Glory to you, O Lord

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.

Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets."

When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon.

Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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Reflection by Pope Francis:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

This Sunday’s Gospel tells us — in St Luke’s narrative — of the call of Jesus’ first disciples (5:1-11). The event takes place in the context of everyday life: there are several fishermen on the shore of the lake of Galilee, who, after working all night and catching nothing, are washing and arranging their nets. Jesus gets into one of the boats, that of Simon, called Peter, whom he asks to put out a little from the shore, and he starts to preach the Word of God to the crowd of people who had gathered.

When he is finished speaking, he tells them to put out into the deep and cast the nets. Simon had previously met Jesus and felt the prodigious power of his word. Therefore, he responds: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets” (v. 5). And this faith of his did not disappoint: indeed, the nets filled with so many fish that they nearly broke (cf. v. 6). Facing this extraordinary event, the fishermen are greatly astonished. Simon Peter throws himself at Jesus’ feet, saying: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (v. 8.).

That prodigious sign convinces him that Jesus is not only a formidable master whose word is true and powerful, but he is the Lord, he is the manifestation of God. For Peter this close presence brings about a strong sense of his own pettiness and unworthiness. From a human point of view, he thinks that there should be distance between the sinner and the Holy One. In truth, his very condition as a sinner requires that the Lord not distance Himself from him, in the same way that a doctor cannot distance himself from those who are sick.

Jesus’ response to Simon Peter is reassuring and decisive: “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (v. 10). Once again the fisherman of Galilee, placing his trust in this word, leaves everything and follows the one who has become his Lord and Master. Simon’s workmates, James and John, do the same. This is the logic that guides Jesus’ mission and the mission of the Church: go in search, “fish” for men and women, not to proselytize, but to restore full dignity and freedom to all, through the forgiveness of sins. This is the essential point of Christianity: to spread the free and regenerative love of God, with a welcoming and merciful attitude toward everyone, so that each person can encounter God’s tenderness and have the fullness of life. Here, in a particular way, I think of confessors: they are the first who must give the Father’s mercy, following Jesus’ example, as did the two holy Brothers, Fr Leopold and Padre Pio.

Today’s Gospel challenges us: do we know how to truly trust in the Word of the Lord? Or do we let ourselves become discouraged by our failures? In this Holy Year of Mercy we are called to comfort those who feel they are sinners, unworthy before the Lord, defeated by their mistakes, by speaking to them the very words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid. The Father’s mercy is greater than your sins! It is greater, do not be afraid!”. May the Virgin Mary help us to ever better understand that being disciples means placing our feet in the footsteps left by the Master: they are the footprints of divine grace that restore life for all.

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Thanks to the USCCB for the reading and to the Vatican for the reflection.

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