November 19, 2026
Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Luke 19:41-44

Today is Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time. The passage taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke tells us of the lament Jesus uttered when He beheld Jerusalem, foreseeing all that would befall it. Let us seek to understand.

In times past, before we came to know Christ, we were like that Jerusalem over which Jesus wept. This Jerusalem is born of Hagar. Because of the disobedience of our first parents, from the moment we left our mother’s womb, we lived under the dominion of sin and death. The whole of creation, too, because of the sins we committed, groans in travail together with us. Our enemy — the source of all evil — the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (cf. 1 Pet 5:8). Those whom the devil devours are those whose faith is weak. In our daily lives, we are often assailed by the devil and his minions and are thereby drawn into strife. In those moments, our condition is no different from that Jerusalem over which Jesus wept (cf. Luke 19:41-44). Yet the infinitely merciful God does not abandon us to perish, so that we might fall into eternal death at the second death. He wills that we receive the Baptism of Christ, that we might be united to Him, and that our old self, subject to death, be crucified together with Christ, so that the self which belonged to sin might perish, and we might no longer be slaves to sin (cf. Rom 6:6). He also wills that we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh, receive His guidance, and become children of God (cf. Rom 8:13-14). Thus we are children of the Jerusalem above, children of freedom (cf. Gal 4:21-27), and by sharing the one cup of blessing and the one bread that is broken, we are united in the Body and Blood of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 10:16-17), growing together in mutual exhortation toward holiness, and by professing the one faith on earth, becoming the visible Church for the world.

As we approach the end of Ordinary Time, let us, with full faith, offer our prayers to God:

O Lord our God, grant us the joy of being unfailingly devoted to You, for to serve the Creator of all good with constancy is full and lasting happiness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica