October 6, 2026 Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time or Optional Memorial of Saint Bruno, Priest Gospel: Luke 10:38–42
Today is Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint Bruno, Priest. According to the recently published Missal: Saint Bruno (c. 1035–1101), founder of the Carthusian Order, was born in Cologne and taught theology for about twenty years at Rheims (France). In 1084, he retired with six companions into the mountains near Grenoble (France) and founded the strict monastery of the Grande Chartreuse. Saint Bruno was summoned to Rome by his former pupil, Blessed Urban II, and while working for the Pope founded further monasteries in Italy.
Today, the passage from the Holy Gospel according to Luke presents us with the scene of Jesus being welcomed by Mary and Martha in Bethany. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.
We often join with those who, like us, have received the one Baptism of Christ and the one gifts of the Holy Spirit, hastening to the wedding feast of the Kingdom — the assembly of the People of God — the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When we participate in the Holy Mass, we often, like Mary, sit at the feet of Jesus (Cf. Lk 10:39), listening in the Liturgy of the Word to all that God proclaims to us through His servants. Christ the Lord, rich in mercy, continues to reveal to us the mysteries of the Kingdom through His Church, founded upon Saint Peter (the Rock) (Cf. Mt 16:18–19). When we listen to the Word of God in the Holy Mass, ripples often arise in our hearts, and emotionally, we may become like Martha, feeling various resentments towards our siblings because of their fervor for the Word of God. For we are anxious about everything that belongs to this world, rather than what belongs to God. At times, even when we offer prayers to God, we always ask Him for everything that belongs to this world, instead of conforming to His holy will and seeking from God, according to His good pleasure, all the graces we need.
As Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Cf. Lk 10:41–42) We should not be anxious about everything that belongs to this world, nor should we indulge in the works of the flesh, as Paul taught: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Cf. Gal 5:17–18) For us, through the Baptism of Christ we have received, we have once and for all departed from death. For, “through the baptism we have received, we have been united with Christ, united with His death, and buried with Him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.” (Cf. Rom 6:3–5) Therefore, only by following the Holy Spirit and accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit can we become children of God. (Cf. Rom 8:14)
Today, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Bruno, Priest. Let us imitate the virtues of the Saint, no longer pursuing worldly pleasures, no longer occupied with earthly things, but setting our minds on heavenly things, worshipping God with one heart, and worthily fulfilling the mission God has entrusted to us.
O God, who called Saint Bruno to serve you in solitude, grant, through his intercession, that amid the changes of this world we may constantly look to you alone. 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.
October 5, 2026 Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time or Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
Today is Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina. According to the recently published Missal: Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938) was born in the village of Głogowiec, Poland. At the age of eighteen, she felt the call to religious life and went to Warsaw to enter a convent. After a long period of discernment and working briefly as a housekeeper, she received the habit in 1926, becoming a Sister of Our Lady of Mercy. She lived in convents in Krakow, Płock, and Vilnius (Lithuania), humbly serving as a cook, porter, and gardener. She is best known for the visions she received from the Lord, recorded in her Diary, and for her promotion of devotion to the Divine Mercy. Suffering from tuberculosis, she died in Krakow on October 5, 1938, and was canonized by Saint John Paul II in 2000.
Today, the passage from the Holy Gospel according to Luke presents us with Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan. Let us try to understand it.
First, Saint Luke tells us that a lawyer stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But he, wishing to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Cf. Lk 10:25–29)
When I meditate on this passage, I often think of some brothers and sisters in the Church who always want to show off their biblical knowledge, intending to humiliate those siblings who are ignorant of God’s Word. They fail to recognize who their true neighbor is. In their eyes, only those who share their ambitions are their neighbors, while the marginalized, and those they consider unworthy, are not their neighbors.
Today, through the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Cf. Lk 10:30–36), Jesus invites us to discern through contemplation who our neighbor is, and what we should do to become a neighbor to others. He further tells us that Christians are called not only to be children of God and to pride themselves on professing faith in Christ, but also to live out God’s love for the world and to bring God’s love to it. Therefore, let us constantly discover our neighbors in life, and strive to become neighbors to others according to His holy will.
On this Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina, let us unite our hearts and minds and offer our prayers to God:
O God, who in a wondrous manner revealed the inexhaustible riches of your mercy to Saint Maria Faustina, grant, we beseech you, that by looking with trust upon the pierced side of your Son we may be strengthened to show mercy one to another and, at length, sing forever of your mercy in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God, forever and ever.
October 4, 2026 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Gospel: Matthew 18:21–35
Today is the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew tells us the parable about the vineyard spoken by Jesus. In fact, over the past few Sundays, we have already heard two stories from Jesus that use the image of a vineyard. Today is the third one. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.
First, Matthew tells us that Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.” (cf. Matt 21:33)
We see the shadow of the Old Testament in the parable spoken by Jesus. Clearly, this landowner refers to the Heavenly Father. The tenants are us. The author of Genesis tells us that when God created the world, He said: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living animals on earth!” God also said: “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit. They shall be yours for food. And to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food.” (cf. Gen 1:28–30) Today, God has entrusted this world He created to us, asking us to manage it well.
So how are we managing this world created by God? What are we offering to God? Let us look at the world we live in today: the world we live in is full of all kinds of violence. Those whom God created in His own image and likeness—this beautiful world God entrusted to us to care for—is constantly being harmed by war. Human relationships, distorted by human nature, are no longer harmonious. What binds people together is no longer fraternal affection, but self-interest. We are no longer content with what we have, so much so that we seize from others what does not belong to us—property and interests that are not ours. This is precisely the mindset of those tenants in the parable Jesus spoke today—those who refused to give the landowner his share of the produce. (cf. Matt 21:34–39) Because they believed they were entitled to all of it.
In the parable Jesus spoke, we see those servants who were continually sent to the vineyard by the landowner, and we see the landowner’s son. Those servants who were killed by the tenants are the Christian martyrs who faithfully fulfilled the mission the Heavenly Father entrusted to them. This spirit of martyrdom reached its peak in the landowner’s son—Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus Christ is the faithful servant of God, who always accomplished the will of the Father. When the Evangelist John speaks of the relationship between Jesus and the Father, he records these words of Jesus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what the Father does, the Son will do also.” (cf. John 5:19) Our Lord Jesus Christ also asks us to do the same. He says: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will be my servant. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” (cf. John 12:24–26) The meaning is this: if we place special value on everything we possess in our present life and are unwilling to let go of it, we cannot follow Him, much less accomplish His holy will, much less yield fruit.
Today, let us reflect: Are we those wicked tenants? Do we regard everything we currently possess so highly that we are unwilling to let it go, so as to possess the treasure the Heavenly Father gives us—treasure stored up in heaven, where thieves cannot break in and steal, nor moths destroy, treasure that never depreciates? If we make up our minds to let go of everything we currently possess, it means we have decided to accept the values of the Kingdom of Heaven spoken by Jesus, and to live according to those values. Then, like those servants who were killed by the tenants, we will faithfully accomplish the will of God, and with one accord offer this prayer to God:
Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. 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
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