Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for August 5, 2026
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
The YouTube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of the Church in the United States. It’s August 5th, the Feast of the Dedication of Mary Major in Rome, and I am here at the home where Pope Leo the 14th grew up. So, as the hearts of the Church all turn to the principal Marian Basilica in Christianity, where Pope Leo himself regularly visits, we’re able to pray for him here through Our Lady that she may protect him and guard him and guide him. Today in the Gospel, we have an image of Our Lady’s persistence in prayer, but it’s from uh non-Jewish woman, a Syro-Phoenician woman up in Tyre in present-day Lebanon, a place for which we pray because it’s suffered so much in recent battles. They are this Canaanite woman came up to Jesus, who was escaping from many of the crowds, a place where not everybody knew him, but she had heard of him. She went up and begged for his assistance because her daughter was sick with a demon. He didn’t say anything. Then she went to Jesus’ followers, to the 12 who were accompanying him, and she was driving them crazy. And so, they turned to Jesus and said, “Please tell her to get out of here.” And Jesus just simply said, “I was sent only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You’re not a lost sheep of the house of Israel, and therefore, no.” Then she came up and she said one of the most important words in any language, “Help me. Help.” And Jesus said, “It’s not fit to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” On the surface, that seems like an incredible insult, but there was this game that was played between Jews and Gentiles at the time in which they’d refer to each other as animals, much like Red Sox fans would refer to Yankees fans as the evil empire, etc. It wasn’t really meant that way, but it was a cultural distinction. And Jesus used it again as an extraordinary test of this woman’s faith. And the woman passed the test, just like she passed the test of the silent treatment, just like she passed the test that she wasn’t a lost sheep of the house of Israel. She replied to those words of Jesus that it’s not fit to take the food of the children, toss it to the dog. She said, “Yes, but even the dogs eat the scraps that come from their master’s table.” She was basically saying that he was the good shepherd even of the Chihuahuas, that even though she wasn’t a lost sheep, she was still his, as was her sick, as was her possessed daughter. And so Jesus said incredible words, “Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done according to your according to that faith.” And at that hour, the daughter was healed. Jesus was testing the woman, giving her a chance to grow in faith, giving her a chance to persevere. And that’s what led to one of the most extraordinary compliments in the whole gospel, “Great is your faith.” Jesus wants our faith to be great. And sometimes he puts us through similar challenges, where we pray and he doesn’t seem to answer, where the news gets worse, where we might even take offense and passive-aggressively sort of wander away, rather than out of persevering love for the people for whom we’re praying, stick with it, out of faith in his ultimate goodness. That’s what this woman teaches us. That’s likewise the way our lady prays. She never gives up on us, her children. And as we mark her feast day, the feast of Saint Mary Major, we thank God the Father for choosing her to be the mother of his son and that same son from Calvary choosing her to be our mother and we all pray for Pope Leo that through our Lady’s intercession he might become truly holy and that she might guide him as the seat of wisdom in all his choices and decisions. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
“Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But he did not say a word in answer to her.
His disciples came and asked him,
“Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”
He said in reply,
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”
And her daughter was healed from that hour.