Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for December 18, 2025
The Youtube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. Behind me is the statue of Blessed Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, who prepared so many people for Catholic for Christmas. And in the background, you can hear the beautiful choir of St. Patrick’s giving background music for this video. December 18th is a day in which we focus on what we will likewise hear as the gospel on Christmas Eve. St. Matthew’s account of the nativity and particularly St. Joseph’s role in the nativity after Mary had been visited by the archangel Gabriel and had conceived the eternal word Jesus Christ within her womb. St. Joseph when he saw her come back from the visitation very pregnant had decided as we know to divorce her quietly. It was a great mystery of how she ended up pregnant but whether he was scandalized or whether he thought himself unworthy to be able to care for her if she had conceived virginally. He just didn’t think he was the person for the job. And that’s when the angel appeared to him in a dream and said, quote “Don’t be afraid, Joseph, to take Mary, your wife, into your home because it’s the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. “And as soon as he woke up, he did as the angel said. We all have to approach Christmas the way St. Joseph does as a just man who adjusted his entire life to the mystery that was unfolding before him. Just as Joseph’s life changed because of the presence of Jesus in the world at that point in the womb of the woman to whom he was espoused according to the law. So all of us are supposed to have our lives impacted by the fact that Jesus the eternal son of God has come and remains in the world in the Holy Eucharist. What the church brings through the missions all across the globe is this adjustment that we learn from St. chosen to the reality, the incarnation, the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ongoing mission of Jesus’ body and bride, the church. Let’s ask St. Joseph’s intercession on this December 18th, that this last week of Christmas, we might live in a particularly calibrated way to the mysteries we are celebrating. That is what blessed Michael McGivney used to always prepare his parishioners in New Haven, Connecticut and in Thomas, Connecticut to do. That is what the Lord is asking us to do and that’s what we pray that missionaries will be able to help their people do all across the globe. One week to go. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
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.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.