Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for December 28, 2025
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. It is the fourth day of Christmas, the feast of the Holy Family, December 28th, and I’m coming to you from an iconic scene at Rockefeller Center here in New York City. Today, as the church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family and prays for families all around the world, the church has us ponder that scene of St. Joseph’s being awakened in a dream by an angel saying, “Get up quickly and flee to Egypt because Herod is seeking to assassinate the baby Jesus.” And so St. Joseph immediately having responded in that dream got Mary and Jesus and fled across the desert to Egypt. That’s just a sentence in sacred scripture. But what a journey that must have been in the middle of the night walking across an entire desert. with faith. Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus in order to protect him and they made a life there far from home. Anybody who knows to move is difficult. To set up a and find a new job, even when you’re a capable tradesman like Joseph, isn’t easy. To try to find a place to live and make a new life, as Mary would have had to do, challenging. Not to mention trying to bring an infant across the desert by foot. But nevertheless, they did all of that with faith. And then eventually after some time in a dream, the angel appeared to St. Joseph again and said, “The one who sought the boy is now dead. Get up and return to the Holy Land.” And without missing a beat, that’s what St. Joseph did again. And as they were nearing in a dream a third time said that Herod was present in Judah, southern part of the Holy Land. So don’t go back there. And so they returned to Nazareth where Jesus grew on up. Three dreams, three responses from St. Joseph. St. Joseph is a person we remember who received the dream not to be afraid in a dream the message not to be afraid to take Mary his wife into his home because it was of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was conceived in her. we’re so used to in a post Freudian age deconstructing our dreams and trying to find a deeper meaning and think that they perhaps have something to do with our sober unconscious. St. Joseph didn’t do any of that. He knew that God was speaking to him and he was so prompt that he didn’t deconstruct the dream, but he acted on it immediately. That’s a message for us at all times. How to respond to God. We want to respond promptly in whatever way he makes his will manifest. What is his will? His will is for us to go to the whole world and announce the gospel to every creature. And during these days of Christmas, we are able to enter on into the great mystery of what the angels did to announce the good news of great joy for all the people. Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people on whom God’s favor rests. Let’s take those commands to share our faith just as seriously as St. Joseph did in relation to the baby Jesus. Merry Christmas. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod had died, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel,
for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
He rose, took the child and his mother,
and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea
in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go back there.
And because he had been warned in a dream,
he departed for the region of Galilee.
He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth,
so that what had been spoken through the prophets
might be fulfilled,
He shall be called a Nazorean.