Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for February 24, 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. Coming to you from the beautiful Basilica of St. Mary in Phoenix, Arizona. It is the seventh day of the Lenten season, February 24th. And in today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us how to pray. We remember at the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday that Jesus said, “When you pray, don’t pray like the pagans do. Just babble before God, thinking that they’d be heard by the multiplication of their words. Instead, when you pray, go to your inner room and pray to your father who’s in secret and your father who sees what is secret will reward you. He wants us praying ultimately for God the father in the most intimate realities of our life. And that’s what he adds in today’s gospel. He teaches us how to pray to that father in a way that would be pleasing to the father. And so he said when you pray say our father who art in heaven and he gives us the words of the our father. What an extraordinary gift it is to be able to pray. And when he teaches us the our father he teaches us not only what to ask for but the sequence of how to ask for it. First word in that prayer is Abba daddy. He wants us to pray with confidence as sons and daughters of god father of us all. He wants us to pray as brothers and sisters recognizing that it’s not about our individual relationship with the Lord but he wants us to envelop the whole world in those prayers all that God out of love has given a soul to who art in heaven to place our minds and our hearts where God is to live in his mildue. Hallowed be your name. That when we’re in this life, we’re not trying to make a name for ourselves. We’re trying to do everything for his glory. Thy kingdom come. Not our thief, his kingdom. We want everything related to him. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We want not our will, but his will to be done. What Jesus himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane at the end of this Lenton season. That’s where we start. We start with God as a father and we say your name, your kingdom, your will, not my own. What extraordinary wisdom there is there. And then Jesus turns to our great needs. He doesn’t say make us rich. He doesn’t say make us healthy, make us strong, make us tall, make us bold. Instead, he says give us today our super substantial bread. Not just the bread that our bodies need, but the living bread that our souls need. The word in Greek, as I’ve said before, is epusio, super substantial bread, which the Greek fathers all understood as a reference to the Holy Eucharist. Give us today your son in the Holy Eucharist. Give us a real spiritual nourishment. Then forgive us our trespasses just as we have forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven others. At the very end of the Our Father seed, Jesus says, “Because if you don’t forgive others their sins, neither will your heavenly father forgive you your sins.” That’s not because he wants to punish us and refuse to forgive our sins. It’s because he knows that unless we’re paying mercy forward, we can’t receive his mercy. So, he wants after having nourished us with Jesus to make us merciful like he is. And then two related petitions, don’t let us fall when tempted and deliver us from the evil one. We say, “Heavenly Father, we’re weak. Protect us. Protect us from the evil one. Protect me from falling into sin.” We turn to the father and ask for the three things we really need. Nourishment, forgiveness, and protection. Jesus gives us this our father because he wants us to pray it. And in Lent, we don’t pray it just as routine. We really mean it as we entrust ourselves to that father. Today we pray for missionaries all across the globe that they themselves might entrust themselves totally to God’s providence and help all those who don’t yet know God come to know him in such a way that they may make these words of the Lord’s prayer their own. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”