Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 15 ,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 in the United States. It’s Wednesday, July 15th, the feast of the great Franciscan, Doctor of the Church, Saint Bonaventure. Coming to you from a place of real Christian learning, Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary, aka Mundelein, in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I’m before the beautiful pillar of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, before the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Today in the Gospel, we have an opportunity to enter into Jesus’ prayer. Jesus exclaims, Saint Matthew tells us, “I give you thanks, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for what you have hidden from the wise and the clever, you have revealed to the merest of children. Yes, Father, such was your gracious will.” There’s so much contained in this small little prayer. All Jesus’ prayers start by turning to his Father, whom we recall Abba, or Daddy. All prayer’s supposed to be filial. We’re not praying to some life force far away in the universe. We’re praying to somebody who loves us more than all the moms and dads love their little kids. I give you praise, Abba, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And then Jesus tells him why, “For what you have hidden from the wise and the clever of the world, you have revealed to the childlike.” There are many who are sophisticated, whose sophistication is an obstacle to faith. They’re constantly looking for some reason why what’s staring in the face might not be true. They’re always coming up with some excuse not to commit themselves. Jesus wants us to convert and become like little children, those who trust, those who are willing to do what the authorities in their life say, what their mom and their dad tell them, what God himself tells them. Jesus was praising the disciples whom he had just sent out as apostles, whom he had just instructed, because they were accepting what he was teaching them like little children, not people trying to debunk it. And then Jesus said, “Yes, Father, such was your gracious will. Amen, Father. That’s exactly what makes me so pleased.” For us, Jesus wants us to accept the whole treasure of the faith like little children. We remember what it was like when we were kids, how we would accept the truths of faith, that God was real, that God was with us every day, that God was there in church, that the priest worked for God, that God worked in the sacraments, that we prepared to receive Jesus inside, and we did, that we went to confession, Jesus was healing us through the same priest through whom he would give us his body and blood, that the word of God was actually God’s word, and that we were supposed to listen to it unlike we would listen to any other word, unlike any other wisdom. This is what Jesus was praising the Father for. To the extent that you and I are childlike in the faith, Jesus praising the Father for us. He’s praising the Father for all the childlike faith of missionaries, who had a love for the Lord, just wanted to spread love of him everywhere. Gives thanks for the faith of all those who come here to this seed bed, to this seminary of the faith, in order to be nourished so that they could become priests and go on out and help people trust in the Lord. Through the intercession of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, through the intercession of Saint Bonaventure, who was a childlike Franciscan, who became so learned he became a doctor of the church and taught us all how to relate to the Lord, we pray for the church everywhere, that we might impress the Lord by our childlike response as his disciples and as his apostles. The very end of his itinerary and to the mind of God, Saint Bonaventure said, “Now is the time to stop talking about prayer and to actually start praying. Now’s the time to stop talking about spiritual childhood, but to become more childlike. God bless you.”
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”