Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 22, 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. In front of the Franciscan church in Krakow. Over my right shoulder is the statue of Prince Cardinal Sapieha who was the spiritual father to St. John Paul II. And this Franciscan church is where as Archbishop of Krakow, the future St. John Paul II used to come to pray the stations of the cross every Friday and then during Lent every day. It was a church he loved very much because he loved St. Francis too. Today, July 22nd, the church celebrates the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, one of the greatest saints of all time. She’s been called by Christian tradition the apostle apostles, the one who was the apostle to the apostles, bringing them the message of the resurrection. She went to them and said, “I have seen the Lord.” And that she carried Jesus’ instructions, tell my brothers that I’m going to my father and your father and that I will see them in Galilee. And that’s precisely where seven of the disciples met Jesus. Mary Magdalene was someone whose life had been changed by Jesus and she couldn’t keep her love for Jesus to herself. She had been cured of seven demons by Jesus. And then she followed Jesus closely and then she sacrificed for him along with a couple other women in order to care for his and the apostles material needs. She loved him all the way to the end. And she was the one there at dawn at the first day of the week, two days after Jesus was crucified in order to be able to continue to care for what she thought was his cadaver. But he had risen from the dead. When he met her in the garden, she was sent on mission by the Lord Jesus. The church and missionaries all over continue the mission of St. Mary Magdalene, to be able to say to everyone, I have seen the Lord. I have heard the Lord. I have even eaten the Lord, but my life has been changed by the risen Jesus. This is the mission of the church that St. John Paul II carried out, that Pope Leo continues to carry out, and that you and I, through St. Mary Magdalene’s intercession, are meant to take across the globe because we, like her, have seen the Lord. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
“Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he told her.