Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for July 22,2026
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 is Wednesday, July 22nd, the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. And I’m coming to you from Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. Today on this Feast, we encounter the scene of Mary Magdalene’s running to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. She went and she found the stone rolled away. And her first reaction to it was not, “Jesus risen, just like he said on the third day.” But, “Someone has taken the body of the Lord.” So, she ran into the city in order to be able to find the apostles, Peter and John and the others, who were locked in the upper room and said, “They have taken the Lord’s body and we don’t know where they have placed him.” Peter and John ran to the tomb. Mary herself ran back after Peter and John had peered on in and just seen the burial cloths there, but not Jesus. Saint John began to believe. They went to tell the other apostles. Mary Magdalene followed shortly thereafter and she just stayed outside of the tomb weeping. Weeping because she loved the Lord and weeping because she thought some bandits had stolen his body to desecrate it. She eventually saw a gardener there and she, not recognizing that the gardener was in fact Jesus, she turned to him and just begged, “If you’ve taken him and placed him somewhere, please tell me so that I can go get him.” It was an absurd request. The burial cloths were still in the tomb. Mary was going to take Jesus’ rigor mortis body, naked, throughout the streets of Jerusalem, but she was talking a little bit like a crazy woman. And that’s when Jesus spoke to her. He the good shepherd called his good sheep by name and just said Miriam. Mary. And she heard the way he pronounced her name. And even though he looked different, she turned around and just said Rabboni. Teacher. And then she tried to cling on to him. And Jesus said, “Don’t cling on to me because I haven’t yet ascended to my father and your father.” And then he gave her instruction. He said, “Go to my disciples and tell them I’m going to my father and your father, to my God and your God.” He sent her, as we call her to this day, as the apostola apostolis. As the apostle to the apostles, the missionary to the missionaries. And she went and she declared that news that she had seen the risen Lord. All of us are supposed to be like Mary Magdalene. All of us encountering the risen Lord are supposed to go tell other disciples first that we have seen the Lord, he has risen from the dead. We’ve tasted the risen Lord. We’ve been touched by the risen Lord. We’ve heard his word. We’re supposed to share first with our family members, with our fellow parishioners, etc. And then like Mary and like those apostles, we’re supposed to take the reality of Christ’s risen body and blood throughout the entire globe. Today on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, let’s go from sadness to joy. Let’s go from reticence to sharing. Let’s go from mourners to those totally full of life as we seek to fill the whole world with this life just like Mary Magdalene started that chain reaction Easter Sunday morning in that garden in the tomb. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
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.