Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for May 21, 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. I’m here in El Paso, Illinois, before the place where the future Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, one day this September 24th, Blessed Fulton J. Sheen was born and grew up. Behind me was a hardware store, and he lived above his family’s hardware store. That hardware store eventually burned to the ground, but it was here in this simple Main Street, more or less, which is called West Front Street, 25 Front Street in El Paso, Illinois, that the future great Archbishop Sheen was born. Today in the reading that we have for May 21st, we get into the heart of Jesus’s words about mission. It’s from the Last Supper. And Jesus prays to the Father not about the suffering he would endure the following day in fulfillment of all the prophecies, but he prayed that you and I, that the church throughout the globe, that all of us would be one, just as he and the Father are one by the person of the Holy Spirit. That’s an incredible request. We know that the Blessed Trinity cannot be more united. And Jesus was praying for us to have that same type of unity. And he then told us why. “May they be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be so completely one so that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them just as much as you love me.” What incredible words those are. That the whole credibility of Jesus’ incarnation, that he came into the world, he took on our humanity, that was all going to be credible on our communion. And that the world might believe that he was sent by the Father and that the Father loves us just as much as he loves the Son, that likewise hinges on our communion, on our unity, on our love for each other. If we’re not overflowing with that love for each other, people aren’t going to accept the Christian message of the love of God. These truths Fulton J. Sheen understood, preached, and tried to share all across the globe. He wanted the whole world to take seriously that God so loved us that he took on our humanity and to the world. Wanted the whole world to believe in the love that God has for us, a love that didn’t stop at anything, including Jesus taking on our humanity, and giving that humanity on the cross for our salvation. He wanted us to take seriously, likewise, the continuation of that self-giving in the Holy Eucharist. That’s where we find Jesus continually guarding it for us. That’s where we find the sacrament of divine love, that God loved us so much that he hides himself under the physical appearances of bread and wine, in order that we wouldn’t be intimidated to gnaw on his flesh and drink his blood, and draw our life from him, just like he drew his life from the Father. It all began with Fulton J. Sheen’s birth right here, May 8th, 1895, and then he became a great apostle thereafter. We ourselves have received a similar mission through the prayers of Fulton J. Sheen. Let’s ask that we be as faithful to that mission as he was, and let’s pray for all missionaries who carry forth to the ends of the world the truth of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God and of divine love and divine mercy that is extended to everybody everywhere. These are truths that we were born for. God bless you.
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”