Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for May 31, 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 Holy Trinity Sunday, May 31st. I’m coming to you from the campus of the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the most important mystery in the Catholic faith, as well as in Catholic life. A lot of the times when I quiz people, what’s the most important teaching in Christianity? They’ll say, “Love one another as I have loved you,” for example. It’s a good guess, but it’s not true. The most important teaching in Christianity is the teaching of who God is. And we know that God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we are called to enter into the mystery of the Trinity, not just to know it, because the mystery of the Trinity, as the Catechism says, is the most important mystery in human life. God’s huge desire is for us to enter into him. And the whole mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is to bring us into communion with the Father. In today’s Gospel, Saint John tells us that God so loved the world that he didn’t spare his own Son. But that that Son came so that we might not perish, but have eternal life. And eternal life begins by believing in that mission of the Son. And the mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, is to help us believe in everything Jesus taught. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. He reminds us of everything Jesus has taught. And both the Son and the Holy Spirit help us to cry out Abba Father, to recognize that all of life is patrocentric, that it’s all geared back toward the Father, who loved us enough that we have that twofold mission within who God is, within the Trinity. For us, as we focus every morning on the missionary dimension of whatever Gospel we have, it’s important for us to see the missionary dimension of this great feast. Jesus was the first missionary, sent by the Father into the world to reveal the Father’s love, to reveal the Father’s face, to put into action the Trinitarian plan. Jesus completed his mission with his death on Calvary and his resurrection on the third day. And then he prepared the church for Pentecost as we celebrated last Sunday, the mission of the Holy Spirit, who was sent by the Father and the Son to help us give joint witness with the Spirit to everything Jesus said and did, to bring Jesus’ salvation to the ends of the earth. For us as Christians, we’re called to cooperate with that twofold mission and become missionaries, continuing with the help of the mission of the Holy Spirit the mission of the eternal Son of God, so that the whole world may know that God the Father so loved the world that he didn’t spare his only begotten Son, but gave him to save us all. Today, let’s pray for missionaries everywhere that they might be faithful in completing this mission. Let’s pray for us that we might recognize the missionary dimension of our Trinitarian life into which we entered the day we received the glorious sacrament of baptism. God bless you all. >> [music]
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.