Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for November 18, 2025
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
The Youtube generated transcript for today’s reflection is:
I am Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. Coming to you from the shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York before the statue of St. Kateri, the youngest, the earliest American saint who died in 1680 and was raised to the altars by Pope Benedict the 16th. She is a great witness to the power of prayer. That’s what she was excellent at in adoring the Lord. And her life is a beautiful image of the life of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne whom Catholics in the United States celebrate today. The great French missionary who brought the faith to so many school children in St. Charles, Missouri, right outside of St. Louis, and then to um to young ones on the Potawatomi reservation in Kansas. Both of them teach us about the importance of prayer. And that’s what today’s Gospel is ultimately about. Jesus goes to Jericho, the lowest place on earth. Yesterday we remember he healed a blind man. Today he sees Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the whole region in a tree just trying to see him because Zacchaeus was too short to see over the crowd. And Jesus turned to Zacchaeus and he said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly because I must stay in your house today.” And when people complained that he was staying not just in the house of a sinner, not just in the house of a tax collector who conspired with the Romans in order to rip off his fellow Jews, but the chief tax collector. The reason it would be like the head of the mafia at the time. Jesus was going to stay at his home to share company with him, to share a meal with him. And Jesus said, “The son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost. He has come to save everyone who is not yet in relationship with him.” And that’s what we see in Zacchaeus. But he doesn’t just save Zacchaeus. He comes to stay in Zacchaeus house. It’s a sign that the Lord wants to abide in us. And the way that he does that is through prayer. St. Kateri Tekakwitha behind me, as soon as she discovered what was pleasing to the Lord, spent her life adoring him in prayer. She only lived a few years after a baptism, but those years were lived well. St. Rose Philippine Duchesne after her extraordinary labor trying to spread the faith to young people in St. Charles where because of the French teaching methods, the people didn’t like them. And she wrote back home saying, “They’re accusing us of everything except poisoning the children.” She suffered in order to pass on the faith, but she knew it was worth it. But when she was too frail at the end of her life, she said,” Send me out to Potawi so that I can teach in a different way.” And there all night, she would just pray for her fellow sisters on mission. The young ones, seeing her praying in the teepee where the blessed sacrament was, would crawl up behind her and put little pieces of paper on the back of her sweater to see whether she’d lie down at night and get that paper dislodged. When they would return in the morning, they would find that they were exactly where they had placed those pieces of paper on her back. And they nicknamed her Quah-kah-ka-num-ad, the woman who always prays. What an extraordinary way that we would be called if we were people of constant prayer. We’re not going to be able to be in a teepee with the Blessed Sacrament our whole life. But can we live our life in communion with God focused on him loving him receiving him into our house and rejoicing and adoring him within? That is what is possible for us. So today Jesus doesn’t call us but. He says I want to stay in your house today. May we receive him within as St. Kateri did as St. Rose Philippine Duchesne did so that with the Lord within we might be able to pray for the missions just like they teach us. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying,
“He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,
“Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,
and if I have extorted anything from anyone
I shall repay it four times over.”
And Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save what was lost.”