Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for November 29, 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. Here on the grounds of the shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York, before the statue of the co-Mediatrix of the missions, St. Theresa of the child Jesus, the holy face, probably known as the little flower or St. Theresa of Lisieux. Today is the last day of the lurgical year. It is something for which we give God thanks for all the graces that he has bestowed upon us in what was supposed to be a year of the Lord. Now the civil year is not over. The jubilee of hope is not over. But this liturgical year comes to a close today and tomorrow we begin the lurgical season of Advent in which we retrace all of salvation history. Today in the Gospel, Jesus helps us to conclude this month of meditation on the last things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell with some words about what not to do and then what to do. What not to do. He says, “Don’t give into a life of carousing and anxiety.” We’re living in an anxious age. So many people are worried, but a lot of the times people try to medicate those worries precisely by carousing and drunkenness. Jesus wants a different way for us. For us, he says, “Be vigilant and pray that you may have the strength to overcome whatever tribulations are on their way and to stand before the son of man.” For us to be ready, for us to be prompt to welcome Jesus when he comes today, tomorrow, on the last day we have or the last day of the world, we need to be praying. We need to be uniting our life to him. Have our life in conversation with him. especially through specific times of prayer. But at the same time, we must be vigilant. We must be alert and awake. We can’t be asleep, to be awake, to be vigilant is a summary of the entire Christian life that the Lord has been urging us to adopt throughout this month of November as we have been doing these meditations from the beautiful shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. As we finish these reflections and the last things, I just want to turn to the co-patronist of the missions, St. Theresa. She wasn’t afraid to die at the age of 24, because she knew because of just who the Lord is, that she’d have an opportunity not just to continue to live after her death of to tuberculosis in 1897, but that she’d be able to continue to do good in heaven, just like she was able to do so much good through her prayers here on earth. And so from heaven, she continues to pray for missions, for missionaries, for all of us to take up our great missionary identity. There’s something she said that should haunt us all. When a missionary priest adopted brother for whom she was praying asked her, “How is it possible 18 centuries after Jesus lived, suffered, died, and rose that so many in the world still don’t know his holy saving name?” She said, “It’s because of the complacency and the laziness of Christians that we’re totally fine going on with our own life when so many don’t know the root, the center, the source, and the summit of her life, who is Jesus.” And that’s one of the reasons why she’s a co-Mediatrix for the missions because it really bothered her that there were so many of the good shepherd sheep that were not conscious in his fold. Today, 5.5 billion out of the 8.1 billion alive don’t know Jesus. And that’s one of the reasons why we have to stay awake, to pray, to be vigilant, to stand before the son of God now, and then standing bring him to others through the intercession of the little flower. We thank the Lord for all the grace of this year. And as we prepare for the next lurgical year starting tomorrow, let’s ask for the grace too to make it an even greater year of the Lord. Grace upon grace. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”