Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for November 3, 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 coming to you from the shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. It’s November 3rd, the feast of St. Martin de Porres. And in the Gospel today, Jesus talks to us from the setting of a dinner about where our real priorities should be. He was invited by one of the leading Pharisees to his home for dinner. And obviously all the important people had been invited to share that dinner with Jesus. But Jesus said to us and to everyone, when you throw a dinner, don’t invite your brothers and sisters, your relatives, your wealthy neighbors, all of whom can one day repay you by similar invitations. Instead, when you throw a dinner, he said, invite the poor, the lame, the blind, the crippled, those who often are on the margins of society, those who struggle ever to get an invitation because then you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous. Jesus wants us first to recognize that we’ve been invited by him not because of some type of importance, but because we’re often blind and can’t see him, lame and can’t follow him, deaf and can’t hear his voice, crippled in one way or the other, saddled by our own internal or external injuries. And Jesus nevertheless has invited us to enter into his banquet here on earth and forever. We should never forget that. And then we need to flip it. When we start to love others as he has loved us, we need to prioritize this invitation list. So all those who haven’t yet been able to see him, especially in his mystical body, the church, in our behavior, those who struggle somehow to insert themselves into community life. Those who are lame and don’t follow him, deaf and can’t hear him, crippled in one way or the other. This is what missionaries seek to do. Taking Jesus to the extremes to those who have been left behind in our world today. 8.1 billion people. 5.5 billion don’t know Jesus. We’ve got to go to them. Someone who did is St. Martin De Porres, the great Dominican saint from Lima, Peru. He was one who was mulatto. He was on the outskirts of society because of that. But the Dominicans took him in and then he served first his brother Dominicans and then all the poor in Lima in an extraordinary way. He went out after them. He fed them. He cut their hair. He cared for them when they were sick and wounded. He is a great intercessor for us in this month of the saints. And he’s also a great example for us to put into practice what Jesus is saying today as we pray through his intercession for all missionaries and for our holy father Pope Leo. Let’s show the living impact of what Jesus said today by acting on it. As we start to share our food with the hungry, we share our sight of the lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world with those who are presently blind to the most important thing of all, those who are crippled and injured and hurt in any way. Today we go out to them like St. Martin did to those in Lima. God bless you.
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
He said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”