Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for November 6, 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. It’s November 6th. I’m coming to you from the beautiful property of the shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. Today in the Gospel, Jesus describes to us the incredible joy of heaven whenever one of his sons and daughters comes back to him. He uses two great parables to emphasize it. And we all know what the third great parable was following upon these two. The first was of a lost sheep. Second was of a lost coin. And the third were about two lost sons. First the lost sheep. Which one among you, if a sheep gets lost, doesn’t leave the 99 sheep behind and go in search of the one who was lost and then finding it carries it back joyfully on the shoulders and ignites a celebration for that lost sheep. Second, the lost coin. This is an image that doesn’t quite make sense to us, but it would be like a woman’s losing a wedding ring and then trying to find it. He says, “Which woman among you, if she loses a coin, doesn’t sweep the house to try to find it? And when she finds that coin, calls everyone over to celebrate the finding of that lost coin.” In Jewish matrimonial liturgies, the women had a headband with 10 precious coins there. That was a sign of their marriage. And if they lost one of those 10 coins, it would be like someone losing a wedding ring today. And how joyful we would be after having found that wedding ring, especially if we were looking for it for hours or days and fearing that we had lost it. And Jesus says with regard to both of these, so it will be in heaven whenever anybody comes back, he says, “Heaven rejoices more for one repentant sinner than for 99 who never needed to repent. Heaven rejoices more whenever we’re able to bring back to him someone he created, someone he died for, someone he deeply loves and wants to be in communion. That’s what motivates the missionaries. How do we respond to this message? That’s the third parable which we don’t have in the Gospel today, but we know it. It’s the parable of the prodigal sons. First, the one who squandered everything and went to a far away land and eventually came to a census and returned. And then the other son who was judging his brother but still didn’t know the father’s love and almost treated him like a slave master. God wants us to sheer his zeal for a hundred out of a hundred. This is what missionaries do. Missionaries prioritize those who don’t know the Lord Jesus or who are for whatever reason distant and they go out in search of them in order to bring them into his fold. They are like one of these lost coins. Even though there might be other nine other coins still present, we recognize missionaries recognize that God cares and that the joy of bringing somebody back is greater than even the great joy of the retention and that we if we know those who are lived prodigal lives or who are sort of caught up in their own judgmentalism, we need to help them to come to discover the real love of the father. We pray for all missionaries today as they continue their hunt for those lost sheep. And we remember that out of the 8.1 billion in the world, 5.5 billion are presently lost. They don’t really know Jesus who is the way. And we’ve been sent out as Jesus’s disciples in order to try to bring them back on our shoulders if necessary. And if we do, we will ignite in extraordinary celebration among the great North American martyrs, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, who was born here, and all the saints. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on
Gospel
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So Jesus addressed this parable to them.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”