Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for October 9, 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. I’m coming to you from our beautiful chapel in Manhattan. Today is the feast of St. John Henry Newman October 9th, the day he became a Catholic. In a few weeks, John Henry Newman is going to be declared by Pope Leo, the 38th doctor of the church. So today is really a big deal. In the gospel today, we see some illustrations of two things that were very vibrant in the life of St. John Henry Newman. The first is about persistence and the second is about prayer. Jesus gives us a parable of a neighbor who gets a guest in the middle of the night. He’s run out of bread. He has no way to feed and give hospitality to the neighbor. So, he goes and bangs on his neighbor’s door at midnight, and the neighbor doesn’t want to open the door and wake up the whole family just to give bread. But the other continues to knock and the man gets up because he just doesn’t want to have the knocking continue.
Pope Francis once commented that we have to bug God. We have to continue to bang on the door of heaven. If the neighbor would get up just because he doesn’t want to be bothered anymore, how much more will a father who loves us respond to our needs, respond to our petitions? We’re changed when we pray with perseverance. It allows us to say, “Do we really need this?” And it helps us to learn how to persevere in life because we pray as we live, we live as we pray. If we’re quitters in prayer, we’re going to be quitters in the Christian life. The second thing Jesus teaches us about prayer which likewise characterized the life of St. John Henry Newman was these guarantees.
He says, “Knock and the door will be open to you. Seek and you will find. Ask and it will be given to you. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. He goes on, “What father among you would give his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread or a snake when he asked for a po for an uh for a fish? If you who are evil, he says, know how to give your kids good things, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Now, I like to think he was winking his eye when he said, “When you were evil, he loves us. He died for us. But if we know how to give good things to our kids out of love, how much more will God give things to us, too? But sometimes we don’t want to give it right away. For the kid who asks a bike on Thanksgiving, the parents want him to wait till Christmas. Sometimes God wants us to wait so that we can be purified along that journey. St. John Paul St. John Henry Newman was not only a great model of prayer, but of perseverance. He prayed for many years. lead me kindly light which was the way he referred to God specifically of whether he was to leave the Anglican church and become a Catholic and he is a sign for us of that type of persevering prayer his persevering prayer hasn’t stopped he continues to pray for us from heaven as we enter more deeply into world mission month we’re now 10 days from World Mission Sunday let us up our prayer through his intercession through the intercession of the great intercession behind me.
God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”