Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for September 12, 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 September 12th, the memorial of the holy name of Mary. Today in the gospel, the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus urges us to become like him. He gives us a promise. He says, “No student is greater than his teacher, no disciple greater than his master. It’s enough for the disciple to become like the master.” Jesus wants us to become like him. He is the image of the Father, and he wants us to be as merciful as the Father. He wants us to become holy like he is holy. He wants us to learn how to love as he loves. And the whole of the Christian life is a training Jesus gives us to be like him.
In today’s gospel he talks about one way he wants us to be like him which is in our vision. What and who we see when we look outward. He says a blind person can’t lead another blind person. They’re both going to end up in a, in a pit. He wants us to be clear-sighted. But he says sometimes we have things that prevent our seeing things as they really are. He says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? First, take out the log so that you might see clearly, so that you might help your brother take out the splinter in his eye.” He recognizes psychologically that a lot of the times when we want to distract ourselves from our own problems, we start noticing everybody else’s defects. He wants us first to look in the mirror. He wants us to look in our soul. He wants us to see what is in the way of our seeing him in others, in situations, with us, always. So that removing that sin through a good confession, for example, we might be able in charity to look at our brother’s defects so that we’re not trying to focus on their faults to lift us up and distract us from our own, but out of real love because we know their faults impede their seeing and following Jesus in life.
Today on this memorial of the Holy Name of Mary, we think about that sweet name. Jesus and St. Joseph used to call her by that name. We do every time we pray the second half of the Hail Mary. Holy Mary, mother of God. We’ve had this feast ever since 1683 with the Battle of Vienna against the Turks, the Muslims who were coming. And many historians think that Islam would have run over the Christians throughout Europe if they had won the battle of Vienna. King Jan III Sobieski of Poland and his troops invoking the name of Mary, Our Lady of Czestochowa were able to defeat the invading Turks. And so, we’ve had that name as a sign of protection, as a sign of help, as a token of invocation because Mary never ceases to respond to her sons and daughters in need. Today we call upon her so that we might remove the wooden logs from our own eyes and follow Jesus her son all the way so that we might become like our master as she was. God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
Gospel
Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”