Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for September 19, 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 a Manhattan rooftop, trying to awake the dawn by proclaiming the gospel literally from rooftops as Jesus calls us to. In today’s gospel, we see Jesus’s preaching and we also see how people were assisting him in the work of evangelization. First, St. Luke tells us that Jesus was going to all the surrounding towns and villages proclaiming the gospel, teaching and healing.
Jesus himself really never stopped walking. He would go from place to place in order to share the good news. He calls us to follow him in doing so. Everyone we meet is an opportunity for us to be able to share who we are at our depth and the inspiration that we receive from the Lord Jesus. It doesn’t mean necessarily to be preachy, but sometimes it does mean explicitly to share that the reason why we’re smiling, the reason why we’re having a good day, the reason why we’re still bearing whatever sufferings we have with an upbeat, hopeful spirit is because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Everywhere we go, we’re supposed to be going like Jesus to towns, villages, to cities, to other countries, bringing the good news that he is and has proclaimed. The second thing we see in that scene is it says that there were a bunch of women following, and named three of them. It said Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had been cast out by Jesus, kind of the seven capital sins, a woman by the name of Susanna about whom it says nothing, and then a woman named Joanna who was the wife of Herod Antipas’s money man Chuza, and it said many others were similarly accompanying Jesus and providing for him and for the apostles out of their resources. This isn’t just a witness to the feminine genius as St. John Paul II coined the term. This is a witness to the real love that these women had for what Jesus himself was doing. Doesn’t mean that women can’t share the faith. All disciples are called to share the faith. But there was a particular way that these women at the time of Jesus were sharing in Jesus’s incredible work in the culture of the time. It wouldn’t have made sense for women to be publicly preaching, but they wanted to help on out. And so they traveled with Jesus and the apostles. It’s clear from the context that they were cooking, that they were caring for these men who had no place to lay their heads.
We give so much thanks today for all those who support missionaries. Jesus and his apostles continue to go out in every age. Not everybody can follow them. Not everyone can go into the jungle and proclaim the faith, but we’re all called throughout the Church to support the work of evangelization, just like these beautiful women did. So that one day in the book of life, your name and mine might be after Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna.
God bless you.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based was:
Gospel
Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others
who provided for them out of their resources.