Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Daily Reflection for September 25, 2025
Here is the video of today’s reflection.
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. It’s September 25th. I’m coming to you from a Manhattan rooftop as dawn rises. Today in the gospel, we see a scene where Herod the tetrarch, Herod who had had John the Baptist beheaded in prison, afflicted with a guilty conscience. He’d begun to hear about Jesus and all that Jesus was preaching and doing. And he thought that he was John the Baptist risen from the dead. And it said he wished to see Jesus. He ardently desired to see him.
You don’t have to have a guilty conscience to want to see Jesus. But those who are afflicted by a sense of unforgiven guilt absolutely want to see him. But those with better consciences like the Greeks in the 12th chapter of St. John’s Gospel who came to Jerusalem and said, “We wish to see Jesus.” They’re even more numerous. People want to find God. They want to receive from him what only he can give. Mercy, love, blessing.
Missionaries take that Jesus all across the globe. They make it possible for people to be able to see the Lord Jesus. That’s why all of us have a duty to help in the mission of the church. The people around us wish to see Jesus. The people far-flung wish to see Jesus. As the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the question of what to do with the 5.5 out of 8 billion people alive who don’t have a personal knowledge of Jesus is always before me. Is it before you? It’s clearly before Jesus in the church.
And that’s why missionaries go far away from home in order to go to some of the remotest places on the planet in order to bring Jesus so that people can see him, be seen by him so that they’ll be able to feel the depth of his love looking at them on the inside. Be called by them to a new and fresh life called along that way of salvation. Today we pray for all missionaries all across the globe. We pray for the fruitfulness of their work. We pray for all those who have been made to seek and see God that they might have those prayers heard by God directly and through his church working in concert with him. Today, as we hear this gospel, we recognize that people all over the world, from the corrupt to the virtuous, wish to see the Lord. And we are part of the Lord’s response to those prayers. God bless you.
At the end of today’s reflection, brothers and sisters, I just want to make a special invitation to you. We’re getting closer to the month of October, which is two things. First, it’s World Mission Month, which we pray for and sacrifice for missionaries, which has its culmination on World Mission Sunday, which this year is October 19th. And secondly, October is the month of the Holy Rosary. And in honor of both of these month-long celebrations, the Pontifical Mission Societies USA are going to be getting together with anybody who wants to join us from all over the country and world to pray the world mission rosary. This was put together by my predecessor, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen when he was director of the Pontifical Mission Societies to pray through Our Lady’s intercession the Holy Rosary for missionaries and those they’re serving in each of the continents of the world. Below on this email you’ll be able to click on a box which will allow you to sign up to join us. I hope you will pray the World Mission Rosary with us throughout the month of October.
The Gospel reading on which the reflection was based on:
Gospel
Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
“John has been raised from the dead”;
others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;
still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”
But Herod said, “John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”
And he kept trying to see him.