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Today’s readings .   One of the recurring ways God works in Scripture is by letting his word come through those who seem least important in the eyes of the world. The first reading from today tells us that Naaman’s first movement toward healing comes from a slave girl who pointed him toward God’s prophet.    We live in a world that teaches us to look upward for wisdom: to the wealthy, the powerful, the accomplished, the successful, the ones in the boardroom, or at the leaders

Today’s readings . Jesus’ parable emphasizes that the tenants forget that the vineyard is not theirs, and what was entrusted to them slowly becomes something they treat as their own.  The message hits close to home for those of us entrusted with serving others in the Church—whether in ministry, formation, education, or leadership. It is possible to work so constantly in the things of God that we begin, almost without noticing it, to treat the work as though it were our own. W

Today’s readings .   We get the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in today’s Gospel where the rich man is not accused of cruelty, but of indifference. Jesus tells us that Lazarus was lying at the rich man’s gate and the tragedy is not active hatred but a kind of settled indifference. The poor man is right there in the rich man’s ordinary path of life, almost as if placed there as an invitation to compassion and mercy. In this sense, Lazarus is not merely a burden at the doo

Today’s readings .   There’s a noted reality in today’s readings: sometimes we do good, and what comes back is suspicion, distortion, even a kind of silent campaign to “carefully note our every word.” Jeremiah experiences this. And Jesus, on the way to Jerusalem, is clear about what awaits him for all the good that he’s done.     St. John Chrysostom, noting this dynamic, teaches that we are actually the greatest gainers from the insolence of others, because it pleases God whe

Today’s readings .   All of today’s readings signal that it’s entirely possible to surround ourselves with religious language and practices and still remain internally untouched. The more subtle danger is not outright hypocrisy, but the slow shaping of our interior life by whatever we constantly take in. Our eyes and ears are formative, and when we fill them with noise, outrage, divisive commentary—even under the banner of being “informed”—it makes it difficult to cultivate t

Each Lent, I make a daily habit of reading the day’s Mass readings, sitting with them long enough for God’s grace to stir my heart, and then putting a few short thoughts into a journal on my laptop. I started doing this several years ago as a simple way to grow closer to God by paying closer attention to what the Church places before us each day. I’m sharing my 2026 reflections in the hope of naming a few ways Jesus is already present in ordinary life—where most conversion ac

Today’s readings .   I’m struck again by Jesus’ words about gifts that come back “packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.”   I’m reminded of how some of the Church Fathers speak of almsgiving as a kind of lending to God: when we give to those who cannot give back, we are “lending” from our treasury into God’s hands, and that’s where the overflow begins. And yet what we give was never purely ours to begin with. The time, the money, the strength, the patience—they are tr

Today’s news involving strikes on Iran and immediate military responses leaves me with the familiar heaviness of escalation: the sense that suffering is being accelerated, and that ordinary people will again absorb the consequences of decisions made far above them. In moments like this, I return to Vietnamese war-era songs that still dare to cry, hòa bình ơi—peace, come.

Today’s readings . The psalms really have been jumping out at me: “If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who could stand?” And then it gives a wonderful reminder: “With you is forgiveness.”    God’s mercy is like the air; it surrounds us so thoroughly that we can forget it’s even there, and yet it is what keeps us alive. Still, air has to be received. The lungs must open, and breathing is the act that we must take in order to continue living. Mercy is much the same way. God’s forg

Today’s readings .   One of our human instincts is assume that if God were really helping, the situation would change, the tension would ease, or the obstacle would move. Yet, we find in today’s readings a reminder that often what actually changes is us. While the deadline remains, the diagnosis remains, or the difficult conversation still waits, something inside is steadier, clearer, a less reactive.    There is a kind of grace that does not remove the burden but strengthens

Today’s readings .   The line “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” from the Our Father prayer sticks out to me every time I utter it.  Because, here, Jesus is revealing the shape of a heart that can receive mercy. I once heard a priest describe this petition as a mirror: we ask for mercy in the very measure we’re willing to live it. Indeed!   Isaiah tells us that God’s word goes forth like rain and does not return empty; it is meant to soft

Today’s readings .   It is easy to imagine that our faith would be stronger if only God would make himself more obvious. We tell ourselves that if there were one more sign—one clearer intervention, one undeniable proof—we would finally settle into trust.    Yet today’s Gospel unsettles that assumption. Jesus tells us that the problem is rarely the absence of signs; rather, it’s the condition of the heart that receives them. Miracles can confirm faith, but they cannot create i

Today’s readings .   “Love your neighbor as yourself” can often times become a cliché; we cherish the sentiment while ignoring the substance of the what it demands. A Saint who reminds me that it’s doable is Thérèse of Lisieux.   In Story of a Soul , she admits she preferred certain sisters and felt quietly irritated by others. Yet instead of avoiding the ones who frustrated her, she chose closeness and generosity.    She tells of being splashed with dirty water in the laundr

Today's readings. It’s fitting that Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom and speaks of the days when he will be “taken away.” In doing so, he gives fasting a relational meaning: it becomes a way of remaining faithful in the absence of Someone we love.   In Vietnamese war-time songs, there is a recurring motif of a bride whose husband has gone off to war, and she chooses not to adorn herself as she waits. In loyalty, she withholds makeup, from her true devotion; her simplicity b

Today's readings .   The responsorial Psalm really spoke to me today, and the wisdom here is simple: We take on the tincture of what we remain near, and, over time, proximity gives way to character. I recall reading St. Hilary of Poitiers suggesting how “trivial” the image can seem to the world: a tree, some water, some fruit.  This, he says, is because modern eyes often treat growth as either accidental or purely self-made. But the psalm insists on a different way of thinkin

Today's readings . Ash Wednesday is the Church’s way of taking us back to the Source. “Return to me with your whole heart” is a summons to come home, and to come home honestly, with a heart opened wide rather than a life managed for appearances. Growing up in Tu Bông, a rural hamlet in Vietnam, one of my daily jobs was starting the fire in our earthen wood-burning stove so my mom could cook lunch and dinner. I always enjoyed the flame more than the ash. The flame was dramatic

Salt preserves; light reveals. Matthew 5:13–16 turns my thoughts to Esther, a woman who remained faithful in a foreign court, and to what it means to stay “salty” and unhidden in a strange land.

Christian service is not done for something, but for Somebody; and that difference changes everything.

Beauty trains the soul to notice. Without it, even suffering becomes invisible.

When consolation disappears, faith is revealed not as a feeling, but as a choice to remain.