Daily Gospel Reflection on Veritas Catholic Network

Today is the feast of St. Thomas the apostle, the Gospel reading is John 20:24-29. It is the moment that Thomas demands to place his hand in the Lord’s side. What must be remembered before this event, Thomas is (mistakingly) ready to go into battle for the Lord, to die for the Lord. He’s ready to do whatever it takes. He’s no doubter at all. Moreover, as soon as he sees the Lord he confesses Jesus...

Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 8:23-27. Jesus is asleep in the boat and wakes up to find the disciples afraid and in chaos. The truth is that Jesus is present with us in the boat. He walks with us in every circumstance, constantly with us. Today, we need to ask for the grace to recognize Him in the boat, walking with us and accompanying us in every challenge and struggle.

Today’s Gospel is Matthew 8:18-22. Many people approach the Lord offering to follow Him, but almost all with a small caveat attached. Jesus reminds us that if we follow Him, there will be challenges. We must be like Him in all things, and sometimes that means we must suffer. Nonetheless, the Lord tells us not to wait, but to follow Him now. Today is the day, even if that means we have nowhere to l...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Mark 5:21-43. Today’s Gospel features two beautiful miracles of healing. Jairus’s daughter is healed and the woman who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years is healed. Jesus isn’t afraid to come to our place of suffering, he enters in and brings Himself and His love and mercy. These two healings are performed in two different ways. First, Jairus...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and today’s Gospel Reading is Mt 16:13-19. Today we have Peter’s great confession of faith and his being renamed Peter, that is “rock”. We stand firm on this apostolic foundation, that of Peter and the other disciples. Peter made the first confession of faith in Jesus, and now, we make the confession of faith because of what...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today's Gospel Reading is Matthew 8:1-4. A Leper comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean”. Jesus does will it and he continues to will healing for us. In the biblical imagination, leprosy is symbolic of what happens in the soul because of sin. So Jesus is showing us that he not only wills to heal our bodies in our ailments, but He wills to give u...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Matthew 27:21-29. Not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but everyone who listens to His word and acts on them will. Those who build their faith on solid rock, a faith that is unshakeable will do so. Jesus is telling us that we must place the fullness of our trust in Him, so that when we have doubts, our faith h...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Matthew 7:15-20. Just as a good tree can’t bear rotten fruit, we must beware false prophets, and we will know them by their fruit. Those false prophets are bad actors, those who say things that people want to hear, that just make them “feel good”, but ultimately aren't Gospel truths. Let us pray for the grace to bear good fruit and to be good tree...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel is Matthew 7:6,12-14. Jesus tells us that sometimes we need to know when to walk away. When to walk away from those who refuse to receive the Good News, ultimately, because they don’t want to.  Jesus tells us that there is more to the Gospel than just being a good person. We have to go further than that which is strictly required of us. Will we do the someth...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is from Luke 1: 57-66,80. It’s the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the one to point to Christ as the Lamb of God. He calls people to prepare for the Lord. So too, we must prepare our hearts well to receive His grace and mercy.  

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Mark 4:35-41. During the middle of a storm, Jesus falls asleep in the boat with his disciples. His disciples are afraid, wake Him, and He calms not only the sea, but their hearts. Jesus is here with us in this moment, even if it seems He is "asleep". We can truly rely on Him.

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel is Matthew 6:24-34, it is the feast of St. John Fisher. St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More stood together and opposed King Henry VIII when he  desired to found his own church so he could divorce his wife. Both men paid for their defense of the papacy with their lives. St. John Fisher was also known for his own dedication to Jesus, for his penance, courage,...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel is Matthew 6:19-23. Today is the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Jesus instructs us to store up treasure in Heaven instead of treasure on earth. St. Aloysius is a great example of this, choosing to be a Jesuit, placing others and study before his own treasures and comfort. When a plague broke out in Rome, St. Aloysius served those that were sick and ultimatel...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Mt 6:7-15. Jesus gives us the Our Father, instructing us to not babble on while praying. When we pray with these words, words that Jesus Himself gave us, we do something very good. The Our Father is also a model for our personal prayer before the Lord. Let us say the Our Father, for what it is, the words Christ gave us to pray to our Father, and a...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 6:1-6 &16-18. It is the feast of St. Romuald of Ravenna. St. Romuald was a monk who lived his early life as “dissolute youth”, as a slave to this world. After watching his father kill an enemy in a duel, St. Romuald fled to a monastery to live a life of penance and prayer. St. Romuald is a great example of performing righteous deeds no...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s reading is Matthew 5:43-48. Jesus says to “be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect”. It isn’t enough to simply live as all others live. We are called to live a life of love, to love even the weakness of our brothers and sisters, to see in them the Lord Himself. Where does one begin “being perfect”. At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5 we f...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today's Gospel Reading is Matthew 5:38-42. Jesus tells us to not go along with those things that are the result of fallen nature. Not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but rather, turn the other cheek. Jesus teaches us that it isn’t about “getting even”, it’s about the call to love and to forgive. We are to let go of the desire for revenge and instead seek to love...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Mark 4:26-34. Today we  are given two parables, on whereby the seed grows, but the sower knows not how, and the other, the parable of the mustard seed, that goes from the smallest of all seeds to the largest bush. Together, these parables emphasize that we must trust that the Lord is using all of our work for good, despite our inability to recogni...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 16. It is a prayer to God, crying out that He will be our protection and saving grace. So often we hope in our own abilities and talents. As we listen to this Psalm it is a reminder to entrust everything to God, and as such, we say “you are my inheritance, O Lord”.  St. Thomas Aquinas at the end of his life had a vision of the Lord,...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s reading is from 1 Kings 19:9-16. Elijah has run away from persecution and is trying to find shelter and safety. God then speaks to Elijah in the intimacy of Elijah’s heart, in the still small voice. There are times when God speaks in large signs and wonders, but most frequently, He speaks to us in simple and small ways. Today let us ask for the grace to listen to H...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, Fr. Sam connects the story of St. Anthony with Christ’s call for our righteousness to surpass that which the law requires. Jesus tells us if we arguing to truly live the Christian faith we must go beyond the law. We go beyond the call of the law out of love and deep conviction of heart. Let us pray for the grace to go beyond the...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel reading is Mt 5:17-19. Jesus doesn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. As such, the Beatitudes can be read as the fulfillment of the law, of the Commandments. The Beatitudes reveal not the rules, but the proper disposition of heart we must cultivate to properly live the fulfillment of the law. Not one iota is removed from the law, and thus, we must...

Praised be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel reading is Mt 5:13-16, it is the feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle. Jesus instructs us to be salt if the earth and light for the world. We can only be these two things if we have cultivated the spirit of the Beatitudes. Salt is gritty, as such the Gospel sometimes “rub you the wrong way”, it can convict your conscience of your sin. It can sting. When we cele...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel Reading is Mt 5:1-12. Today we hear the Beatitudes, a tremendous compliment to the Commandments. While the Commandments are truly “commands” we must follow, the Beatitudes illustrate the spiritual growth for which we must always strive. Jesus wants us to truly cultivate in our hearts the spirit of poverty (Blessed are the poor in spirit) so we might always t...

Praised Be Jesus Christ! The Second Reading from Mass comes from 2 Corinthians 4:13-5. St. Paul reminds us that the material of the world is transitory, it’s passing away. We must aim for the eternity of heaven in this life, not wealth, power, or status. We must always focus on the relationship with God to which we are called, a relationship which begins here and maintains in Heaven.