Daily Gospel Reflection on Veritas Catholic Network

Jesus was Met with Great Unbelief in Nazareth - Daily Gospel Reflection

Today’s Gospel Reading Is Mark 6:1-6. Jesus returns home to Nazareth where He is met by great unbelief. The Gospels say that Jesus isn’t able to perform great miracles because the people are lacking in faith.
All of us are called to be evangelists, but it’s not always easy to share the Gospel with those who are closest to us. Family is often one of the hardest places to evangelize. Yet, we need to pay attention to the fact that Jesus still goes into Nazareth. He doesn’t avoid those closest to Him, but goes, despite their upcoming rejection.
We too are called to be instruments of God’s love and mercy always and to everyone.
Praised Be Jesus Christ!

The Feast of St. Maria Goretti - Daily Gospel Reflection

Today is the feast of St. Maria Goretti, the Gospel reading is Matthew 9:14-17. Maria Goretti did not grow up "well off", but she had a great faith, living in the difficult situations in our life. In a moment of fear, when she was being assaulted, she trusted in God. As a martyr, she is a great witness to trusting in God’s mercy.
In the Gospel today, Jesus instructs us to keep maintain the newness of the Gospel in our lives. Keeping it “fresh” each and every day, never waning in our commitment to it.
St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!
Praised Be Jesus Christ!

The Call of Matthew - Daily Gospel Reflection

Today’s Gospel Reading is Matthew 9:9-13. This is the story of Matthew’s call to be a disciple. He’s called to follow Jesus and he invites many people to come along with him, sinners who need mercy. The Scribes and Pharisees recognize that Jesus knows his stuff, they may even be a bit jealous of Jesus for that reason.
Today, let us not be like the pharisees who can’t comprehend why Jesus sits with sinners, and instead, like Matthew, follow when we are called and rejoicing the conversion of sinners.
Praised Be Jesus Christ!

Freedom for Christ - Daily Gospel Reflection

Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 9:1-8. Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man. The Pharisees want to know who but God can forgive sins? Jesus is thus using the healing as proof of His divinity. Then the crowds glorify God.
What’s more important, the physical healing Jesus performs or the forgiveness of our sins? Today as we reflect on our freedom, let us recognize we have the freedom to choose to follow Christ.
 

Thomas the Doubter? - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 as Lord and God. Thomas is the great paradigm of zeal and conversion.
Let us pray that the Lord would grant us the same confession of Faith as Thomas, who seeing the Risen Lord says, "my Lord and my God". 
 

Christ is Always Accompanying Us - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 is the Day to Follow Jesus - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 lay our heads or must put aside the task we desire to do or lose good friends.
Lord, today grant us the grace to be true disciples in deed and in heart.
 

We Need Courage and Faith in Christ's Healing Power

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 asks directly where as the woman just needs to “get close enough”. Let us understand the breadth of Jesus’s healing ministry and have the confidence to ask Christ for healing and the faith of the woman to believe in His healing and mercy.

We Must Confess the Same Gospel as the Apostles

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 the Apostles have handed on! 
Saints Peter and Paul pray for us that we might remain true to the Gospel you devoted your lives to preaching.

Christ Desires to Heal the Leprosy on Our Souls

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 us His mercy and love.
Jesus, please will the healing of our soul, those place in our souls that have “rotted away”. Lord, make us clean.

Not Everyone Who Says "Lord, Lord" Will Enter the Kingdom of Heaven

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 holds firm. There must be daily practice of the faith in prayer, because if we don’t have it, our faith will collapse in moments of struggle.

Beware False Prophets

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 trees. 

Don't Throw Your Pearls to the Swine

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 something more that’s not just for ourselves, but for the glory of God, for the salvation of souls.
Let us today have the grace to not throw our pearls before swine or give to dogs what is Holy. Today, let us persevere in His love and mercy. 

Behold, the Lamb of God

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.
 

Jesus Calms the Storm

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.

St. John Fisher is the Kind of Priest & Bishop We Need Today - Daily Gospel Reflection

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, and prayer. He is model bishop and priest. He is the kind of the bishop we need in the life of the Church, one willing to forgo personal comfort and secular popularity to stand for the Gospel, to stand for Jesus Christ.
Today we pray, through the intercession of St. John Fisher, that all priests and bishops would have the courage to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness, to live the faith with generosity and love.

St. Aloysius's Example of Serving the Sick - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 ultimately succumbed to it himself. St. Aloysius wrote a letter to his mother on his deathbed asking her to pray for him so that he would focus not on his own discomfort, but instead on Jesus.
Let us pray, through the intercession of St. Aloysius, for the grace to deny ourselves comfort and follow the Lord. 

Jesus Gives Us the Our Father - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 also, as the model for all of our other prayers. 

St. Romuald's Example of Prayer and Penance - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 not for recognition, but so that we might grow in relationship with God Himself.
St. Romuald, pray for us!

Be Perfect As Your Heavenly Father is Perfect - Daily Gospel Reflection

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 find the Beatitudes, these beatitudes train us in how to live the Christian life to the full, and thus, how to be “perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect”.