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Good afternoon, Friend
October 22
Daily Reflection
Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

As I ponder today’s first reading, I can almost see Saint Paul kneeling before the Father, imploring and petitioning Him on our behalf. Saint Paul specifically requests God the Father to strengthen us “with power through His Spirit in the inner self and that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16-17). What does this do for our interior? Saint Paul explains that “being rooted and grounded in love, [we] may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

Saint Paul’s prayer connects our recovery journey to Step 11: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” In God’s merciful love for us and “in accord with the riches of His Glory,” the Catechism gives us even more practical guidance on how to make a start and grow in the spiritual life as we seek to maintain our conscious contact with God (Ephesians 3: 16). The Catechism reads, “The Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life, the Our Father is a prayer; but in both the one and the other the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives. Jesus teaches us this new life by his words; he teaches us to ask for it by our prayer. The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer” (CCC 2764).

Christian prayer that reforms our desires, as Jesus modeled and taught His disciples, is therefore critical to our recovery journey if we are to attain true freedom in this life and supreme happiness with Him forever in the next. As people healing from addictions, compulsions, and unhealthy attachments, prayer, especially in union with the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother, is the conduit of grace by which we recover our true identity as children of God. By orienting our interior to Him, we find the path to eternal life and, in turn, assist Jesus in setting “the earth on fire” for the love of God (Luke 12:49).

 

Reflection Questions 

  • How can you improve your conscious contact with God to get to know Him better? Does your prayer practice include speaking (prayer) and listening (meditation)?
  • Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote, “The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers…In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired (Summa Theologiae). How could this perspective on the Lord’s prayer influence your personal and communal prayer life in recovery?

 

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
Responsorial Psalm:  Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53

Reflection by Talitha R.

Historical Reflections

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2026
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 20, 2026
Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs [In the Dioceses of the United States]
Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs [In the Dioceses of the United States]
October 19, 2026
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 18, 2026
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr
October 17, 2026
Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
October 16, 2026
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
October 15, 2026
Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
October 14, 2026
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
October 13, 2026
Good afternoon, Friend
October 22
Saint of the Day
Saint John Paul II, Pope
Saint John Paul II, Pope

Saint John Paul II, Pope

Audio Reflection

(1920-2005) — Karol Wojtyla, the third child of Polish parents, lost his entire immediate family by age 20. He was interested in acting as a youth and was introduced to Carmelite spirituality as a young man. Karol worked in a quarry during World War II to avoid deportation to Germany and took clandestine classes at the seminary in Krakow. He was ordained a priest, eventually named bishop, then cardinal, and was elected the 264th pope, serving just longer than 26 years. Deeply devoted to Mary, the Rosary, and the Eucharist, he stood up to Communism, taught the “Theology of the Body,” and defended human life and dignity.

Saint John Paul II wrote an Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris, on the meaning of suffering. “Down through the centuries and generations it has been seen that in suffering there is concealed a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to Christ, a special grace.” Where can you see this principle at work in your recovery?

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son” (Pope Saint John Paul II, World Youth Day 2002).

Reflection by Brad Farmer

Other Saints

Saint Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena
Saint Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena
October 21, 2025
Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin
Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin
October 20, 2025
Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest
Saint Paul of the Cross, Priest
October 19, 2025
Saint Luke, Evangelist
Saint Luke, Evangelist
October 18, 2025
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
October 17, 2025
Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque
Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque
October 16, 2025
Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
October 15, 2025
Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr
October 14, 2025
Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa
Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa
October 13, 2025

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