Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
February 20, 2026
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.”
It’s often hard to know when we should mourn and when we should rejoice. For most of us, we rarely get to choose when we are in periods of sadness or joy. But mourning here doesn’t mean miring in sadness over your lack of a love life, the food you eat, the clothes you have, your lousy job, or your crooked nose. It comes from much deeper feelings, deeper longings within each of us.
The soul cries out for Jesus. To love him is to conform our hearts to his heart. The sad and brokenhearted among us are all of us sinners. Jesus, the bridegroom of the church, has come to heal the broken-hearted. And in case you missed it, that is all of us!
Mourning, sadness, and darkness in the heart are a prison. When we are no longer captives because we are released by Christ, we naturally seek to be charitable towards others. Christ came to release us from our self-imposed mourning, which enables us to feel the joy of his presence.
Accept where you are. Are you waiting in mourning? Are you in prison waiting for Christ to call your name? Choose to rejoice. In welcoming Christ as bridegroom, we must prepare to welcome him. Being a bridegroom is a very special moment. And a time will come for our own special moment, when we are lifted up and welcomed. Isaiah says, “Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem.”
Traditionally, the bride, once married, takes on the name, household, and mantle of the bridegroom. Are we joyfully preparing to be saved? In the words of Bishop Robert Barron, “Rejoice, because the Messiah has come to wrap you in a mantle of justice, and a great robe of salvation!”
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the Bridegroom whose presence turns our fasting into feasting. In our families and in Holy Cross, we have known seasons of celebration and seasons of longing. Teach us to cherish your nearness with joy, and to wait with hope when you seem far away. Help us hold both feasting and fasting in faith, trusting that in every moment—whether in laughter, in tears, or in silence—you are drawing us closer to yourself. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Francisco and Jacinta Marto were siblings who lived near Fatima, Portugal, and received the famous visions of Our Lady there.
On May 13, 1917, they were tending sheep with their cousin, Lucia Santos, when they received the first of six visions of Mary. Francisco was 9 years old, and Jacinta was 7, at the time of the apparition.
Mary gave the children three secrets, studied and approved by the Church, in which she spoke of the coming world war and of the conversion of Russia. Reports of the apparition drew controversy and attention world-wide, and Fatima became a shrine and pilgrimage site.
The children were instructed to pray for the conversion of sinners, and after the visions they all took on mortifications such as fasting and wearing tight cords around their waists.
Francisco was thoughtful and quiet and preferred to pray alone. Jacinta was affectionate and had a sweet singing voice. In 1918, the two were struck with the Spanish Flu epidemic that soon took their lives. During their months of illness, they insisted on walking to church for Mass and Eucharistic devotions. They would also kneel and pray for hours with their heads on the ground, according to instructions they received in their vision.
Francisco declined hospital treatment and died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10. Jacinta was taken several places for treatment, including a surgery without anesthesia.
Jacinta devoted the pain of her illness to the conversion of sinners, and she finally died on this date in 1920.
They are both buried at the Our Lady of Fatima Basilica in Portugal and were canonized in 2017. (When they were beatified in 2000, Jacinta was the youngest child to be beatified who was not martyred.)
Statues of Francisco and Jacinta kneeling before Our Lady of Fatima stand in front of what used to be the Fatima Retreat House across the lake from campus. The retreat house is now a residence for Holy Cross religious.
To learn even more about Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, you saw Mary at Fatima and prayed for our conversion—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto is in the public domain. Last accessed December 6, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
