Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 23, 2025
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
After graduating from Notre Dame, I volunteered at a youth ministry center where I worked on a team leading retreats. This reading was featured on one of those retreats, and I vividly remember the priest asking during the reflection, “What’s your dirt like?” The question reminds me not only that I need to prepare myself to hear the Word of God and to receive it, but that my response to the Word needs to bear fruit.
Often in my life, I have been like the path and not accepted the challenge of the gospel. Other times, I have responded like the rocky ground and fervently received the word, but did not let it take root. Sometimes, my faith has been choked by the challenges and obstacles of the world. But I have found that in order to truly hear and receive God’s Word, I have to allow it to change me. And that necessitates preparing my dirt.
Just as my wife and I do when we tend to our garden each spring by pulling weeds, tilling the soil, and fertilizing, I have found it necessary to cultivate my soul by opening myself up in prayer. Recently, at my youngest son’s Confirmation, the bishop suggested that the easiest way to enter into prayer is by thanking God.
Thanking God for the gifts of the people in my life and the support they give me allows me to see what God is continually doing for me and what God is continually asking of me. It helps me to transform my soil from the hard and rocky ground that resists God to the rich soil that receives God and, hopefully, bears the fruits of compassion, love, and forgiveness.
So today, ask yourself, “What’s my dirt like?”
Prayer
Lord God, we give thanks to all who planted and toiled in the fields to produce the food that will nourish us this day. Help us similarly to plant and sow seeds of compassion, love and forgiveness to all whom we encounter this day. Be with us Lord as we sow these seeds of Your goodness, for you are our One God, forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Bridget of Sweden, the mother and mystic known as the “patroness of failures,” pray for us!
Bridget of Sweden was a mystic saint whose visions helped guide the Church in the 14th century.
She was born in 1303 to a family that was related to the royal house of Sweden. Her father was a regional governor and a judge, and both of her parents were pious. They would receive the sacraments frequently and go on pilgrimages as far away as the Holy Land.
When Bridget was 10, her mother died. Along with two younger siblings, she was raised by an aunt who was just as faithful as her mother.
While she was still a young girl, Bridget started to receive visions, mostly seeing Jesus on the cross. She asked Jesus who had done this to him, and he replied, “All those who despise my love.” The vision left a deep impression on her and profoundly shaped her spirituality. She continued to receive visions throughout her whole life.
When she was 13, she was married according to the custom of the time, and the couple bore eight children. One daughter was eventually canonized as St. Catherine of Sweden.
She and her husband went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Her husband became dangerously ill on the journey, but was healed when Bridget received a vision from St. Denis, who told her that she would do great works.
The King of Sweden appointed Bridget as lady-in-waiting to his queen, and from this position, Bridget counseled the king and queen, as well as many priests and theologians.
When her husband became ill again, Bridget took him to a monastery for care. He died and was buried there, and Bridget remained at the monastery in a small room, praying and grieving. She prayed for guidance and received a revelation that she was to establish a new religious order.
She renounced her title as princess and her role at court, and was mocked for this decision. As soon as she had begun organizing the new order of nuns, she received another vision that directed her to go to Rome, to encourage the pope to return there from Avignon, France, where the papacy was located due to a conflict with the French crown. She spent the rest of her life as a pilgrim in Rome, writing of her visions and counseling kings and popes (she is sometimes known as Bridget of Rome). Her accounts of the revelations she was given in her visions and prayers were popular through the Middle Ages.
She did not see any of her major works completed—she left Sweden before the abbey she founded was completed, and she did not live to see the pope return to Rome. She is known as the patroness of failures, even though both of these endeavors saw success after her death on this date in 1373 in Rome.
The religious order she founded is still active today, known as the Bridgettines, and she is patron of Europe and of Sweden. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel of the Basilica, and she is also depicted in these stained glass windows there.
St. Bridget of Sweden, the mother and mystic known as the “patroness of failures,” pray for us!