Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 19, 2025
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
There is a character gap in my life between the person I actually am and the person I am supposed to be in God’s eyes. I am not alone. To varying degrees, each of us confronts this character gap in our lives, and this is one of the main reasons why we need to pray.
In today’s passage, we find Jesus teaching his disciples, and presumably us as well, how to ask for help. The famous Lord’s Prayer encompasses many things, but I want to focus on how it highlights different aspects of our character where we need to grow.
The prayer starts with an attitude of reverence, honoring God for who God is. We see the importance of obedience in the words, “thy will be done.” We need to appreciate our dependence and ask for help in “Give us this day our daily bread.” Temperance or self-control is central as well when we say, “and lead us not into temptation.”
There is also a major emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation, both in the prayer and in the text immediately after. We need to become forgiving people towards those who have wronged us, as well as seek God’s forgiveness for our sins.
Not only is the prayer asking God to improve us in all these areas of our moral lives, but the saying of the prayer itself can make us better. Provided, that is, we say it sincerely, and not like those who “babble” on just to hear themselves talk. To say this prayer in an authentic way takes humility, elevating our Father and asking for God’s help in our lives. We are centering our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbor. We are not centering ourselves.
In praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, we can grow in character and become more and more like the only perfectly virtuous person the world has ever seen.
Prayer
Lord, your Son taught us to call out to you as our Father. Every time we pray as he taught us, may we realize ever more deeply our dignity as your children, and also the fellowship we share as brothers and sisters in Christ. United ever more closely with each other and with you, may we become a sacrament of communion in our alienated world. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Romuald embarked upon the monastic life because he witnessed his father kill someone.
He was born in Northeastern Italy in 951 to an aristocratic family. As a young man with plenty of means, Romuald had many pleasures at his disposal, and he took advantage of them all.
His father fell into a dispute with someone, and a duel was arranged. He demanded that Romuald attend and observe the event. When his father won the duel, killing his adversary, Romuald was devastated.
He was so moved by the event that he left his former lifestyle and took on penances in an attempt to make reparation for the death. He was tempted in many ways to give up this new faithfulness, but he persevered in prayer and remained ever vigilant against situations that might test his virtue.
He went so far as to move into a monastery to spend time in prayer and penance, and he decided to stay there and permanently join the community. In fact, he lived for some time in solitude as a hermit.
Years later, he was named abbot of the monastery, and went on to establish several other monasteries and a new rule of life for monks. He encapsulated part of this rule of life in a short collection of sayings, which include these words:
Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the psalms—never leave it. … Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.
He was asked by the pope to take on a very old monastery and to reform it in a stricter observance of their austere way of life. The changes he introduced angered many of the monks there, and several even tried to kill him. His adversaries slandered him with lies, but he bore it all with silent patience.
He died on this date in 1027, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Romuald, you who were traumatized by witnessing a duel and became a monk who reformed the Church, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Romauld is in the public domain. Last accessed March 11, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
