Daily Gospel Reflection for March 6, 2025

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 9:22-25

A physician wrote the Gospel of Luke, and if you need evidence, look at today's Scripture. While St. Matthew writes to pick up your cross and follow Jesus, the doctor adds "daily" to the same sentence. On the same lines as the adage, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," we might say, "a prayer a day helps keep our sins away." Okay, maybe I am reaching, but it makes sense in my mind.

What do crosses and prayer have to do with each other? On the positive side, a habit of prayer makes our crosses much easier to pick up and carry. However, carving out that time to pray can feel like a cross for some. Ponder this in light of this passage:

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"

The sacrifice of putting aside time, especially for those who struggle to do so, is a form of putting down your life for Jesus' sake.

I love time with Jesus, and I have even called my morning prayer time "Coffee with Christ." Even so, it is still easy for me to get out of practice and to wake up focused on everything but building or strengthening my relationship with Jesus. My spiritual director recently offered some sound advice, a prayer time game-changer. He suggested I find a place to pray free of as many distractions as possible. After some thought, I realized my husband's office, with its comfy loveseat, fake fireplace, and absolutely nothing in the room belonging to me was a perfect solution. I also added this early morning appointment with Jesus to my calendar.

Ponder:

How will you pick up your prayer cross daily? What will you lose in this life to gain so much more in the next?

Pray:

Lord, I wish to be Your disciple. Please provide all the graces needed to deny myself, take up whatever crosses are put before me, and follow You!

Copyright 2025 Allison Gingras