Daily Gospel Reflection for May 2, 2025

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

Today's Gospel: John 6:1-15

Who doesn’t know the story of the loaves and fishes? John’s Gospel doesn’t embellish or dramatize the details of the story. In fact, I often think it downplays the magnitude of the miracle, that a humble lunch of several fish and barley loaves could somehow feed a crowd of thousands and be so plentiful as to leave a dozen baskets of leftover food.

We hear this story and rightfully gasp in astonishment. Jesus’s miracles were often intimate, one-to-one engagements with many instances of healings. This miracle of the loaves and fishes, however, reached thousands, not an intimate healing but nourishment for the multitude.

It was a miracle on a grand scale!

But what if we look at it from the boy’s point of view? Jesus took the humble offering of a meager lunch and turned it into a feast. Jesus does that for all of us. He turns the smallest effort into the grandest gesture.

I think of this as I go about my day. In the busy requirements of motherhood and family life, I can be distracted by my many responsibilities, sometimes overwhelmed by the needs of those around me. I can feel ineffective in my small efforts at prayer, perhaps an unfinished Rosary that was interrupted and finished later or not making it to daily Mass but dropping by the church for a brief encounter at the tabernacle instead. Each small effort at prayer is an offering of love, and I rejoice in the hope that this, however small it is, can have a great effect for our Lord.

Ponder:

How do you persevere in prayer?

Pray:

Lord, I want to do great things for You, but sometimes I feel like what I bring to You is small and inconsequential. Please accept my humble offerings to do with as You will.

Daily Gospel 2