Daily Gospel Reflection for September 5, 2025

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

Reflection by Virginia Pillars

Today's Gospel: Luke 5:33-39

Have you ever had a favorite pair of blue jeans? One that fits your body with denim so soft it almost feels like silk? I wore my favorite jeans last week while working outside in my happy place, my vegetable garden. As I climbed onto the rain barrel platform, I moved wrong. Rrrip! I groaned as I saw the tear on the back of my thigh. Before the tear, the threadbare fabric had already made it possible to see daylight. As an experienced seamstress, I knew I couldn’t salvage them with a patch.

Have you experienced something similar? Today’s Gospel resonated with me as I washed those blue jeans for the final time and put them on the rag pile. I need a new pair of jeans.

Today we read,

“And he also told them a parable. 'No one tears a piece from a new cloak and uses it to patch an old garment. Otherwise he will tear the new, and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.'"

No patch can fix my jeans just as in my spiritual life, my worn-out and comfortable routines can’t withstand a patch job. Instead, a new attitude based on the mercy and grace of Jesus can help me to change. To become a new person in Christ. To clothe myself with Christ.

I also applied this reading to my life as I remembered my mom making wine years ago. She attached a balloon to the neck of the bottle. We watched as the gases from the fermentation process inflated the balloon. An old balloon would have popped. We can’t preserve our old ways if we want the Lord to increase in us.

Ponder:

What worn-out routines, thoughts, or actions do I need to replace with more of Jesus and less of me?

Pray:

Lord, I pray for Your grace to see the parts of me that need a new attitude. I ask for Your wisdom to understand, the strength I need to change, and the desire to do it.

Copyright 2025 Virginia Pillars

Virginia Pillars, author of Broken Brain, Fortified Faith: Lessons of Hope Through a Child’s Mental Illness, winner of the 2017 Selah Award and CWG SOA, strives to bring God’s hope to mental health by speaking events and as a NAMI volunteer. She contributed to Sharing Your Catholic Faith, Divine Interventions, Whispers in the Pew, and themighty.com. Virginia blogs at www.virginiapillars.com.