Daily Gospel Reflection for October 18, 2025

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

Today's Gospel: Luke 10:1-9

Recently, my friend Carol was admitted to a nursing home. She had a sudden downturn in health that forced her to navigate in a wheelchair. Prior to this event, Carol drove her little blue car around town doing good deeds. She drove people to church and faithfully prayed at a peaceful pro-life vigil. I wondered how she would adjust to this dramatic change. True to her cheerful nature, she now wheels around the nursing home wearing a large cross, spreading the peace of Christ to her new friends. She shares a small room with a bed, one chair, and a shelf where she keeps her rosaries and a Sudoku book.

Carol would probably protest if I called her a missionary like those disciples that St. Luke writes about in today’s Gospel.

"Carry no money bag, no sack . . . Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered you."

Carol had to eat what was put in front of her and it did not look appetizing. She never complained. Always on the alert to a patient who was sad or lonely, she offered hugs and a smile.

One day she said to me, “See that lady over there? It is her first day here and she is scared. Go talk to her.”

Carol did not know she would end up in a nursing home. Perhaps it was a secret struggle for her to adjust. Likewise, imagine the fears the disciples had as they were sent out “like lambs among wolves.” What does the future hold? We all can only walk by faith and not by sight.

Ponder:

Do I look at myself as a missionary for Christ, seeking to do little acts of kindness with great love?

Pray:

Merciful Father, open my eyes to Your loving presence. Help me to share that love in my daily tasks.

Copyright 2025 Kathryn Swegart