Daily Gospel Reflection for November 29, 2025

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

Today's Gospel: Luke 21:34-36

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

I don’t relate to the warning to avoid carousing and drunkenness. But “anxieties of daily life," well, that’s another story. I've spent many years perfecting the art of worry and micromanaging.

Sometimes I spend so much time looking inward and self-protecting that I forget to look up. Being stuck in fear and anxiety keeps me from fully being who God created me to be. I can’t see the plans God has for me when worry keeps me from trusting Him.

While my mind is stuck on the “what ifs,” I’m missing out on the “what is.”

Matthew 6:27 asks, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?” And while the real answer is a firm no, there’s still a part of me that wants to say, “Well . . . maybe?” That’s the part of me that is stuck focusing on the anxieties of daily life. It’s the part of me that is keeping me from fully living in the present moment. I may think that my worrying and micromanaging helps to keep bad things from happening, but it doesn’t. What it actually does is keep out the joy and hope for what life can bring.

Through a lot of prayer, self-reflection, and help from a good, Catholic therapist, I’ve made a lot of strides towards trusting God and focusing on living in the moment. I still have moments where I regress into living from a place of fear and doubt, but I no longer get stuck there for long periods of time. And that’s okay because it’s all about progress on the journey, not about perfection.

Ponder:

What are the anxieties of daily life that you struggle with, and how is God asking you to surrender them so that you don’t become “drowsy on the journey?”