GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE

January 25, 2026

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 4:12-23

I was 22 years old, lying in bed one night while on a pilgrimage, when I suddenly sensed an idea in my mind: “Go to the seminary.” There was no voice, no vision, but a gentle and unmistakable clarity. I simply prayed, “Lord, if that’s from you, let me find great joy in it.” Three days later, my heart was bursting with joy. I dropped everything and entered the seminary. The older I get, the stranger my rather careless and hasty departure seems to me. I followed not because it made sense, or because I was especially brave. I went because the Lord called me.

Something like this happens in today’s Gospel. Jesus walks by Simon, Andrew, James, and John and says, “Come after me” (Matthew 4:19). And immediately they leave their nets and follow. There’s no explanation, no hesitation … just movement. Why? As St. John says, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10). They do not leave their nets because his call made perfect, calculable sense. They left them because they were called. And Jesus’ call is powerful.

Take a moment this week to remember when Christ first called you. However small or quiet it was, recall it, and give thanks. The more we marvel that Christ has called us personally, the more passionately and freely we will follow him.

— Father John Muir

(PRACTICING) CATHOLIC - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS

By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman



Sea of Galilee Moments

Young or old, believer or non-believer, rich or poor, healthy or sick: it doesn’t matter who we are. It doesn’t matter what our life looks like. If we are a human being, if we have a soul, we stand on the shore of a great and powerful sea, a net in our hands and a hunger in our soul.

So what’s in the sea? I don’t know about yours, but mine is filled with feelings of inadequacy. It’s filled with fear and resentment and confusion. It’s filled with misplaced pride. It’s deep. It’s dark. It’s well-stocked.

I cast my net, over and over again. What else is there to do? If I draw back a harvest, it can sustain me for days, weeks, maybe even years. The nourishment of the sea can keep away the hunger pangs — for a time. You can survive on fear and resentment and pride if it’s all you have. You’ll never feel full, and you’ll never be strong, but you’ll survive on what the world can offer you — so long as you keep coming back to the shore.

This is where Jesus finds us.

If I close my eyes, I can picture the moments exactly, all of them: my Sea of Galilee moments. I could describe them to you — the day, the year, what was happening in my life, what I wanted and what I needed and what gnawing hunger had brought me, once again, limping, crawling back to the shore.

But you wouldn’t understand my Sea of Galilee moments, just like I wouldn’t understand yours. There is only one who understands, and his is the voice we heard, clear and strong: “Put down the net, and come with me.”

St. Thomas Aquinas | January 28

One of the most famous members of the Dominican Order, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) is well-known by many for his theological work, “The Summa Theologiae.” Born in Italy, his mother wanted him to become a Benedictine and had high hopes that he would eventually become abbot of Monte Cassino, where he spent much of his youth. To change his vocation, she had him kidnapped by his brothers on his way to Paris at the age of 19. He spent two years in their captivity. Despite this, nothing could shake him from his vocation to become a Dominican priest and he was eventually released. Once free, he went to Paris and then to Cologne, where he finished his studies with Albert the Great.

His greatest contribution to the Catholic Church is his writings. The unity, harmony, and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, encompasses his writings. The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology.

The patron saint of teachers, theologians and students, St. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274. His life and the impact he had on the whole Church, however, remains alive today.