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Saturday After Ash
Wednesday • Memorial of St. Peter Damian • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy
Blog II
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✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 58:9b-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Gospel: Luke 5:27-32
📖 The Gospel - Luke 5:27-32
Jesus walks past a
tax collector's booth, looks at a man named Levi sitting there, a man despised
by his own community, a man everyone had written off, and says two words:
Follow me. And Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him. Just like that.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
I never get tired of
this story. Never. Because Levi wasn't looking for Jesus. He wasn't at the
synagogue praying. He wasn't in a posture of holy seeking. He was sitting at
his tax collector's booth doing what he always did, and Jesus walked by and
called him anyway. That is such a God move. He doesn't wait for us to clean
ourselves up and come to Him. He comes to us right in the middle of our
ordinary, imperfect, sometimes embarrassing lives and says, come on. Let's go.
Jesus teaches us the same today, stop
being so consumed with your own agenda, your own world, your own little kingdom,
and turn toward Me. The Lord is not asking for perfection. He's asking for a
turned heart.
And then Levi does the most beautiful thing.
He throws a great party for Jesus. He invites all his friends, other tax
collectors, sinners, the whole disreputable crowd, and puts them right there at
the table with the Lord. The Pharisees are horrified. And Jesus says the line
that should be on every evangelizer's heart: I have not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. That means He came for the messy ones. The
ones who know they need help. The ones sitting at the booth.
You know, when I first walked into that
prayer meeting at St. Patrick's in Richmondtown all those years ago, I was
Levi. I was not there to find God. I was there to keep my mom company and get
out fast. But Jesus walked right down that center aisle and called me anyway,
and I felt Him move through my body like something I could never explain and
never deny. That's how He calls. Not with fanfare. Just follow me.
💭 Reflection Question
Where is your own tax
collector's booth, the comfortable, familiar place where you've been sitting, and what might Jesus be asking you to leave
behind in order to follow Him more freely this Lent?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Crowning with
Thorns
Levi was mocked and
despised by his community, and yet Jesus chose him. In this mystery we see
Christ crowned with thorns in mockery by those who rejected Him. He knows what
it feels like to be written off. Meditate today on the humility of a God who
chooses the unlikely, the outcast, and the sinner, and never stops calling.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
When Our Lady
appeared at Fatima she chose three shepherd children, not scholars, not
priests, not the important people of the village. She chose the humble, the
simple, the small. Just like Jesus chose Levi. Her message has always gone out
first to the little ones, the ones the world overlooks. If you've ever felt
like you weren't important enough or holy enough to be called by God, let
today's Gospel and Our Lady's choice at Fatima speak directly to your heart,
you are exactly who He is looking for.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, here I am
at my booth. Whatever I've been clinging to, whatever familiar place I've been
hiding in, I hear You calling. Give me the grace of Levi today, to simply get
up, leave it behind, and follow You. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr. OFS
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Want to know more
about My Spiritual Journey?
Read My Story at: An Invitation To Read My Story - My Testimony
