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Friday of the Fifth
Week of Lent • Day of Abstinence • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:10-13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 5-6, 7
Gospel: John 10:31-42
📖 The Gospel - John 10:31-42
They picked up stones
to throw at Jesus. He asks them, for which good work are you stoning me? They
say, not for any good work but for blasphemy. Jesus reasons with them, quotes
Scripture, and invites them to look at the evidence of His works. They try to
arrest Him. Jesus escapes and goes back across the Jordan, where many came to
believe in Him.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
Jeremiah opens today
with an honest and raw prayer. He has been mocked, threatened, and denounced by
his own friends. He hears whispering on every side, denounce him, let us
denounce him. And he pours it all out before God without softening a word. And
then, right in the middle of his lament, something shifts. He says, "But the
Lord is with me like a mighty champion. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble
and not prevail.
That was the pivot of faith. Not a denial of
the suffering, or a pretense that the stones aren't real. But a sudden
remembrance of who is standing beside you in the middle of it. The Lord is with
me like a mighty champion. That is not wishful thinking. That is the hard-won
faith of a man who has been through the fire and come out knowing something he
didn't know before.
Jesus in the Gospel is in the same situation,
stones in hand, arrest imminent, opposition mounting, the cross getting closer.
And Jesus keeps going, and teaching, and inviting, because He knows who is with
Him. He has said it Himself; the Father and I are one. The mighty champion is
not beside Him. The mighty champion IS Him.
As we enter the final days before Holy Week,
this is the posture to carry, not naive optimism, not denial of difficulty, but
Jeremiah's battle-tested, fire-forged faith. The Lord is with me. Therefore, I
shall not fall.
💭 Reflection Question
What are the stones
being thrown in your direction right now, the opposition, the difficulty, the
voices that mock or threaten you, and can you find Jeremiah's pivot point
today? Not a denial of the hardship but a sudden, defiant remembrance: the Lord
is with me like a mighty champion?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Crowning with
Thorns
They mocked Him, they
threw stones, they put thorns on His head, and the mighty champion of all
creation stood there and took it. Not because He was weak. Because He was
strong enough to choose this path completely. As you pray these beads today,
let His strength in the face of mockery be your strength in whatever you are
facing.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Our Lady of Fatima
appeared in Portugal, where the Catholic faith was under severe political and
cultural attack, and stones of a different kind were being thrown at the Church.
And she came as a mighty champion, not with weapons but with a Rosary, not with
armies but with three children, not with power but with love. And she said, in
the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. That is Jeremiah's but. That is the
pivot of faith on a cosmic scale. The Lord is with us. Therefore, we shall not
fall. Pray your Rosary today with that certainty in your chest.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord, the stones are
real, and the opposition is real. But so are You. You are with me like a mighty
champion today. Help me to find Jeremiah's pivot, to pour out the honest lament, and then land on my feet. But You are here, and You are with me. And I am ever
grateful for having you in my life, Lord. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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