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Monday of the Fifth
Week of Lent • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
Gospel: John 8:1-11
📖 The Gospel - John 8:1-11
The scribes and
Pharisees drag a woman before Jesus, caught in adultery, they say, the law
demands she be stoned. They are setting a trap. And Jesus bends down and writes
in the dirt. Then He stands and says, let the one among you who is without sin
cast the first stone. And one by one they walk away. And Jesus looks at her and
says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
There is so much
happening in this story that we could spend an entire Lent here. But what
strikes me most today is what Jesus does not do. He does not minimize what she
did. He does not pretend the sin didn't happen. He does not offer cheap grace
that winks at wrongdoing. He says, go and sin no more. The sin is real. The
forgiveness is also very real. Both are fully true at the same time. And
neither cancels the other.
Susanna in today's first reading is a woman
falsely accused, the opposite of the woman in the Gospel who is genuinely
guilty. And yet both are defended by God's justice. Whether you are innocent
and falsely condemned or genuinely guilty and justly condemned, God's mercy
operates in both directions. God always defends the innocent, and He always forgives
the guilty when they ask for forgiveness. He writes in the dirt while everyone
else is picking up stones.
What did He write? Nobody knows, and scripture
doesn't say. My thoughts are, I think, that was intentional. Because what He
wrote is personal, for each person who has ever been surrounded by accusers,
for each soul who has ever been caught in something and dragged before the
judgment of others. Whatever He wrote, it was enough. One by one the accusers
dropped their stones and left. And the only One who had a right to condemn the
woman, Jesus, chose mercy instead.
That is the God we are following into Holy
Week. Not a God who looks away from sin. A God who looks straight at it and
says, I see it all. And I choose you anyway. Go. Sin no more.
💭 Reflection Question
Are you standing more
in the place of the accused woman today, needing to hear Jesus say neither do I
condemn you, or in the place of the accusers, holding a stone against someone
else? What would it mean to stop your accusations today?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Agony in the
Garden
Jesus in Gethsemane
took upon Himself every stone that has ever been thrown, every accusation,
every sin, every condemnation, and bore it all in His own body. He who had
every right to condemn chose instead to be condemned in our place. As you pray
these beads today, bring whatever stones you are carrying, toward yourself or
toward others, and lay them down at the garden gate.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Our Lady of Fatima
came not to throw stones but to intercede. She stood before God weeping, not in
condemnation of sinners but in love for them, in urgent intercession for souls
who were heading toward judgment without anyone praying for them. She is the
woman who stays after everyone else has dropped their stones and walked away,
staying with the accused, staying with the guilty, whispering the same thing
Jesus said: He does not condemn you. Go and live and come back to God with all
your heart. Let Mary say that, to your heart today.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are
the only one in the crowd without a stone, and You chose to put it down.
Whatever I have been condemned for in my own heart, I hear You saying: neither
do I condemn you. Help me to receive that mercy fully and to go forward in the
freedom of it. Please guide me Lord to a good confession, opening my heart fully
to You. And help me drop whatever stone I have been holding against someone
else. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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