Thursday, September 24, 2026
Thursday of the Twenty-fifth week in Ordinary Time
Luke 9:7-9
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun? One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there a thing of which it may be said, “Behold, this is new?” It has been long ago, in the ages which were before us. There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 90:3-4,5-6,12-13,14,17
You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass. In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry. So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, the Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.
Gospel
Luke 9:7-9
Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him; and he was very perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. Herod said, “John I beheaded, but who is this, about whom I hear such things?” He sought to see him.
Lectio
The Preacher's weariness is honest in a way we rarely permit ourselves to be. All that labor under the sun, the rivers running to a sea that is never full, the generations coming and going without so much as a memory left behind — it is the voice of a man who has looked long at his own striving and found it strangely empty. We tend to flee this feeling, to bury it under more activity. But Ecclesiastes lingers there, unafraid, because sometimes the emptiness is not a lie to be argued away but a door to be walked through.
And then, in the Psalm, the same recognition of our smallness turns, quietly, into prayer. "So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." The vanity does not have the last word once it is handed over to God. Notice what the psalmist finally asks for: not permanence, not to be remembered, but that the Lord would "establish the work of our hands." Our labor gains nothing under the sun on its own — but placed in God's hands, even our fleeting days can be made to hold.
Herod, meanwhile, shows us the other path. He hears of Jesus and is merely curious, perplexed, restless. He "sought to see him" the way one seeks a spectacle, not the way one seeks the truth. He wants to satisfy an itch, not to be changed. It is a chilling reminder that we can be near the answer to all our weariness and still treat it as one more thing to consume with the eye that is never satisfied.
Where in your life right now are you laboring in a way that leaves you weary and empty, and what would it mean to actually hand that particular work to God this morning instead of driving it forward alone?
Is there something you have been "seeking to see" out of curiosity or restlessness — a person, an outcome, a piece of news — that you know, if you're honest, you're using to distract yourself rather than to meet the living Christ?
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora