LIVE IT TODAY: Friday, November 21, 2025 | Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Your heart is My dwelling place. I made it for prayer, not chaos.
LIVE IT TODAY: Friday, November 21, 2025 | Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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GOD’S DECLARATION TO YOU TODAY
Your heart is My dwelling place. I made it for prayer, not chaos.
INVOCATION
Come, Holy Spirit! Through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, open my heart to hear and receive all that You desire for me. Draw me ever more deeply into the Love and Life of the Blessed Trinity!
GOSPEL | Luke 19:45–48
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
EVERY DAY QUESTION
What struck you? Challenged you? Inspired you? What questions did it raise?
GOING DEEPER
The courage to cleanse what we tolerate
Today’s Gospel offers a startling, cleansing moment: Jesus drives out the commerce and corruption that had invaded the temple courts. The Greek verb used—ekballō—means to cast out with force, to expel decisively. This is not gentle correction. It is a holy reclamation. Jesus is not angry because people are selling things; He is heartbroken because a sacred place meant for encounter has become a marketplace of distraction.
This memorial—the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—shines a radiant contrast. Tradition holds that Mary was offered to God in the Temple as a young child, set apart as a living sanctuary. In her, we see what God desires His temple to be: pure, receptive, open, entirely oriented to His presence. If Jesus cleanses the temple, Mary reveals what a cleansed temple can become.
For first-century Jews, the Temple was the beating heart of identity—God’s dwelling place on earth. To see it cluttered, noisy, overrun with profit-making instead of prayer would have felt like watching your own home invaded. Jesus’ cleansing is a dramatic sign that God is reclaiming His space. And not only the building—but every heart, every household, every place meant to reflect His glory.
Our homes today can easily resemble the temple courts of this Gospel. Noise, distraction, busyness, constant digital intrusion, unresolved tensions, and the subtle “commerce” of quid-pro-quo relationships: I’ll love you if… I’ll give attention when… I’ll forgive once… These steal peace, cheapen relationships, and crowd out the sacred.
Jesus enters our domestic churches not to shame us, but to free us. He wants to overturn what keeps us anxious, cleanse what keeps us divided, and restore what keeps us distant from one another. Love is strong enough to turn over tables. Holiness means allowing Jesus to disrupt what we’ve grown too comfortable with—our habits, excuses, resentments, and unhealthy patterns.
And notice the final line: the people “were hanging on his words.” The Greek phrase means they clung to Him, eager, spellbound, hungry. A cleansed temple is not empty—it is filled with Jesus’ voice. A cleansed home is not quieter for its own sake—it becomes a place where His Word is heard.
Parents, Jesus wants to cleanse your home with His peace and fill it with His presence. Tonight, pray over your spouse and children by name, asking Jesus to drive out every lie, distraction, and influence that steals joy, and to make your home a living house of prayer.
“‘The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith.’” (CCC 2675)
LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Tables That Need Turning:
What patterns, distractions, or habits in your life or home is Jesus calling you to “drive out” so prayer has room to breathe?
House of Prayer:
What simple practice can help your home become more a place of God’s presence and less a place of constant noise?
Hanging on His Words:
Where do you sense Jesus teaching you daily, and how can you cling more closely to His voice?
FAMILY LIVE IT
Make some time today to gather together and, going around, each person shares one area of their life or home they want Jesus to cleanse or restore.
Pray over each person by name: Lord Jesus, cleanse ___’s heart and home today. Drive out every distraction, lie, or heaviness that steals peace. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit and make their life a living house of prayer.
Daily Challenge: Choose one simple, concrete action that makes space for God in your home today—turning off a device, creating a quiet moment, offering forgiveness, or choosing patient love.
DAILY PARENT & GRANDPARENT BLESSING
LORD JESUS CHRIST, let Your holy anointing be upon each of our children, grandchildren, and godchildren this day and week, including all to whom they are called in vocation, and all future generations! In Your Sacred Name we claim them for You! We renounce all whispers, lies, and influences of the Enemy! We pray right now that each know Your loving Presence, be forged in virtue, and be flooded with an abundance of Your Holy Spirit to live fully their identity and mission in You now and through all eternity, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother! Amen.
PARENT BLESSING PROJECT: bit.ly/ParentBlessing
GOING VERTICAL
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Just as the vertical beam upholds the horizontal beam of the Cross, so too does undistracted, dedicated daily turning to God as our lifeblood uphold and strengthen every part of life. Start with just three minutes. Wait patiently for the breakthrough beyond the noise. Let Him speak.
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