Daily Meditation for January 20, 2026

Have you ever felt overwhelmed and helpless by the pain that you see around you? Sometimes this pain is a result of physical illness or of an accident. At other times it is a family quarrel that breaks out after some celebration that was meant to bring the family closer together, such as a Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday. Whatever, the end result is a feeling of helplessness, despair and/or discouragement. At moments like these, it may be helpful to remember the Gospel event when a large number of people were following Jesus and because it was getting late, Jesus suggested that the apostles feed them. In response, they threw up their hands in desperation saying, “How can we? We just have these five loaves of bread and a few fish.” Seeing their frustration, Jesus looked at them with compassion like he looks at us in moments of our helplessness and said: “Bring them to me.”

By Lois Wedl, OSB