October 21st, 2026 – This Week: Prayer Stretches the Vessel – Divine Office: Liturgy of the Hours

29th Week in Ordinary Time • Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs • Optional Memorial of John Paul II, Pope • Liturgical Colours: Green/Red/White

Following the devastation of Rome in 410 AD, among the refugees who reached Africa was a once wealthy widow named Anicia Faltonia Proba. She wrote to Saint Augustine to ask how she should pray in a time of personal desolation. His answer, one of the greatest reflections on Christian prayer, runs through four days of the Office of Readings this week, alongside the book of Esther – a young queen who prays with her life at stake. Saint Augustine’s letter is timeless. We still struggle with distraction, uncertainty and suffering. We still ask the questions: how should I pray, what should I ask for.

This Week in the Liturgy – Highlights

Sunday 18 October — 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time First reading: Esther 1–2 — Guided by Mordecai, her cousin and guardian, the Jewish orphan Esther becomes the queen of Persia. Second reading: Saint Augustine, Letter to Proba, (Let us exercise our desire in prayer) — When we pray we get to expand our spiritual capacity to receive God’s grace: “…our Lord and God does not want to know what we want (for he cannot fail to know it), but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give us.”

Monday 19 October — Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs First reading: Esther 3:1-15 — The vengeful official Haman plots the complete annihilation of the Jewish people because Mordecai “would not kneel and bow down” to him. Second reading: Saint John de Brébeuf, (Spiritual diaries) — The French Jesuits we remember today worked among the Huron and Iroquois peoples of North America and were killed there in the 1640s. Saint John de Brébeuf’s diary shows the courageous resolve that grew in his heart: “Jesus, my Lord and Savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name.” And the greatest concern of his heart: “My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known.”

Tuesday 20 October First reading: Esther 4:1-16 — Mordecai urges Esther to risk her life and plead for her people: “Invoke the Lord and speak to the king for us: save us from death.” Second reading: Saint Augustine, Letter to Proba, (On the Lord’s Prayer) — Saint Augustine walks us through the Lord’s Prayer. The last petition is the one that fits every crisis: “In this petition the Christian can utter his cries of sorrow, in it he can shed his tears, and through it he can begin, continue and conclude his prayer, whatever the distress in which he finds himself.” Acute worldly terror should drive a believer deeper into prayer rather than away from it.

Wednesday 21 October First reading: Esther 14:1-19: Facing imminent death, Queen Esther casts aside her royal finery and prays with absolute vulnerability, begging God to deliver her people. Second reading: Saint Augustine, Letter to Proba, (You will find everything in the Lord’s Prayer): Every authentic petition, prayer, and desire found throughout the entire Bible is perfectly summarized within the words of the Our Father: “If you study every word of the petitions of Scripture, you will find, I think, nothing that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer.”

Thursday 22 October — Optional Memorial of Saint John Paul II, Pope First reading: Esther 5:1-5; 7:1-10: King Ahasuerus grants Esther’s request to spare her people, leading to the exposure and execution of her enemy. Second reading: St. John Paul II, (Inauguration Homily) — The Second Reading for the Optional Memorial of Saint John Paul II is taken from his own Inaugural Homily on October 22, 1978, and centers on his iconic exhortation: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!” Reflecting on Saint Peter’s journey