18 November 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37
The last lines of Paul's last letter are a list of names: Prisca and Aquila, the household of Onesiphorus, Erastus, Trophimus left ill at Miletus, Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia. The great apostle, near death, remembers people. Then a blessing that echoes in every Syriac liturgy: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” The Church is a web of friendships held together by grace.
Jesus looks at Jerusalem and weeps with a mother's heart: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” God's love is tender and persistent, but it never forces. The door stays open until the day they will say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”, the cry we sing at every Holy Qurbono.
Theme: “Under her wings.”
The tender, persistent love of God.
“he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;” Psalm 91:4
“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37
Apply: Bring one fear to Jesus and leave it there.
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.” Psalm 118:26
“For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Matthew 23:39
Apply: Sing the Hosanna with attention at the next Qurbono.
“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;” Numbers 6:24–25
“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” 2 Timothy 4:22
Apply: Bless your children or family tonight.
God's love gathers, never forces.
Let us be willing.
Take-home resolution: Pray each day for ten people by name.
Dear friends, the last lines of Paul's last letter are a list of names: Prisca and Aquila, the household of Onesiphorus, Erastus, Trophimus left ill at Miletus, Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia. The Lord be with your spirit; grace be with you (2 Timothy 4:19–22). The great apostle, near death, remembers his friends.
In the Gospel Jesus laments over Jerusalem: how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! You will not see me again until you say, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord (Matthew 23:37–39).
God's love shelters like a mother's wings, but it does not force. Let us take refuge under those wings. Like Paul, let us remember our friends by name in prayer, and send someone a message of love today. Amen.
Children, Jesus wants to protect us as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Today pray for your friends by name!
Lord Jesus, you long to gather us as a hen gathers her brood. Make us willing to come under your wings, and keep in your grace all whose names we carry in our hearts. Amen.
Two farewells. Paul, near the end of his life, closes his last letter with names of friends and a blessing. Jesus, near the end of his ministry, weeps over Jerusalem with the image of a hen gathering her chicks. Both show love that keeps reaching out, even to the end.
Setting.
2 Timothy presents itself as Paul's last letter, written from prison in Rome as he awaits death: “I am already being poured out as a libation” (4:6). Many companions have left him; only Luke is with him (4:11). The letter ends with greetings.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.” (4:19)
Prisca and Aquila, the tentmaker couple, worked with Paul in Corinth and Ephesus (Acts 18). Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul's chains and searched for him in Rome (1:16–17).
“Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.” (4:21)
St Irenaeus records that the apostles entrusted the Church of Rome to Linus, the first successor of Peter. Here he is simply one of the brothers sending greetings.
“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” (4:22)
“Your” is singular, for Timothy; “you” in the last line is plural. The letter was meant to be read to the whole Church.
How the Church reads it.
The great teaching of Paul ends with names. The Church remembers that holiness is lived with people, in friendship and loyalty. Every time the priest greets us and we answer, “And with your spirit”, we pray the same blessing that Paul sent to Timothy.
Setting.
These verses close Jesus' long rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees in the Temple (Matthew 23). Right after it, he leaves the Temple (24:1). The rebuke ends not in anger but in a lament, like the laments of the prophets over Jerusalem.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (23:37)
A mother's image for God, as in the Psalms: “under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4). The divine longing meets the human power to refuse.
“See, your house is left to you, desolate.” (23:38)
“For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (23:39)
Psalm 118:26, the words the crowds sang when Jesus entered the city (21:9). The lament ends with a door left open.
How the Church reads it.
This is a lament of love, not a curse on a people. The Church teaches that the guilt of Christ's death cannot be laid on all the Jews then living, nor on the Jews of today (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). St Anselm, in his prayer to St Paul, takes up this verse and calls Jesus a mother who gathers her chicks under her wings (in substance).