Friday, November 13, 2026 — Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
Remember Lot’s wife
Luke 17:26-37
Readings of the day: First Reading: 2 John 4-9; Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18; Gospel Acclamation: Luke 21:28; Gospel: Luke 17:26-37.
The Gospel
As in the days of Noah and of Lot, people ate and drank, married, bought and sold, planted and built, until the day of judgment came suddenly upon them. On the day the Son of Man is revealed, do not turn back for what was left behind. “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” One will be taken, the other left.
Reflection
Jesus does not condemn eating, drinking, marrying, buying, or building; St. Ambrose notes that by these life is sustained, but moderation is to be sought in all things, for whatever is more than this is of evil. The danger is not ordinary life but a life absorbed in it, unready for the day of the Son of Man. “Remember Lot’s wife”: she looked back and was fixed where she stood. St. Augustine reads her as a warning to those who, in time of trouble, look back and turn aside from the hope of the divine promise. To lose one’s life for Christ is to save it; to cling to it is to lose it.
From the Fathers
“Let it not however be supposed that marriages, or again meat and drink, are condemned, seeing that by the one succession is sustained, by the other nature, but moderation is to be sought for in all things. For whatsoever is more than this is of evil.”
— St. Ambrose, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17:26–37
“Lot’s wife represents those who in time of trouble look back and turn aside from the hope of the divine promise, and hence she was made a pillar of salt as a warning to men not to do likewise, and to season as it were their hearts, lest they become corrupt.”
— St. Augustine, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17:26–37
“if a man goes up to the top of his house and rises to the summit of the highest virtues, let him not fall back to the grovelling business of this world.”
— St. Ambrose, in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17:26–37
Saint of the day
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917). Born in Lombardy, Italy, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880 and came to New York in 1889 to serve Italian immigrants, founding schools, hospitals, and orphanages across the Americas. She became a United States citizen in 1909 and was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946, the first United States citizen to be canonized. In 1950 she was named Patroness of Immigrants.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the daily lectionary (USCCB, Lectionary 495). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Luke 17:26–37, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).