Welcome to the traditional Catholic Daily Devotional.

Today's Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, the Wednesday of the third week of Lent, third class with the color of violet.

In this episode, the meditation 40 steps to Easter, a preview of the sermon, the heart of Lent.

Today's news from the church, Shigami Fukuhori, Nagasaki survivor, dies at 93,

and today's thought from Archbishop Marcel Lefevre. But first, the collect of today's Mass.

Grant, we beseeched the O Lord that improved by wholesome fasting, and thus abstaining from

harmful sin, we may the more readily receive thy mercy.

Let's look at a saint, and to do that, let's go back to the 8th century, to a place called

Friesland, where a boy named Ludger was born into a noble family.

From a young age, Ludger had a strong calling, so strong, in fact, that he asked to be sent

to study under the great missionary St. Gregory of Utrecht. Later, he even crossed the channel

to study with the legendary Alkman at York. But Lutger wasn't just in it for the academics.

He became a priest and a missionary, preaching the gospel in pagan territories like Friesland and

Westphalia. When Saxon invasions interrupted his mission, he took time to regroup, spending

a few years living like a monk at Montecasino in Italy among the Benedictines. When Charlemagne

conquered the Saxons, Ludegerb jumped back into action, converting entire regions, founding monasteries,

including the one at Verden, and eventually being named the Bishop of Munster.

He was once accused of neglecting church buildings and called to defend himself before Charlemagne.

His reply, I was praying. God comes first.

That response earned him the emperor's respect and silenced his critics.

Ludeger kept working right up to his final day,

preaching twice on Passion Sunday and predicting that he would pass that very night.

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