TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 9, 2024
Greetings, beloved family and Happy Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time!
On this special feast day, with special intention we pray for all families and for the safety and well-being of our children and children all over the world. We continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Cardinals, Bishops, all Priests, that they be sanctified in their ministry to God’s people. We pray for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world suffering from political and religious unrest. May God protect us all and keep united in peace, love and faith… Amen 🙏
Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | June 9, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 9, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |June 9, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 9, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 9, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteriels VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |
Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |
Today’s Bible Readings, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | June 9, 2024
Reading 1, Genesis 3:9-15
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading 2, Second Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel, Mark 3:20-35
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060924.cfm
Gospel Reading ~ Mark 3:20–35
“It is the end of Satan”
“Jesus came home with His disciples. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When His relatives heard of this they set out to seize Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons He drives out demons.” Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder His property unless He first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” His mother and His brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around Him told Him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” But He said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus’ relatives were convinced that He was out of His mind. He was upsetting powerful people like the scribes in the Gospel reading by His words and actions, bringing shame down upon His family. Since Jesus left His home in Nazareth, Jesus has literally been a man with a mission. The son of the carpenter has become the proclaimer of the presence of God’s kingdom. His message was experienced as good news by many, especially the most vulnerable and broken. However, the same message was perceived as dangerous and troublesome by others, especially those who prided themselves on understanding God’s will as expressed in the Jewish Law. Jesus has been making many enemies among the influential and the powerful. So much so, that many people have been saying about Jesus, ‘He is out of His mind’. Jesus’ family feel the need to do something out of concern for His well-being. According to the beginning of today’s Gospel reading, His relatives set out from Nazareth to take charge of Jesus. They decided that Jesus needed to be taken in hand for His own good and their good. It sounded as if they were going to forcibly take Him home. They set out one day from Nazareth and travelled the short distance to Capernaum where Jesus had based His ministry. The end of today’s Gospel reading shows what happened when they reached the house in Capernaum where Jesus was teaching with a group of His followers sitting around Him, listening to Him. They soon discovered that they had less influence over Jesus than they imagined. When they reached the house where He was teaching and sent in a message to Him that they wanted to see Him, He sent back a message which clearly showed that He had moved on from His blood family. When Jesus was informed that His family, including his mother, were outside asking for Him to come out, He looked around at those seated about Him and said in effect, ‘this is now my family’. ‘Here are my mother and brothers’ and sisters. Everyone who seeks to do God’s will as Jesus reveals it is now a member of His new family. His relatives could become members of the new family He was forming but, firstly, they would have to give up their efforts to control Him and, instead, surrender to what God was doing through h
Him. His life was now being shaped by the will of God His heavenly Father, not by the will of His earthly family. His primary allegiance was to God and not to any human authority, including the authority of His beloved family. Jesus was inviting His family to give their primary allegiance to God by allowing Jesus to be Himself. Here was a family intervention that did not quite go according to plan from the perspective of Jesus’ family members. God was at work in the life of Jesus in a way that His family did not understand and struggled to accept. Their plans and purposes for Jesus were too small. They had yet to learn to surrender to God’s purpose for Jesus’ life. Sometimes, our plans and purposes for others, even for those we love the best, can be too confining. We often struggle to let them go to a greater purpose that we don’t fully understand at the time. God’s purpose for Jesus was that He would form a new family, a family of his disciples. In time, this new family came to be called the church. We are all members of that new family of Jesus. God’s purpose for Jesus’ life has come to embrace us all. All who have been baptized in the name of the Trinity belong to the family of the church. The words of Jesus at the end of today’s Gospel reading are very striking. He is saying in effect that the members of His family of origin do not have a stronger claim on him in virtue of their blood relationship with Him. He clearly wants the members of His family of origin to become members of His new family, but, in doing so they are no more His brothers and sisters and mother than the other members of His new family. Jesus’ words bring home to us the privileged relationship we have with Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we have become His brothers and sisters. Although Jesus is the Son of God in a unique way, we have been caught up into His own relationship with God; we are sons and daughters of God. This great privilege contains its own calling. When Jesus looked around at His new family at the end of today’s Gospel reading, He said, ‘anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother’. Sometimes the call to do the will of God, as Jesus has revealed it to us, does not always come easy to us. The first reading refers to Adam who did his own will rather than God’s will, eating from the tree that God had forbidden to him, in an effort to be like God. As a result of not doing God’s will, he felt distant from God and hid from God; so God had to cry out after him, ‘Where are you?’ In the Gospel reading, the learned scribes were clearly acting contrary to God’s will in attributing Jesus’ healing power to an evil spirit, Satan, rather than to God’s Spirit. Jesus declares that those who demonize goodness in this way put themselves beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness. The demonizing of those who proclaim God’s will to the world, and live accordingly, has been with us all through history, up to the present. The risen Lord keeps calling us back into His new family, the family of those who try to live in accordance with God’s will for our lives. The Lord who calls us also pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts to empower us to do the will of God by living in the same loving and merciful way as He did. As members of Jesus’ family, Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’. Our daily calling as the Lord’s brothers and sisters is to make that prayer a reality in the concrete circumstances of our lives, by doing the will of God as He has revealed it to us.
Our first reading today from the beginning of the Book of Genesis detail the story of the moment of mankind’s fall into sin. It was the moment right after Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, ate of the fruits of the forbidden Tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree that the Lord specifically told Adam and Eve not to eat from because if they were to eat of the fruits, then they would die. Indeed, that would come true, because when Adam and Eve, tempted by the falsehoods and lies of Satan chose to disobey God and ate the fruits of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, they had to suffer the trials and hardships of the world, suffering in this world and eventually like all of us, we have to endure death. It was never God’s intention to make us suffer and endure death, but it was by our own conscious choice, choosing the falsehoods of the evil one that had deceived and deluded us with temptations of worldly glory, power, knowledge and all the things that we ourselves often desired for in this world. God created us all good and perfect, all in His own image, and we have indeed been intended to a life of pure bliss and perfect harmony with Him forever, but because of our wickedness and sins, we have fallen into this state, and by our own choice we have fallen into this path of wickedness and evil, and we should have been crushed and destroyed for this rebellion. And yet, God Who loved each and every one of us desired that all of us should be reconciled and reunited with Him. Despite our imperfections and evils, He wanted that each and every one of us may overcome our challenges and imperfections, all the temptations and evils present around us so that we may truly discover the true purpose in life, that is to be in perfect love and harmony in God, to be once again blessed and full of God’s grace just as how it was at the very beginning of time. That is why He has repeatedly sent us again and again His help, reaching out to us through His servants and messengers, His prophets, and ultimately, His own Beloved Son.
In our second reading this Sunday from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, St. Paul the Apostle spoke to all the faithful including all of us reminding us that through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, God had revealed the fullness of His love and the intention to be reconciled with us. Each and every one of us are meant to overcome the limitations of our worldly and earthly selves. Our human existence and our sufferings in this world are part of this journey, of repentance and reconciliation with God. And the Lord has sent us His only begotten Son, to be the One to bridge the gap between us and Himself, and to show us all the truth of His salvation and love. Through Christ we have received the assurance of eternal life, and the new life in the Lord, through the Holy Spirit that He has sent down to be upon us in His Church, to dwell within us and among all of us. And He also gave us all His own Most Previous Body and Blood to partake, that by partaking in Him, the Bread of Life, we may have life in us, a new life that is truly blessed and filled with God’s grace. And by accepting Him as Our Lord and Saviour, becoming part of this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we have all been called to return to the Lord, to our loving Father and Creator, Who has always loved us all these while, and Who wants to be reconciled with us.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday we are all reminded of our human nature and the sins which we have committed because of our inability to resist the temptations of worldly glory and desire, the temptations and coercions which the evil one and his forces have placed in our paths in life. All of us are reminded that we are all God’s people and we should always strive to do what is good, right and just, all in accordance to everything that God has shown and taught us, to be truly and holy, worthy and appropriate in our lives for Him at all times. Otherwise, how can we truly call ourselves as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people? The Lord reminded all of us through all of these that we must always strive to oppose the temptations of sin, the allures of wicked desires and evils all around us, and we must strive to obey the Lord and His reminders to us, that we must always do His will, and do what He has commanded and taught us to do in our every moments throughout life. We must always remind ourselves not to allow the evil one to tempt and to drag us into our downfall, but instead we must continue to remain firmly faithful to the Lord and put our complete faith and trust in Him at all times. Let us all hence continue to live our lives worthily in the Lord, doing whatever we can so that by all of our words, actions and deeds, we will continue to walk in this path of grace towards the Lord, and that we may grow ever stronger in our faith in Him. Let us all continue to persevere in faith, in our every day moments and lives so that we may not be discouraged by all the challenges and the hardships we may have to encounter in our journey. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may the good Lord, our loving and compassionate God continue to guide and strengthen us in each and every moments of our lives, and in our every works and endeavours. Amen 🙏
SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT EPHREM, DEACON AND DOCTOR; SAINTS PRIMUS AND FELICIAN, MARTYRS; SAINT COLUMBA OF IONA, PRIEST AND ABBOT AND BLESSED ANNA MARIA TAIGI, RELIGIOUS ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 9TH
Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the Church; Saints Primus and Felician, Martyrs; Saint Columba of Iona, Priest and Abbot and Blessed Anna Maria Taigi. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. We also pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases, for the souls of the faithful departed, may God grant them eternal rest. We pray for the poor and the needy and we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world. Amen🙏
SAINT EPHREM, DEACON AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH: Saint Ephrem, called “the Harp of the Holy Spirit,” is the great classic Doctor of the Syrian church. As deacon at Edessa, hermit, and Doctor of the Church he made important contributions to the spirituality and theology of the Christian East during the fourth century. He vigorously combated the heresies of his time, and to do so more effectively wrote poems and hymns about the mysteries of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the saints. He had a great devotion to Our Lady. He was a commentator on Scripture and a preacher as well as a poet, and has left a considerable number of works, which were translated into other Eastern languages as well as into Greek and Latin. St. Ephrem was born about 306 at Nisibis, a city in Roman Mesopotamia (modern Syria). According to traditions, his father was at one time a pagan priest and his family later became, entirely Christian. St. Ephrem was banished from his home by his pagan father for his Christian sympathies. He found refuge with St. James, Bishop of Nisibis, under whose guidance he received a thorough education. Baptized at eighteen years of age, and began to consider the salvation of his soul more seriously. He embraced an ascetic lifestyle under the direction of Bishop James of Nisibis who gave him permission to live as a hermit. St. Ephrem supported himself with manual labor, making sails for ships, while living in a remarkably austere manner with few comforts and little food. He assumed a post as a teacher in the flourishing school of Nisibis. After the death of St. Ephrem’s spiritual director and friend, Bishop James of Nisibis in 338, soon after, St. Ephrem left his solitude and moved to Edessa in present-day Turkey where, after entering the monastic life, he was ordained deacon. He was known for sermons which combined articulate expressions of Catholic orthodoxy with urgent and fruitful calls to repentance. The deacon was also a voluminous author, producing commentaries on the entire Bible as well as the theological poetry for which he is best known. Ephrem used Syriac-language verse as a means to explain and popularize theological truths, a technique he appropriated from others who had used poetry to promote religious error. Late in his life, the deacon made a pilgrimage to the city of Caesarea, where God had directed him to seek the guidance of the archbishop later canonized as Saint Basil the Great. Basil helped Ephrem to resolve some of his own spiritual troubles, giving him advice which he would follow as he spent his final years in solitary prayer and writing.
Near the end of his life, Ephrem briefly left his hermitage to serve the poor and sick during a famine. His last illness came in 373, most likely from a disease he contracted through this service. When his own death approached, he told his friends: “Sing no funeral hymns at Ephrem’s burial … Wrap not my carcass in any costly shroud: erect no monument to my memory. Allow me only the portion and place of a pilgrim; for I am a pilgrim and a stranger as all my fathers were on earth.” St. Ephrem of Syria died in June of 373. Soon after his death, he was remembered in a public address by his contemporary Saint Gregory of Nyssa, who closed his remarks by asking Ephrem’s intercession. “You are now assisting at the divine altar, and before the Prince of life, with the angels, praising the most holy Trinity,” said Gregory. “Remember us all, and obtain for us the pardon of our sins.” Pope Benedict XV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church in 1920. St. Ephrem wrote many works in defense of the Catholic Church, on the various Mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ and in honor of the Virgin Mary. Poet, exegete, and orator extraordinary, St. Ephrem was called “The prophet of the Syrians” and “The Lyre of the Holy Spirit.” St. Ephrem bestowed on the hymnic genre that fullness which has been associated with it in the Eastern Church ever since and also left us a classic commentary on the four Gospels called the Diatessaron. Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christian celebrate his feast on January 28. He’s the Patron Saint of Spiritual directors; spiritual leaders.
PRAYER: Lord, graciously infuse the Holy Spirit into our hearts. By His inspiration, St. Ephrem the Daecon rejoiced in singing of Your mysteries and through His power he was enabled to serve You alone. Amen🙏
SAINTS PRIMUS AND FELICIAN, MARTYRS: Saints Primus and Felician were brothers who suffered martyrdom about the year 297 during the Diocletian persecution. These two martyrs were brothers who lived in Rome, heirs of a family of great wealth, toward the latter part of the third century. St. Primus and his younger brother St. Felician, the sons of a Roman nobleman, were converts to Christianity who devoted themselves to corporal works of mercy. They frequented the prisons, visiting their fellow Christians imprisoned for their faith by the pagan Roman authorities. It was through the assiduous love of Pope Felix I that they had the happiness, in their mature years, of being converted to the Christian faith; afterwards they encouraged each other for many years in the practice of all good works. They seemed to possess nothing but for the poor, and often, during the persecutions, they spent both nights and days with the confessors in their dungeons, or at the places of their torments and execution. Some they exhorted to persevere; others who had fallen, they raised again. They made themselves the servants of all in Christ, that all might attain to salvation through Him.
Though their zeal was very remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of many bloody persecutions; they had grown old in the heroic exercises of their virtue, when it pleased God to crown their labors with a glorious martyrdom. Eventually the two brothers were themselves apprehended. St. Primus was about 90 years old, when the pagans raised so great an outcry against the brothers that they were apprehended and put in chains. After refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods, the two were inhumanly scourged and tortured, and then sent to a town twelve miles from Rome to be chastised again, as avowed enemies to the gods, by a prefect who detested the Christians. There they were cruelly tortured to make them renounce their faith, both together and then separately, but the grace of God strengthened each of them. As this failed to shake their profession of the faith, they were tortured a second time. St. Felician was nailed by his hands and feet to a post and left without food or water for three days; St. Primus was beaten with clubs and burnt with torches. God spared them amidst these tortures, and wild beasts in an arena imitated their God’s mercy. St. Primus was then beheaded, after which his brother was told the falsehood that St. Primus had apostatized. Recognizing this as a lie, St. Felician remained steadfast, and suffered martyrdom that same day. Both of them were beheaded on June 9, 286. Their relics, transferred in the seventh century within the city, are at present in the church of St. Stephen on the Coelian Hill.
Saints Primus and Felician, Martyrs ~ Pray for us🙏
SAINT COLUMBA OF IONA, PRIEST AND ABBOT: Saint Columba, or Columkille (521-597), the apostle of the Picts of Scotland, was born of a noble family on December 7, 521 at Garton, County Donegal, Tyrconnell, Ireland. His parents named him Crimtham (Pronounced Criffan) meaning “a fox.” He was brought up in the company of many saints at the school of St. Finian of Clonard. He studied Holy Scripture under the saintly bishop Finian, and when ordained a priest in 546 he opened a school where he formed several disciples. He founded several monasteries in Ireland. He is sometimes called Columkille, which is Old Irish for Founder of cells. Though austere, he was not morose; and, although he often longed to die, he was untiring in good works throughout his life. His zeal in preaching against public vices offended King Dermot, and the Saint decided to leave his domains, departing for Scotland with a dozen of his disciples. He arrived there in 565, according to Saint Bede. There he founded a hundred religious houses and converted the Picts of the north, who in gratitude gave him the island of Iona, a short distance from the mainland. On that island Saint Columba founded his celebrated large monastery of Hy (or Y Colm-Kille), a school for apostolic missionaries and martyrs, and for centuries the last resting place of a multitude of Saints and of the kings of Scotland. Later its monks adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict.
The gentleness and charity of Saint Columba, which were unfailing, won the hearts of all with whom he conversed. His virtues, to which God added the gifts of prophecy and miracles, attracted for him universal veneration. The kings did nothing without consulting him; King Edhan in 570 wished to receive the royal ornaments from his hand. Four years before his death, our Saint had a vision of Angels, who told him that the day of his death had been deferred four years, in answer to the prayers of his spiritual children. Thereupon the Saint wept bitterly, for he desired above all things to reach his true home. He was seventy-six years old, and surrounded in choir by his disciples, when finally the day of his peaceful death came. It was the 9th of June, 597, when he said to his disciple Diermit, This day is called the Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, and such will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my labors. Then, kneeling before the altar, he received the Viaticum, and sweetly slept in the Lord. He died on June 9, 597 at the age of 75 at the foot of the altar at Iona while blessing his people, and was buried there at Iona, Scotland. His relics were later carried to Downpatrick in Ulster and laid in the same shrine with those of Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget. He’s Patron Saint against floods; bookbinders; floods; Ireland; poets; Derry; and co-patron of Ireland and of Scotland.
Saint Columba of Iona, Priest and Abbot ~ Pray for us 🙏
BLESSED ANNA MARIA TAIGI, RELIGIOUS: Bl. Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837) was a Wife and mother, an Italian Roman Catholic professed member from the Secular Trinitarian Tertiary. Bl. Anna Maria Taigi, born Anna Maria Giannetti on May 29, 1769 in Siena, Italy, to a poor working class family. Her family later moved to Rome, and Anna took on various low-skill jobs to help with the family finances. She married a pious man Domenico Taigi, a brash and impulsive individual with bad temper though devoted to his wife. She grew in virtue, and together they had seven children. As a young wife and mother she discerned God calling her to renounce the vanities and worldliness that she was accustomed to. She began to give little care to fancy dress, and accepted God’s grace more in her life. With her husband’s consent she transformed their home into a sanctuary through which she would serve God. Although she was not wealthy, Anna would give her spare money to the poor and needy.
Bl. Anna Maria Taigi experienced a series of ecstasies during her life and was reported to have heard the voices of God and Jesus Christ on several occasions. She soon entered the Third Order of Trinitarians and became a Secular Trinitarian after experiencing a sudden religious conversion. That happened in the winter of 1790 at Saint Peter’s Basilica when Bl. Taigi came into contact with a range of cardinals and luminaries, which included Vincent Strambi and the bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget. She grew in holiness and God transformed her into a mystic: she experienced ecstasies during prayer, and was given visions of the future and the state of other’s souls which were shown to her in a miraculous golden globe of light over the course of forty-seven years. Many sought her out for spiritual advice as she attended her household duties. She refused special favors from benefactors, and instead lived a life of austerity, relying on God to provide for her daily needs. Bl. Anna Maria’s life was marked with much suffering, which she joyfully embraced, and God used her as an instrument for many conversions. Bl. Anna Maria Taigi died on June 9, 1837. The beatification process opened in 1863 under Pope Pius IX after she was titled as a Servant of God and Pope Benedict XV later beatified her in mid-1920. She’s Patron Saint of Housewives, Mothers, Victims of verbal abuse, Victims of spousal abuse, Families, Trinitarian tertiaries. Her feast day is June 9th.
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, Religious ~ Pray for us🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JUNE: The month of June is set apart for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of our Savior none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the love of the faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that devotion.” These words of Pope Pius XI refer to the Sacred Heart Devotion, which in its present form dates from the revelations given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-75.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE – FOR MIGRANTS FLEEING THEIR HOMES: We pray that migrants fleeing from war or hunger, forced to undertake journeys full of danger and violence, find welcome and new opportunities in the countries that receive them.
https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2024
PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have beķķen in vain. Now, Lord, come to our ajnid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen🙏
During this Ordinary Time, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏
On this special feast day, as we continue to celebrate our risen Lord, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the Clergy and religious as they serve in the Lord’s Vineyard. We also pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved, we pray for the repose of their gentle souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯
PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏
Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/
PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this season of the Ordinary Time, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we pray for their health, safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those who have no one to care for them and those who are terminally ill, we pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle soul of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. We pray for Vocation to the Priesthood and Religious life. We particularly pray for all Youths and all Seminarians, with special intention for those Seminarians who will be ordained into Priesthood. For the Church, for persecuted Christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen🙏
Let us pray:
Most merciful Lord, You offer forgiveness to all who come to You with humility and sincere sorrow. Please fill me with these virtues and give me the resolve to change as I open myself to Your unfathomable mercy. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces and Saint Ephrem; Saints Primus and Felician; Saint Columba of Iona and Blessed Anna Maria Taigi ~ Pray for us🙏
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray for us. Amen🙏
Thanking God for the gift of the special feasts of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and we continue to pray for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all. Have a blessed, safe, and grace-filled Sunday and week🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖