SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 28, 2024

WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY [The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly each year on the Sunday closest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents. This year it is celebrated today, July 28, 2024]

Greetings, beloved family. Happy Sunday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time and Happy Grandparent’s day!

On this special feast day, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we humbly pray for all grandparents and the elderly. We pray for their safety and well-being. Lord God almighty, bless our grandparents with long life, happiness, and health. May they remain constant in your love and be living signs of your presence to their children and grandchildren. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen 🙏

We continue to pray for justice, peace and unity in our families and our divided and conflicted world. We pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to 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🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | July 28, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 28, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |July 28, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 28, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 28, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |

Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |

NOVENA TO THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS | https://novenaprayer.com/novena-to-the-precious-blood-of-jesus/ (When to begin: Any time – The whole month of July)

Today’s Bible Readings: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | July 28, 2024
Reading 1, Second Kings 4:42-44
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
Reading 2, Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel, John 6:1-15

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS

Bible Readings for today, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ John 6:1–15

“He distributed as much as they wanted to those who were reclining”

“Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.”

In today’s Gospel reading, we find Jesus and His disciples facing a situation that seemed beyond their resources to cope with. They were faced with a hungry crowd and little or no means of feeding them. In this situation different people reacted in different ways. Philip made a calculation: on the basis of the number of people and the amount of money available to buy food, and decided that nothing could be done. You could say that this was the reaction of the realist. The facts are the facts, and on the basis of the facts, these people cannot be helped. We can all find ourselves reacting in that way to demanding situations. We conclude that the numbers do not add up and we resign ourselves to doing nothing. Andrew has another reaction to the situation. He recognized that one of the crowd had a small amount of food but he dismissed this small resource as of no value. This is the reaction of the person who belittles the resources that are there and the efforts that could be made to address the challenging situation. You could say it is the reaction of the cynic, and again we can all be prone to that kind of reaction. There were two other reactions in the story that the Gospel tells. There is the reaction of the small boy who willingly gave to Jesus the few pieces of food that he had. This is the reaction of the generous person, of the one who is prepared to give all he or she has, even though it appears to be far less than what is needed. Such people are wonderful to have around when challenging times come our way. They do not allow the demanding situation to disempower them. They give all they have to give. Then there is the reaction of Jesus Himself. He took the few resources that the young boy was generous enough to part with and, having prayed the prayer of thanksgiving to God over these small pieces of food, He somehow fed the enormous crowd. As a result, everyone had more than enough to eat and there was even some food left over.

St. Paul once made the great discovery that God’s power can be made perfect in weakness. God can work powerfully in and through very weak instruments like St. Paul himself. In the Gospel reading, Jesus works powerfully in and through what were, from a merely human point of view, very weak resources indeed, five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus took the resources that were given to Him and with them He fed the hunger of the crowd. The realist, Philip, and the cynic, Andrew, and all the other disciples, discovered that the impossible became possible in the power and prayer of Jesus. The Lord needs our resources of generosity and giftedness today as much as He needed the five barley loaves and the two fish of that young boy, if He is to continue to do His work in the world, if He is to continue to feed those who hunger for food, for love, for God. In responding to all those hungers of His people today, the Lord will not bypass our own resources. They may seem very inadequate to us, but to the Lord they are vital. He asks us to give ourselves and our resources generously to Him, to place ourselves, all that we have and all that we are, at His disposal. If we do that, we can never underestimate what the Lord can do in our own lives and in the lives of others through us.

Our first reading today, from the Second Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, gives an account of the miracle that happened during the time of the prophet Elisha and his ministry among the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. At that time, there were a hundred men assembled in that place where Elisha was. Then while they were there, a man brought the products of the first harvest to Elisha, a total of twenty loaves of bread. If we assume that each of the hundred men eat one loaf of bread each, there were not nearly enough for a quarter of their number to eat, less still for all of them. In addition, there was also a famine raging at the timeline of this event in the land of Israel. As such, if we understand the context of these events, we can see just how significant this miracle from God truly was. In our Gospel reading today was a similar miracle by the Lord Jesus, the prophet Elisha miraculously made the loaves of bread to be sufficient for all the hundred men to share and eat, with leftovers, just as the Lord had said it. This was the proof of God’s love for His people, that He did not just care for them spiritually, but even also physically, and ensuring that they had enough for themselves in whatever they need in the physical sustenance and requirements in their lives. He did not abandon them all and still loved them all even though many of them at that time had disobeyed Him, disregarded His Law and commandments, persecuted His prophets and messengers, among the many other evil and wicked deeds which they had done. He has always loved them and His love for them endured through all that, and He wanted them all to repent from those sins and return to Him.

In our second reading from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus, the Apostle spoke about the calling and mission of all Christians, of God’s holy and beloved people to be truly faithful and worthy of the Lord in all the things that they do and carry out in their lives. He reminded all of us through this Epistle that all of us ought to always strive to do what God had taught us to do, to be righteous and faithful in all things, being committed to God and His ways, and to be loving and compassionate to one another, showing our generous love and kindness to everyone around us. As Christians, each and every one of us must always exude the love and grace of God in all of our lives, in each of our actions and at every moments. Immediately before the second reading, St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, declared that God’s power ‘at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine’. We can be surprised at what the Lord’s power can accomplish within us and through us if we give of ourselves generously to Him. Often our faith is not expectant enough. We can fail to appreciate how powerfully the risen Lord can work through generous lives.

If we believe in a Lord whose power at work within us can do immeasurable more than all we ask or image, we will always remain people of hope, no matter how hopeless things may seem from a merely human perspective. St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that we are all called into one and the same hope. As Christians we are not disposed to writing off any situation, or any person, as hopeless. We never despair before the enormity of the task that lies before us, whether that task relates to our own situation or the situation of those in greater need than ourselves. We continue to give generously of the little we have, even when the mountain ahead seems beyond reach, because we know how powerfully the Lord can work through our generous efforts. The Lord can continue to work powerfully today in situations that seem hopeless and lacking in promise. The Lord continues to have hopes and dreams for all of us who are searching for wholeness and nourishment and life. He invites us to keeping entering into His hopes and dreams for ourselves and others, rather than allow ourselves to become bitter and pessimistic because the situation seems so daunting. The Lord also calls on us to trust that, even when our resources seem meagre and the situation facing us seems to overwhelm us, his power at work in and through us can accomplish far more than we could imagine or hope for.

As we reflect on the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday, we are all reminded that each and every one of us are the ones whom God had loved and shown His favour to, and all of us need to realise just how fortunate we all to have been beloved by the Lord in such a way. All of us has received from the Lord Himself the generous love and kindness, forgiveness and mercy for all of our wrongdoings and evil deeds, as long as we are willing to seek Him for forgiveness and mercy. Therefore each one of us as His disciples and followers, as Christians, are all called to do our best in our lives in each and every moments so that our lives may truly be a reflection of God’s love and truth, and that we may truly be His worthy disciples and followers. We should no longer take God’s love and generosity for granted, and we should also share this same love in our own lives, by being generous and kind, what we give out of generosity from our hearts, we shall be blessed manyfold more by the Lord, just as we have seen how God multiplied the loaves of bread. It is also a lesson to remind us all not to worry about our lives and not to lose our trust and faith in God. We must always remember that in the Lord and with Him, all of us will eventually be triumphant with Him, and it is in Him alone that we can find true happiness and joy in life, and not in all the pleasures of the world, all of which are fleeting and illusory in nature. May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God, Who has always watched over us and remembered us even when we have sinned against Him, continue to love us ever more generously, and may He continue to shine His love, kindness and mercy on us, especially when we come to Him seeking for His mercy and forgiveness. Let us all continue to do our part in our respective lives so that by our renewed dedication and commitment to God, we may grow ever stronger in our relationship with Him, and we may continue to bear witness to His love and kindness at all times. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may He bless us in all of our works and efforts, all of our deeds, now and always. Amen 🙏

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT SAMSON, BISHOP OF DOL; SAINTS NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MARTYRS; SAINT VICTOR I, POPE AND MARTYR AND SAINT INNOCENT I, POPE ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 28TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Samson, Bishop of Dol; Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs; Saint Victor I, Pope and Martyr and Saint Innocent I, Pope. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers, and  other terminal diseases. We pray for those going through difficulties especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy, for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏 

SAINT SAMSON, BISHOP OF DOL: St. Samson (490-565) is one of the greatest of the Welsh Saints. St. Samson was a bishop who became one of the greatest missionaries of the sixth century in western Europe, evangelizing for Christ in Ireland, Cornwall, Channel Islands, and Brittany. Saint Samson was born in South Wales about 490 and brought up in the Abbey of Llanwit, then ruled by St. Illtud. His parents whose names are given as Prince Amon the Black of Dyfed and Anna of Gwynedd, were of noble, but not royal, birth. While still an infant he was dedicated to God and entrusted to the care of St. Illtyd, by whom he was brought up in the monastery of Llantwit Major. He was ordained and decided to increase his austerities, fervor, and prayer life. Retiring to another community in the neighborhood, he eventually became its Abbot. However, the Saint was so struck by the superior leading of some Irish monks who paid him a visit that he accompanied them to Ireland and remained a considerable time, laboring for the faith. As time went on, the gift of miracles, which he already enjoyed, attracted so much attention that his humility could not tolerate it. Returning to is own country, he lived for a while as a hermit on the banks of the Severn.

The holy monk was consecrated Bishop by St. Dubricius and as the result of a vision crossed the sea to Brittany in company with other monks. With the aid of land given him, the saintly Bishop established a monastery at a place later called Dol, which became an important Episcopal See. His influence can be gauged by the fact that he visited King Childerbert I to intercede on behalf of the dispossessed Breton ruler Judual. St. Samson was a tireless traveler, great ascetic, and fearless monk who rendered innumerable benefits to his adopted country as well as a dedicated pastor who zealously looked after his flock. He died on July 28, 565 and was immediately honored in England, Normandy, and Brittany; later his cult spread to Italy. Saint Samson is revered as one of the seven founding saints of Brittany, along with Saint Pol Aurelian, Saint Tugdual (Tudwal), Saint Brieuc, Saint Malo, Saint Patern, and Saint Corentin. Dol was overwhelmed by a catastrophic tidal wave in 709, and there is now no trace of the monastery. St. Samson’s relics were taken to Canterbury and Ely in the time of King Athelstan of Wessex (895 –939).

PRAYER: God, by Your ineffable mercy, St. Samson proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ. Through his intercession help us to grow in the knowledge of You and faithfully walk before You according to the truth of the Gospel, filled with every good work. Amen 🙏
 
SAINTS NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MARTYRS: St. Nazarius and St. Celsus (1st c.) were early Christian martyrs, but nothing else is known with certainty about their lives or the time they lived, other than that they were put to death for their Christian faith in Milan, Italy, perhaps during the persecution of the Emperor Nero. What we know about these saints is from St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. According to one account, St. Nazarius was the son of St. Perpetua, the child she bore just prior being executed for her faith. Celsus was a youth given to the care of St. Nazarius by the boy’s mother, who desired for the saint to teach her son the Christian faith. The two Sts. traveled and preached the Gospel together zealously before being tortured and executed in Milan.

St. Nazarius was baptized by the blessed Pope Linus. He went into Gaul, and there baptized a child named Celsus whom he had instructed in the Christian doctrine. Together they went to Treves, and in Nero’s persecution were both thrown into the sea, but were saved by a miracle. They proceeded to Milan, where they spread the faith of Christ; with great constancy confessed Christ to be God, the prefect, Anolinus, condemned them to death, beheaded about the year 68. Their bodies were buried outside the Roman gate, and for a long time remained unknown. But through a divine revelation, they were found by St. Ambrose in 395 A.D. St. Ambrose discovered the body of St. Nazarius, with severed head, along with a vial of his blood still as fresh as the day it was spilled, in a garden outside the city gates. St. Ambrose carried the body in procession to bury in the city’s Basilica of the Apostles. In the same garden he also discovered the body of St. Celsus, and likewise had the body taken to the same basilica. Miracles occurred in the church at the presence of the relics of these two holy martyrs. Both Sts. Nazarius and Celsus share a feast day on July 28th.

Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏

SAINT VICTOR I, POPE AND MARTYR: St. Victor was pope from 189 to 199 A.D. He was born in Africa, his father’s name was Felix. He succeeded St. Eleutherius, on the pontifical throne. In fact, St. Victor is the first Pope to have been of African origin. He is known for having obtained the release of many Christians who had been deported to the mines of Sardinia, and for being the first Pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. It was St. Victor who made Latin the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. He regulated the date for the celebration of Easter throughout the Church in accordance with the Roman tradition observed till now. He decided that any one might baptize in cases of necessity with unblessed water. St. Victor was a favorite of the mistress of the Emperor Commodus, and his good relationship with her allowed him to present to her lists of imprisoned Christians. Through her power, she was able to secure their releases. Yet, his reign was not without its difficulties. During his reign, he excommunicated several bishops for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. Prior to his elevation, a difference in dating the celebration of the Christian Passover/Easter between Rome and the bishops of Asia Minor had been tolerated by both the Roman and Eastern churches. The churches in Asia Minor celebrated it on the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan, the day before Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it fell on, as the Crucifixion had occurred on the Friday before Passover, justifying this as the custom they had learned from the apostles; for this, the Latins called them Quartodecimans.

Synods were held on the subject in various parts—in Palestine under Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem, in Pontus under Palmas, in Gaul under Irenaeus, in Corinth under its bishop, Bachillus, at Osrhoene in Mesopotamia, and elsewhere—all of which disapproved of this practice and consequently issued by synodical letters declaring that “on the Lord’s Day only the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord from the dead was accomplished, and that on that day only we keep the close of the paschal fast” (Eusebius H. E. v. 23). St. Irenaeus of Lyons criticized St. Victor’s severity at times. Accounts also show that Victor excommunicated Theodotus of Byzantium for teaching that Christ was a mere man. Yet, St. Victor remained steadfast and stern as he faced great threats to the True Faith from both Gnosticism and Monarchianism. St. Victor I ultimately suffered martyrdom under Septimus Severus in A.D. 199 A. D. All in all, St. Victor fought for the True Faith and strongly condemned heresies strongly for the uniformity of the Church.

Saint Victor I, Pope and Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏

SAINT INNOCENT I, POPE: Pope Saint Innocent I (378-417) was pope from 401 to March 12, 417. He was born on March 11, 378 AD at Albano and was one of the greatest early Popes. He was, according to his biographer in the “Liber Pontificalis”, the son of a man called Innocens of Albano; but according to his contemporary Jerome, his father was Pope Anastasius I (399-401), whom he was called by the unanimous voice of the clergy and laity to succeed (he had been born before his father’s entry to the clergy, let alone the papacy). He was a contemporary of St. Augustine and of St. Jerome. The latter wrote of him: “Keep the faith of St. Innocent who fills the Apostolic Chair and who is the successor and spiritual son of Anastasius, of happy memory; receive no other doctrine, however wise and attractive it may appear.” He was one of the great champions of the primacy of the Holy See. He fought the unjust removal of Saint John Chrysostom and spoke strongly in favor of clerical celibacy. It was during Pope Innocent I’s papacy that the siege of Rome by Alaric I (395-410) and the Visigoths (408) took place, when, according to an anecdote of Zosimus, the ravages of plague and famine were so frightful, and divine help seemed so far off, that papal permission was granted to sacrifice and pray to the pagan deities. The pope, however, happened to be absent from the city on a mission to Honorius at Ravenna at the time of the sack in 410.

Pope Innocent I lost no opportunity of maintaining and extending the authority of the Roman see as the ultimate resort for the settlement of all disputes; and his still extant communications with Victricius of Rouen, Exuperius of Toulouse, Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as his actions on the appeal made to him by John Chrysostom (397-403) against Theophilus of Alexandria, show that opportunities of the kind were numerous and varied. He took a decided view on the Pelagian controversy, confirming the decisions of the synod of the province of proconsular Africa, held in Carthage in 416, which had been sent to him, and also writing in the same year in a similar sense to the fathers of the Numidian synod of Mileve who, Augustine being one of their number, had addressed him. Among Pope Innocent I’s letters is one to Jerome and another to John, bishop of Jerusalem, regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians at Bethlehem. Pope Innocent I sat fifteen years, one month, and ten days. Saint Innocent died in Rome, March 12, 417, and was buried in the cemetery called ad Ursum Pileatum. Accordingly, though from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, he was commemorated on 28 July, his feast day is now March 12th.

Saint Innocent I, Pope  ~ Pray for us 🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JULY:

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS: The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.

“The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it.”

PRECIOUS BLOOD PRAYER: Almighty, and everlasting God, who hast appointed Thine only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be reconciled unto us by His Blood, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, that the power thereof may here on earth keep us from all things hurtful, and the fruit of the same may gladden us for ever hereafter in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen 🙏🏾

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF JULY – FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE SICK: We pray that the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick confer to those who receive it and their loved ones the power of the Lord and become ever more a visible sign of compassion and hope for all.

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 been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! 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 🙏🏾

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. We 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. 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:

My Eucharistic Lord, You call me to journey up the mountain of faith in the most Holy Eucharist through prayer and determination. May I more deeply discover the great value of the Holy Mass and seek to be fed by You in this superabundant way. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏🏾

Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Saint Samson, Bishop; Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs; Saint Victor I, Pope and Saint Innocent I, Pope ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this day and praying 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 week ahead🙏🏾

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖