14th Week in Ordinary Time 2026 - Tuesday - Those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind

 

Every few years I like to reread, Dante’s Divine Comedy.  And this morning’s reading from the prophet Hosea reminds me of a scene very early on in Dante’s Inferno. After venturing through the gates of hell with his guide Virgil, Dante the pilgrim comes to the second level of hell—the level of hell set aside for the eternal punishment of those unrepentant of the sin of Lust.

In Dante’s poem, the punishments are different for every sin, and the punishments fit the crime. The Wrathful for example are condemned to an endless physical and violent battle against each other—they were wrathful on earth, and so they are subject to the wrath of others forever in hell.

The punishment for the Lustful is to be blown about by overwhelming winds and whirlwinds for all eternity. Dante was likely inspired by the line from the Prophet Hosea this morning: “those who sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” Those in hell reap in eternity what the sowed in their earthly life.

Dante reserves this particular punishment for the Lustful because in life they allowed themselves to be blown about by their sensual feelings and bodily craving. Ignoring the commandments and the use of right reason, they only followed their bodily desires, which are as fickle as the wind.

Yet, this is a problem not just for the Lustful. Saint Paul warns the Ephesians about “being tossed here and there, carried about by every wind”.  He warned the Ephesians of allowing themselves to be carried by the various cultural winds, the various ideological currents, making a political agenda or social ideology the impetus of their lives rather than the Gospel. 

This line from Hosea was the inspiration for another literary work, Harper Lee’s American Classic, “Inherit the Wind”…which focuses on the ideology and injustice of racism.

But again, those who “sow in wind” are not just the lustful, but those who are not firmly rooted in the truth of the Gospel.  If we are not rooted in prayer and knowledge of the Word of God, we’ll be blown about by whatever catches our fancy. 

Folks aren’t coming to Sunday Mass because they have some intellectual opposition to the Sunday obligation, but because they are doing whatever they want.  Young people aren’t cohabitating before marriage because they’ve studied the church’s theology on marriage and found it lacking. No, they are being blown about by the winds of the culture and their passions and choosing not to think about what they are doing. 

We even describe the sin of gossip as getting “caught up” in gossip, or grumbling and complaining, like we are “caught up” in some windstorm. 

When we surrender our intellect and our faith to the winds of human desire we are going to be blown to places we aren’t meant to go.  So, God help us, to remain firm against the various bad winds which blow throughout society today, and remain rooted in faith, prayer, the study of scripture, the lives of the saints, and works of charity, in order to be faithful to the Gospel of Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

That all bishops and clergy will lead the Church well in standing strong against the winds of error and immorality in our modern culture.

 

For all those who have fallen away from the Church, those who have fallen into serious sin, for their conversion, and the conversion of all hearts.

 

For Pope Leo’s prayer intention for the month of July: For respect for human life—for the respect and protection of human life in all its stages, recognizing it as a gift from God. Let us pray to the Lord.

 

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, for all those recovering from or undergoing surgery today, and for the consolation of the dying.

 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

 

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

 

July 06 2026 - St. Maria Goretti - Lover of Chastity

 

Maria Goretti was born of a poor family in the central Italian town of Corinaldo. Her father died when she was 10 years old. One of the men who had worked with her father, 19 year old Alessandro Serenelli, had made several attempts to seduce the young girl. She told him that he could go to hell for what he wanted to do, but her refusal and her words of faith so angered him that he stabbed her, 14 times.

It took Maria two days to die from those stab wounds.  But as she lay dying, Maria, not only forgave Alessandro, but she said: “I hope that he too will join me in Paradise.”  Maria Goretti was scarcely twelve years old when she died on July 7, 1902. 

Alessandro remained unrepentant for his assault and murder of the young girl, but several years into his prison sentence, Alessandro had a dream in which Maria presented him with a bouquet of lilies. Repentance filled his heart and he turned to the mercy of Christ.  After 27 years in prison, Alessandro was released, and visited Maria’s mother, Assunta, whom he asked forgiveness. “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withhold forgiveness?" she said. Alessandro spent his last years as a third-order Franciscan and died in 1970.

Maria Goretti was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950, and it is the first time in history that the mother of a saint was present at the canonization.  Alessandro was also there, also probably the first time that the saint’s murderer was present at the canonization, and thanks be to God, his soul was right with God. He had testified in her cause for canonization.

It is said that "even if she had not been a martyr, she would still have been a saint, so holy was her everyday life".  And this is such an important lesson for all of his: the holiness of her everyday life helped her at a crucial moment to remain courageous, to forgive and love her murderer with the heart of Christ. And her sanctity brought about the eventual conversion of a very evil man, who probably only died in communion with Christ because of her.

May St. Maria Goretti help us to cultivate a love of innocence, chastity, and forgiveness, and help all of us to remain steadfast in faith in the moment of trial, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Through the intercession of the holy virgin-martyr St. Maria Goretti, may God help all Christians to practice the virtues of chastity, purity, and modesty and bring about a greater respect for the dignity of the human body and all human life.

 

That all of our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors and vices of our time and be kept in close friendship with the Lord Jesus.

 

That God may bring about repentance in all those guilty of sin and crime, and that the message of God’s mercy might reach the most hardened hearts.

 

 

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, for victims of abuse, especially children, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

 

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

 

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

 

 

 

 

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026 - "I will give you rest"

 

The Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper wrote a little book called Leisure: The Basis of Culture. His argument is that authentic leisure and rest are vitally important for human flourishing and for our souls. Authentic leisure is not wasting time, nor is it the same as entertainment. True leisure is taking the time to delight in what is good, true, and beautiful, which involves worship and contemplation. And without that kind of rest, human culture begins to collapse, because man forgets that he is made for something more than the earth, is more than a worker or consumer.

Pieper’s insights are important as culture is quickly losing sight of the spiritual needs of our human nature—how to rest well—how to rest in God. We fill what should be restful refreshing moments with noise, scrolling, videos, emails, sports, worries, and distractions. We fail to allow ourselves the rest we need for our bodies and minds and souls.

And so the words of our Blessed Lord Jesus in today’s Gospel are inviting, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” But they are also challenging: don’t go to those million and one artificial substitutes: “come to me” that you may rest well.

This theme of rightly ordered rest runs through the Scriptures from the very beginning. In the book of Genesis, after the six days of creation, what does God do? God rested on the seventh day. Now of course, God did not rest because he was tired. God does not get exhausted. Rather, God’s rest consisted in beholding and delighting in the goodness of his creation and inviting us into that life-giving delight. God shows us how to rest well—to rest well, is to participate in the Godly.

Now, of course, we humans do need rest. As Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel, “The sabbath was made for man” We do get exhausted. We need time for what truly refreshes—worship, communion with God--for a healthy physical, emotional, and spiritual life.

That is why the Third Commandment tells us to keep holy the Sabbath day. For Christians, the Lord’s Day is Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, and Sunday rest is not merely “time off” or a day to catch up on chores. The Lord’s Day has a revitalizing purpose when it is rightly ordered, to God—a peace that the world cannot give.

At Sunday Mass, we stop producing, achieving, managing, and controlling. We come before the Lord and receive what we need. We receive his Word. We receive his mercy. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ. We receive again the truth of who we are: beloved sons and daughters of the Father, redeemed by Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, made for eternal life.

And yes of course, you can fulfill your obligation to participate at Mass on Saturday evening, but Sunday still needs to be a day of sabbath rest. And we certainly need restful refreshing prayer on a daily basis, too, and to limit the activity, outside of work, that does not refresh us.

That hour of doom scrolling through social media leaves us more drained than before. Three, four hours on the couch in front of the television leaves us empty. All of that media aimed at creating anxiety: no wonder why we are not at peace.

This does not mean every form of recreation is bad. Recreation is good when it truly re-creates us: a walk in nature, a meal with family, wholesome conversation, music, reading, exercise, art, laughter with friend. But when entertainment becomes addiction, when technology steals silence, when the screen becomes the first thing we see in the morning and the last thing we see at night—our leisure time becomes disordered.

A very practical spiritual discipline as technology becomes more prevalent, is to spiritually fast from it, for the few hours we have before bed. Refrain from screen time an hour or two before bed. Not because technology is evil, but because the soul needs silence. The soul needs space to breathe. The soul needs moments when it is not being provoked, stimulated, or sold something. We sleep better when we take a break. And of course that frees us for the prayer we need in the evening.

In the second reading today, St. Paul says in the second reading speaks of our “mortal bodies.” We are not angels. We are embodied creatures. Our bodies get tired. Our minds grow weary. Our emotions become strained, and our limits are real.

But St. Paul also says that the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, and that God will give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit. But, attending to our spiritual needs, requires effort. Allowing the Spirit to fill us with life means turning away from the distractions of the world, in order to engage intentionally in the works of the spirit.

Today, the Lord invites us to examine how we use our time. Do I give my body the rest it needs, or do I treat my body like a machine? Do I give my soul silence, or do I fill every moment with noise? Do I rest in God, or do I only distract myself from my burdens with technology, excessive alcohol or other addictions. Do I make intentionally effort to align my mind, and heart, words and actions, to the life giving Spirit.

Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves”. Life-giving rest is found, not in having nothing to do, but putting on the meek and humble heart of Jesus, allowing him to reorder our lives. A yoke is an instrument of work, but Christ’s work brings us refreshment and peace.

Today, on this the Lord’s Day, our work is divine worship, offering ourselves in union with Christ as living sacrifices to the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. May this act of divine worship refresh us in our weariness, heal us in our brokenness, lift us up in our burdens, strengthen us for the work of the upcoming week, and provide a foretaste of the joy and peace of heaven for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

July 3 2026 - Apostle St. Thomas - Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe

 

Poor Saint Thomas the Apostle!  Whenever his name is heard, one tends to think of a skeptic, a doubter.  We even call people “doubting Thomas’s”. 

A homily of St. Gregory the Great has survived these many centuries in which St. Gregory considers the providence of God in this Gospel story.

“Dearly beloved,” he says, “what do you see in these events? Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed? It was not by chance but in God’s providence. In a marvelous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief…. What follows is reason for great joy: Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. There is here a particular reference to ourselves; we hold in our hearts one we have not seen in the flesh”.

In this Gospel account, we have much more than a cautionary tale about doubting. We shouldn’t doubt the divine truths of God, that’s true, of course. But, this story is included in the Scriptures, so that we can be emboldened in faith—to recognize that there is a blessedness in believing in the Resurrection even though we were not eyewitnesses to it.

As Thomas placed his hands into the wounds of the resurrected Christ, we too can do so, through faith. In our daily prayer, whenever we’d like, we can close our eyes, and consider this scene. We can imagine ourselves in the place of Thomas, the Lord entering into our midst and saying peace be with you. We can imagine the Lord inviting us “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side”.

And then we can open our eyes, and see with the eyes of faith, the Lord in the Eucharist: the one crucified and risen, who gives himself to us, to not only adore from a distance, but to receive into our bodies and souls.

There is an old custom, that when the consecrated host and consecrated chalice are raised up at mass, the faithful would repeat silently to themselves the words of Thomas, “My Lord and My God”, certainly words we do well to repeat whenever we have the chance to glimpse the Lord in the monstrance as well.

There is a blessedness to living in this age of the Church, this age of faith. And we have been chosen by God to live by faith. We grow in blessedness—in sanctity—as we walk by faith, not by sight—faith, that God is truly with us in the sacraments, and in the crosses and challenges of life, in the joys and sorrows, successes and failures, in our health and brokenness. May we celebrate our faith, draw strength from it, and share it generously to all the nations, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church throughout the world: that she may faithfully proclaim the Resurrection of Christ and strengthen all people to believe in him, though they have not seen. Let us pray to the Lord.

For a healing of schism in the church, for those who struggle with doubt, discouragement, or weakness of faith: that the mercy of Christ may heal their wounds and lead them to deeper trust in his love. Let us pray to the Lord.

For missionaries and all who share the Gospel: that the faith handed down from the apostles may be proclaimed generously to all nations. Let us pray to the Lord.

We pray in a special way for our nation on the occasion of our semi quincentennial, that our nation may be united by God’s Spirit, guarded from terror, observant of God’s Holy Laws, and vigilant against threats to our freedom, peace, and well-being. May the Wisdom of God guide our government leaders and legislators, our families, businesses, civil institutions, and all of our domestic affairs. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who suffer in body, mind, or spirit: that they may find peace and strength in the wounds of the crucified and risen Lord. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed: that they may behold face to face the Lord whom they believed in and loved on earth. Let us pray to the Lord.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

 

July 1 2026 - St. Junipero Serra - Siempre Adelante

 

Today we honor the Franciscan saint, St. Junipero Serra. Over the past 800 years, countless men and women have lived out the Gospel by following the patterns of life left by St. Francis and St. Clare, that radical, practical, and deeply evangelical school of holiness.

Hundreds from among the three orders, that is the friars minor, the poor clares, and the secular Franciscans have been canonized or beatified—probably saints and blessed than than any other of the consecrated religious orders. Eleven Friars Minor were canonized by Pope Francis, including the saint we honor today, St. Junipero Serra.

The Franciscan way of life is evangelical in the strict sense: it is ordered toward living the Evangelium, the Gospel, as directly and visibly as possible. It is evangelical in the missionary sense as well. The Franciscan way of life is missionary because it is not content simply to cultivate personal holiness in a vacuum or even community life; it presses outward. St. Francis understood the Gospel as something to be lived, preached, embodied, and carried to others.

The Saint we honor today is one of the great Franciscan missionaries, who exemplifies the Franciscan ideals of poverty, perseverance, evangelical zeal, and sacrificial love.

Serra lived out that classic Franciscan impulse: to go out with the Gospel. He left the security of an academic career in Mallorca, traveled to across the Atlantic, and eventually labored in California as an aging friar with chronic physical ailments.

Serra’s motto, highlighted by Pope Francis at his canonization, was siempre adelante—“always forward.” For the Franciscan ideal is not comfort, status, or self-preservation, but availability for Christ’s mission. Serra’s missionary life was marked by travel, hardship, limited resources, and physical suffering. But he missioned, “siempre Adelante”—always forward, fueled by the zeal for souls and love of Christ.

He went to the margins, as Pope Francis would say, from familiar society into difficult, dangerous, and culturally unfamiliar territory—to the very margins of this continent, to its western shores, and his missionary life was not lived among the rich and powerful, or even the reasonably comfortable, but among frontier communities, soldiers, settlers, and Native peoples.

“Siempre Adelante”—“always forward” a good model for us to consider and interiorize. How is God seeking to lead us forward in living out in the Gospel in the world, bringing the Gospel to souls, bringing the Gospel to the margins, to leave behind the comfortable and embrace the sacrificial for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church, that like St. Junipero Serra, we may be willing to leave our comfort zones to spread the Gospel and serve those in need.  

For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that through the intercession of St. Junipero Serra, more men and women may answer God's call to serve. And for those discerning their vocation, that they may have the courage to follow God's will, even when it leads them to unexpected places.

For educators and catechists, that they may follow St. Junipero Serra's example in dedicating their lives to teaching and forming others in the faith,  and for our parish community, that we may cultivate the virtues of humility and perseverance demonstrated by this great saint in our own spiritual journeys. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the sick, the impoverished, the lonely, those suffering from mental illness, those most in need, and those near death: may God, through the loving mercy of the Precious Blood of Jesus, be close to them in their trials.

And during this month of July, we pray that the Precious Blood of Jesus may be the salvation of all those who have died, for the deceased members of our families friends, and parish and all of the souls in purgatory. For the dear Franciscans who have labored and inspired us in the diocese of Cleveland.

Loving Father, inspired by the life and example of St. Junipero Serra, grant us the courage to follow your Son wherever He may lead us, the humility to serve others selflessly, and the perseverance to continue your work even in the face of challenges. May we, like St. Junipero, be instruments of your love and mercy in the world through Christ our Lord.

 

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Die to Sin and Living for God

 

For a few Sundays now, following Corpus Christi Sunday, the priest has been wearing the liturgical color, green. We’ve really had the whole spectrum of liturgical colors these past few months; we’ve had the purple of Lent, rose on Laetare Sunday, the white of Easter, the Red of Pentecost. I wore gold for Corpus Christi, black for funerals. And now we’re back to liturgical green.

I’ve always been partial to green. For one, it was the color of my first car, a hunter green 1992 firebird. Green is also a color of my childhood: I spent a lot of time as a kid in the woods, building forts and climbing trees.. Also, in high school and college, during the summers I would work in the nurseries, taking plant clippings. For two whole summers, for 8 hours a day, I simply watered plants and trees—if I didn’t see the color green, I wasn’t doing my job. Green is the color of new life. And liturgically, too, green is the color not simply of plants and trees, but the new life and growth which is to occur in our souls during Ordinary time (this season after Pentecost.)

In fact, though we Roman Catholics wear red on Pentecost, the Eastern Catholics wear green on Pentecost—to symbolize the new life of the Holy Spirit—the new life the Spirit brings to the Church and to the Christian soul.

Spiritual growth is one of our goals for Ordinary Time. In the spiritual life we are either growing or rotting, there is no in between. We are either growing toward God or falling away. We are either growing in our prayer life or diminishing, growing in self-sacrifice or tending toward selfishness, becoming more patient or less patient, increasing in virtue or becoming hardened in vice.

The Green of Ordinary Time is a reminder that God wants growth for his children, constant growth. He wants us always learning, always developing, always increasing in grace, always producing spiritual fruit, maturing spiritually, improving in the use of the many gifts he gives us.

In our Second Reading this weekend St Paul provides us with two important laws of spiritual growth.

The first law of spiritual growth sounds paradoxical. In order to grow, we must die, to sin, that is. “You too must think of yourselves as dead to sin,” St. Paul says.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ as each of us profess to be means turning away from sin. For sin, is poison to the soul. The Lord died to save us from sin and death. So the Christian is constantly seeking to eradicate sin, from our life-- rooting out the tendrils of selfishness which choke out the life of God in us.

When we making little compromises with the commandments, when we give-in to sinful inclinations and habits, these choices suffocate the life of Christ in us—in our souls, families, and parish. We will never have the peace and joy that God wants for us when we accommodate sin.

Rather, as St. Paul tells us, we are to “die to sin”. Now, dying to sin is hard - because temptation is tempting. Because we are fallen, we have this magnetic attraction, at times, to what is bad for us—for our relationship with God. But, the heart of Jesus burns with ardent desire to purify us from our sins. When we make the effort to resist sin, when we pray for his help in the moment of temptation, God comes to our aid.

There is a story of from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The great saint was being overwhelmed with temptations to break his vow of chastity. He would pray, but the temptations just got worse. He knew something had to be done to wake himself out of this cycle of temptation. So on a particularly cold winter’s day, he stripped down naked and threw himself into a ditch full of snow. It was a shock to his system, and it was a way of showing the devil that he is willing to suffer in order to remain faithful to God.

Popular culture depicts St. Francis as having a special love of God’s creation, and he did. But that creation includes the human soul, the most important part of creation. And so the man was serious about uprooting sin in himself and preaching against sin so that God’s life might flourish.

If there is a particular sin which keeps lingering in your life, like St. Francis and each of the saints, get serious about it. Make frequent use of the sacrament of confession, undertake some fasting, pray daily for God’s help. Effort in overcoming sin will be rewarded by God and will result in Spiritual growth and its fruits.

So St. Paul tells us, firstly, we must die to sin. The second law of Spiritual Growth, he says, is that we must live for God. Paul writes, “you too must think of yourselves… as living for God in Christ Jesus.”

Dying to sin, bridling our self-centered tendencies, is necessary for spiritual growth, but spiritual growth also involves become like God in charity. We are to engage in works of Charity, such as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The saints give us countless examples of what living for God—the life of charity—looks like. July 1 this week is the feast of St. Junipero Serra. Listen to his heroic charity.

During the time when our founding Fathers were fighting for our nation’s independence, the Franciscan Priest Father Junipero Serra was traveling up the coast of present-day California, establishing missions—outposts to evangelize the indigenous peoples.

Junipero Serra wasn’t born a Franciscan of course, he was originally a university professor in Spain and a very learned man. But he detected the Holy Spirit urging him to grow. So he gave up his university career to travel to California to teach the Native Americans about the Lord Jesus. And mind you, this was a time in our history when the civil authorities were not friendly to the humanity and rights of the indigenous people. St. Junipero, the good priest stood up for these people, helped them to improve their spiritual and material well-being, while boldly fighting against their mistreatment.

Those journeys up and down the coast of California must have been grueling for him. For, when his body was exhumed for the purpose of the canonization, it was shown that St. Junipero Serra had cancer of the legs. Yet, he traveled, he labored, out of love for God’s people, fueled by zeal for souls—he lived for God, as St. Paul urges us to do, and was transformed into love.

How is God calling you to live more fully for him—bringing the Gospel to those ignorant of it, providing material assistance to those genuinely in need of it, or emotional support for the lonely?

We might not be called to travel halfway across the globe to engage in missionary work, but each of us are called to help others know Christ, likely at the cost of some suffering on our part, to die to sin and to live, not just for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us. This week, perhaps every day, take time, intentionally each day: ask the Lord what is the growth you want for me at this point me in my life? What is the work you have for me? What are the sins you are calling me to die to today, who am I to share your goodness with today, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

June 24 2026 - Nativity of St. John the Baptist - God raises up heralds

St. John the Baptist has always held a place of very high esteem in the Church—this feast of his birth dates all the way back to the 4^th century. We praise John because the Lord himself praised John when he said, “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John”. 

John is rightly honored for the great role he played in salvation history. In faithfulness to his calling by God, John took the role of the precursor, the herald. His was the lone voice in the wilderness pointing others to Christ at the Lord’s first coming.

John is also honored because of his personal holiness. In a sense, he was a saint already in the womb of his mother. Still in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, John was able to detect in some mysterious way the presence of Jesus in the womb of the Blessed Mother. John leaped for joy in the presence of God made flesh, dancing like David before the ark.

John’s holiness was evident in his wisdom. The Gospels record an utterance of John giving us the very key to holiness itself: “I must decrease so that Christ may increase”. To become holy is to decrease our egos, our selfishness, and allow Christ to grow in us, in our choices, actions, behaviors, attitudes, words and thoughts.

John’s holiness of course is also evident in his martyrdom, in his willingness to die for the Truth when he spoke out about the adulterous affair of King Herod and his brother’s wife. Blessed are those persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

Today, as we celebrate John’s birth, we do well to recall that as God chose and formed John to herald Christ and witness to Truth, he calls and forms us for this purpose as well. The Collect prayer today said, God raised up Saint John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ.” We, too, are called to help souls become ready for Christ—through our words, our example, our prayers.

If there is a soul of a family member or neighbor who seems particularly resistant to Christ, we should certainly be praying and fasting for them. But their resistance is also a reminder to us, that we must decrease, so that Christ may increase, in the hope that they may meet Christ in us—in our words, in our acts of charity, in our Christian disposition.

May our celebration of St. John’s birth help us to become the heralds of Christ God made use to be, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That Pope Leo and all the clergy may witness to the truth of the Gospel faithfully, courageously, and compassionately.

For the protection of the unborn, and that people of goodwill will work together to enshrine the protection of the unborn in law and in the hearts of all.

For the conversion of those who do not believe in God, for Catholics who have left the Church, those guilty of heresy or schism, and for a return to the sacraments of those who have fallen into serious sin.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster,  those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, all victims of abuse, especially children, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for those who struggle to live the call of Christian chastity, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, for the repose of the soul of St. Joseph Father Larry Tosco, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.