11th Week in Ordinary Time 2026 - Wednesday - The prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of God's priestly people

 

At Sunday Mass, this last weekend, we read from the book of Exodus how God has formed his people into a kingdom of priests—a royal priesthood. Being the people God made us to be involves a priestly dimension. All of us, all of the baptized have priestly duties.

In his recent catechesis on the documents of Vatican II, Pope Leo talks about this priestly dimension of our lives—he says, “we exercise our royal priesthood through prayer, asceticism and active charity, and by doing so, we bear witness to a life renewed by God’s grace.” Those three priestly activities should sound familiar, they are the three Lenten practices—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—which we all strive to engage in more perfectly during the Lent season.

In our Gospel reading today, we read of Jesus teaching about these three priestly duties—a Gospel which we read on the first day of Lent every year—on Ash Wednesday. He says, “when you pray”, “when you fast”, “when you give alms”. His disciples are expected to engage in these activities not just during the season of Lent, but always. They are part of the ordinary priestly duties of the baptized.

The Lord doesn’t just tell explain THAT we are to engage in these duties, but HOW we are to engage in them: “when you pray, when you fast, when you give alms” don’t do so that others may see you, or to win the praise of others. Our intention for our priestly duties mustn’t be for worldly attention, rather, as Pope Leo explained, echoing the sentiments of Our Blessed Lord, “we exercise our royal priesthood through prayer, asceticism and active charity, and by doing so, we bear witness to a life renewed by God’s grace.”

Our intention must be to bear witness to God, to show others that the relationship with God transforms human life, renews us. Prayer directed to God, renews us, it is a sipping of the fountain of eternal life. Fasting renews us, for it is restraining the bodily appetites in order to focus on what truly matters—for man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And almsgiving, charitable work, renews us, because it is a participation in the life of God who is love—and that participation transforms us like gold in a furnace.

The priestly dimension of our Christian life is not simply a sacrifice to detracts from us—giving of our time and effort in order to pray, in order to fast, in order to give alms enables us to share in the very life of God.

May we engage in them more fervently, more seriously, but also in great joy, bearing witness to God for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

As God’s royal priesthood, we intercede for the needs of the world and the needs of the Church.

For Pope Leo, our bishops, priests, and deacons: that their ministry may strengthen the faithful to live their baptismal dignity with renewed fervor and joy.

For all Christians: that we may pray not for human praise, but from a sincere desire for communion with God.

That through fasting and asceticism, we may discover the freedom of living by the word of God.

For the poor, the lonely, the sick, and all who depend upon the charity of others: that the almsgiving and active love of Christians may reveal to them the tenderness of God. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our young people on summer vacation and those attending our Vacation Bible School this week: that they may be blessed with faith-filled homes, and protected from all physical and spiritual harm.

For the faithful departed: that, purified of every sin, they may share forever in the life and love of God.

Heavenly Father, you have made us your holy people through Baptism and called us to bear witness to your grace in the world. Hear the prayers we offer today, and strengthen us to live our priestly calling with sincerity, humility, and joy. Through Christ our Lord.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026 - Pope Leo Vatican II Catechesis - Royal Priesthood

 

At the beginning of the New Year, Pope Leo began a new initiative. He announced that each Wednesday he would be offering catechesis on the documents of the Second Vatican Council at his weekly general audience.

So he began, first thing, first week of January 2026, and he explained his reasoning this series of teachings, now 60 years after Vatican Council II. He said, “as the years have passed, the Conciliar Documents have lost none of their timeliness; indeed, their teachings are proving particularly relevant to the new situation of the Church and the current globalized society.”

In other words, “the Church has something to say, a message to give, a communication to make” in our modern world and the Documents of Vatican II are important for interpretating what God is calling us to do, in this era of AI and global challenges.

The following week, the Holy Father began with a catechesis on the first of the Vatican II documents, Dei Verbum, the dogmatic constitution on Divine Revelation—how God’s revelation—how God’s revealed truth is imparted to humanity, particularly through Scripture and Tradition.

He then went on to discuss Lumen Gentium, the constitution on the Church, and he’s now onto discuss a third document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy—reflecting on the role of liturgy in the church, the reform of the liturgy that took place at Vatican II, and the way God uses the rituals, signs and symbols of the liturgy to impart his divine gifts to us. Exciting stuff.

But again, for a few months there, the Holy Father was teaching on Lumen Gentium—a very important document on the make-up of the Church,—so, the role of bishops, the role of priests and deacons, the role of the consecrated religious, and the role of the laity, including the role of the family—how all of us, together are called to fulfill the mission of the Church.

Why do I bring any of this up? Partially because Lumen Gentium, explaining the role of the people of God in God’s saving plan, heavily draws upon concepts we find in today’s scripture passages for the 11^th Sunday in ordinary time. And Pope Leo, in his current catechesis, really draws out some of these themes quoting even from our first reading today.

In our first reading, from the book of Exodus, the people of God at the time, comprised of the Israelites, are at the base of Mt. Sinai where God reminds them how he has delivered them from 400 years of Egyptian slavery  for a purpose—he chose them for a purpose. God chosen them to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation—in order to glorify God in the world. He chose them for a mission—a priestly mission—to sanctify the world.

Now, in this era of the Church—of course, God’s chosen people includes us—the baptized people of the nations of the world—from every place the Gospel has been preached. And we’re reminded today that we are a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood. Pope Leo, just a few weeks ago, spoke on this very idea. He said, “the Lord Jesus, through the new and eternal covenant, has established a kingdom of priests, constituting his disciples as a ‘royal priesthood’.”

The Holy Father says, we are formed into a priestly people at Baptism, which enables us to worship God in spirit and truth, and to “confess before men the faith which we have received from God through the Church” quoting Lumen Gentium 11. In other words, each of us is called to the priestly duty of worshipping rightly and teaching rightly, witnessing rightly.

Furthermore, through the sacrament of Confirmation, all the baptized “are more perfectly bound to the Church … and the Holy Spirit endows them with special strength so that they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ”.

Why has God formed us into a royal priesthood? Because we have the mission—both ordained and lay—of sanctifying the world through the spreading and defending the faith.

The Holy Father goes on, “the exercise of the royal priesthood takes place in many ways, all aimed at our sanctification, first and foremost through participation in the offering of the Eucharist.” Every week we come to mass, not just to get an obligation out of the way—but to participate in right worship—offering ourselves along with the priest—as a living sacrifice to God the Father.

The Holy Father goes on, he says, we exercise our royal priesthood through prayer, asceticism and active charity—prayer fasting and almsgiving aren’t just for Lent, but are to be part of the ordinary priestly dimension of our faith, and by doing so, we bear witness to a life renewed by God’s grace. As the Council summarizes, “it is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation”.

We could do an hour lecture on this stuff, it’s so good. But for now, we do well to consider: why is Pope Leo wanting to remind us, now in 2026, that we are a priestly people. Because this is one of the great needs of our time. For you and for me, to more deeply fulfill the priestly duties of our baptism: to offer our life to God, to prayerfully intercede for the world, to sanctify the ordinary duties of daily life, and to bear witness to Christ as best as we possibly can, especially through works of charity.

Again, this priestly duty is not just for the ordained. Each of us have a priestly role—to pray, to preach and teach, to sanctify the world and to save souls.

The Catechism speaks particularly of parents priestly role. It says, “In a very special way, parents share in the [priestly] office of sanctifying “by leading a conjugal life in the Christian spirit and by seeing to the Christian education of their children.”

What does a priest do? He sanctifies. And so priestly parents have a special duty of ordering and orienting your children to God—through your holy example and holy teaching.

In the Church, God works powerfully through Holy Families. When someone asks you what it means to be Catholic, you should be able to say, come and spend time with my family. It’s a little chaotic yes, but, the Catholic family is the place where the Church in a vital way, lives out its call to daily love, care, hospitality, sacrifice, forgiveness, prayer, Christian education, and turning to God’s healing and grace in our brokenness. Look at how we pray together and for each other, look at how we forgive one another, look at how we are patient with each other’s smaller imperfections, look at how we study the faith together, and work together to meet the needs of the less fortunate and the suffering.

So, Pope Leo is offering some pretty powerful catechesis right now, which helps us to understand what God’s plan for the Church, for each of us, and how we are called to live out our call to holiness and the mission of the Church. The Holy Father’s messages, audiences, homilies, and encyclicals are available for free on the Vatican’s website. I highly recommend you check them out.

May God’s Divine Assistance help us be that royal priesthood and holy nation that God made us to be, enlightened by God’s Truth, washed in Christ’s Blood, united and animated by God’s Spirit for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

4th Sunday after the Easter Octave (EF) 2023 - Coronations and Noble Speech

Yesterday, in London, a new monarch of Britain was crowned: King Charles III. You may have watched his coronation ceremony. 

I read that breaking a bit with tradition, the King offered a prayer, out loud, as part of the ceremony: 

Listen to the words of the King’s prayer. They are really quite nice. Charles prayed: “God of compassion and mercy whose Son was sent not to be served but to serve, give grace that I may find in thy service perfect freedom and in that freedom knowledge of thy truth. Grant that I may be a blessing to all thy children, of every faith and belief, that together we may discover the ways of gentleness and be led into the paths of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

I share with you this prayer of the king of Britain because this month we think about another coronation, not of an earthly king, but our heavenly queen. 

King Charles prayed to be filled with grace, well Our Queen has been filled with grace by God from the moment of her conception. King Charles prayed to be able to serve God. Our Queen is the handmaid of the Lord. King Charles prayed for profound knowledge of God’s Truth; Our Queen possessed this knowledge, after all, she carried him in her womb and nursed Him at her breast. King Charles prayed to be blessing to all people; Our Queen is Most Blessed among women, mother of the Church, model of gentleness.

And she is the queen mother of a nation of royal priests, not a geographical nation, but a spiritual one, the Church. She is the queen mother of that “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own” for He is called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Christians are royalty in the kingdom of heaven. 

Our Queen Mother is the noble example the Church and the world most desperately needs. She is the model of gentleness, purity, self-control, and selflessness. She shows us what life looks like what we allow ourselves to be animated by Christ, when we cooperate with the Holy Will of God.

St. James in our epistle today says that Christians need to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Certainly, our queen models those characteristics. Like her, we are to be “quick to hear” both God’s word as well as the cries of our neighbor. 

She was quick to hear the message of the archangel, and quick to hear the needs of her cousin elizabeth, who conceived in her old age.

We live in an age where we are tempted to do just the opposite, don’t we. It’s almost a national vice to be quick to anger. The internet certainly doesn’t help. Anger, outrage, rash judgment, bombastic attention seeking, gossip, and shaming. We need to be very careful when using social media, to be slow to speak, slow to wrath, responsible in what we share, especially in public forums. Our speech needs to remain noble--whatever the forum. Lest we cause division or scandal.

On this fourth Sunday after Easter, the Gospel is taken from a portion of the Lord’s Last Supper farewell discourse. The Lord’s announces that he will return to the Father in order that the Holy Spirit may descend upon the Church.

Our Lady was present at Pentecost, she prayed with the Church, with the apostles, that they would be filled with the Spirit of Truth in their mission. During this month leading up to our celebration of Pentecost, we do well to invoke our Lady, to honor her as Our Queen, our model, our mediatrix, that we may be open to the manifold gifts of Pentecost the Lord wishes to bestow upon our church.

To our Queen, we recommend ourselves and the entire Body of Christ. May she guide and assist our Holy Father and our Bishops in their apostolic mission, and aid all who help them in their work. May she  Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! May she remember us in all of our trials, and help us to overcome the malice of evil which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today. May she help deliver us from disdain and negligence of the commandments of God, and make us aware of the needs of the poor in our midst. May she help nurture in us the fruits of the spirit, and make us faithful in our Gospel mission, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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 A reading from the epistle of St. James

Dearly beloved, all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.

A continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. John

Jesus said to his disciples, But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.