18 January 2025 - Prayers of the faithful - Saturday of the 1st week in Ordinary Time

Lord Jesus - you call us to new life. 

Christ Jesus - you bring us your Gospel message. 

Lord Jesus - you guide us toward God’s justice. 

Priest: Confident in God’s love and mercy, we present now our prayers with faith and hope: 

1. For our Church, may we continue to reach out to others in love, embracing the marginalized and those in need. 

2. For governmental leaders throughout the world, that they may address the many pressing issues of our time. 

3.  For parents, may God provide them with the wisdom and understanding they need to discern what is best for their children’s future. 

4. For our medical professionals, our first responders, and for the men and women in the military. 

5. For the Christian faithful, may they single-heartedly seek the kingdom of God in the reality of their lives. 

6.  For the sick and shut-in. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. 

7. For the  prayers we hold in our hearts today. 

Priest: Loving God, please grant us the eyes of faith to see the many ways you graciously accomplish your works in the world. We make our prayers through your Son Christ, our Lord forever and ever. AMEN.

18 January 2025 - Homily for Saturday of the first week in Ordinary Time - Hebrews 4:12-16

As we continue to hear from the letter to the Hebrews today, which we have been hearing from all week at daily Mass, we hear about God’s word, how it should be alive to us, how it should penetrate our lives of faith, how it should be able to touch our hearts and our thoughts. In the second part of today’s reading, we hear how Jesus is our high priest who has passed into the heaven and who now dwells with God. Jesus is not a high priest who is a privileged and remote figure, but having walked with humanity on earth, he can sympathize with our weaknesses, our trials, and our tribulations. 

The saint we celebrate today is Margaret of Hungary from the 13th century. The daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, Margaret lived as a young girl in a convent, with her father fulfilling an oath to God in return for protection from Tartar invaders. Although of noble birth, she lived a very austere life of faith and practiced great charity toward others. She also received mystical visions of Christ. Due to the austerity of her life, she died at the young age of 28 in 1271. She was canonized a saint in 1943 in the midst of Hungary’s occupation in WWII.  May we unite our prayers with the prayer of St Margaret of Hungary today. 

2 February 2025 - The presentation of the Lord - bulletin reflection

Lord Jesus - you enlighten us in the ways of righteousness. 

Christ Jesus - you destroyed death and restore us to new life. 

Lord Jesus - you show us the way to eternal life.

Priest: We come to mass today to seek the Lord, just like Simeon and Anna in our Gospel today. We now present to the Lord our needs, the needs of the Church, and the needs of the world, so that Christ may intercede for us:

1. That the Church may continue to testify to the saving presence of the Lord to all who long for forgiveness and redemption. We pray to the Lord. 2. That our world leaders work to ensure that justice and mercy may be applied in their nations. We pray to the Lord.

3. That widows and widowers may find compassion and companionship in their lives. We pray to the Lord.

4. That men and women who have consecrated their lives to the Lord in religious communities may set examples for generations to come in their service and in their devotion. We pray to the Lord.

5. For those who have trouble finding hope in their lives, that during this Jubilee year of hope, we may discover in our Savior the source of ultimate hope. We pray to the Lord.

6. That all of us Christians may proclaim effectively the light of Christ to all nations and bring to faith those who do not yet believe in Him. We pray to the Lord.

7. For the faithful departed. For their entry into eternal life. We pray to the Lord.

8. For the prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts. We pray to the Lord.

Priest: Heavenly Father, as we see your son as the promise of salvation, we present our prayers through him today, for he is our Lord forever and ever. AMEN.

2 February 2025 - Bulletin Reflection - 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

We always celebrate the Presentation of the Lord on February 2. Because this date falls on a Sunday this year, it is a part of our liturgy this weekend. It is interesting that even though the Christmas season ends with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord on January 12, the Vatican and other countries have the tradition of keeping the nativity scene up until the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord on February 2. With Christ being seen as God’s light in the world, his presentation in the Temple was also traditionally known as Candlemass, with a blessing of candles being a part of the celebration ritual of the day. I love all the rituals and traditions that we have in our Catholic faith. It will be about a month from now when we enter the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday on March 5. Have a blessed week everyone - Father Lincoln. 

2 February 2025 - homily for the presentation of the Lord - Luke 2:22-40

Today’s feast is always celebrated 40 days after Christmas, the day in which Jesus is presented in the Temple by his parents, according to the Jewish custom. Because February 2 falls on a Sunday this year, we celebrate this feast day as a part of our Sunday liturgy.  Mary and Jospeh travel to the temple in Jerusalem in order to offer Jesus to God as their first-born son and in order for Mary to be purified 40 days after giving birth according to Jewish custom. 

Traditionally, before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, this was also referred to as candlemas. We still retain the blessings of the candles as a part of the Mass ritual today. The theme of light in today’s Mass is carried over from the Christmas season in which Jesus is born as the light of the world on Christmas Day, in which the light of the star guide the wise men to Jesus on the feast of the epiphany. Today, we also celebrate this feast of light. It is interesting that the Vatican keeps up the nativity display until today, the feast of the presentation of the Lord, continuing the theme from the Christmas season, as Simeon prophesies in today’s Gospel that Jesus will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” 

In a symbolic sense, today’s feast celebrates the meeting point of the New Testament and the Old Testament. Jesus, the new Temple of God, enters the ancient Temple of the old covenant in Jerusalem. Jesus, who ushers in God’s law of love, come to visit the people of God in the Temple, the place where the God’s law of sacrifice was practiced, bringing to fulfillment obedience to God’s law and ushering in this last period of salvation. The Temple is where divinity and humanity embrace, where the past and the future converge.

Out of all the people in the Temple that day, two elders of the Jewish people, Simeon and Anna, notice the Holy Family, seeing in them a new and special presence. Their watchfulness and their period of waiting, of worshipping God day and night with fasting and prayer, comes to a joyful end. 

For us Catholics, Candlemas is also a moment for us to renew our commitment to following Christ. With the challenges and obstacles that face us in the modern world, that is a commitment we must constantly consider, because it is so easy to get off track. Just as Jesus’ family brought him to the Temple to present him to God, we the faithful are invited to present themselves to God, offering our lives in service and love. Today, we remember our call to live as “children of the light,” to walk always in faith and trust.

Today, we are going to hear the audio message from Bishop Kopacz about our Catholic Service Appeal. Next week, we will have the envelopes available for the service appeal. Here is the Bishop’s Message. 

11 January 2025 - homily for Saturday after Epiphany - 1 John 5:14-21

We are coming to the end of the Christmas season. Tomorrow we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, and then on Monday we return to Ordinary Time as we lead up to the holy season of Lent in early March. We have been hearing from the first letter of John this week during the Christmas season in our first readings. We hear a prayer today for sinners. It starts out by saying that we need to ask of God in our prayers according to his will. We may have our own will, what we want, but we need to be attuned to the will of God. This reading asks us to pray to God for those who have sinned. One of the things I face with the prison inmates is their struggle with addictions. So many of them cannot resist the temptation to return to drugs, which are unfortunately readily available in the prison. Many of these men also have terrible struggles with mental health issues, so all of this is very complicated. Regarding the addictions to drugs: many of them know they are doing wrong but the temptation is just too much. But prayer is powerful. And I will not give up in my prayers for them. 

Today, we celebrate the anointing of the sick. All of you know the confidence I have in this sacrament and the healing that can come from it. In these days at the end of the week, I will offer this sacrament in my parish in Clinton, to all of you here at the Carmelite monastery, and to the prison inmates as well. I feel it is important to offer this sacrament to all of you on a regular basis. Just as there is power in our prayers, there is great power is the sacraments of the Church, especially when they are received in faith and when we try to attune them to God’s will for us. 

prayers of the faithful - Catholic funeral Mass

Priest:  My brothers and sisters, Christ is risen from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father, when he intercedes for us.  In confidence, we now join our prayers to his prayers as we pray for our brother _______. The response to each prayer will be: Lord hear our prayer.  

1. In baptism, our brother was given the pledge of eternal life. May he now be admitted to the company of the saints. We pray to the Lord.  

2. For our brother, who ate the body of Christ, the bread of life, that she may be raised up on the last day. We pray to the Lord. 

3. For our brother’s family and friends, that they may be sustained by their faith and by the knowledge that they will be reunited with their brother one day in God’s heavenly Kingdom. We pray to the Lord. 

4.  Many friends and members of our families have gone before us and await the Kingdom. Grant them an everlasting home with your Son.  We pray to the Lord. 

5. Many people die by violence, war, and famine each day.  Show you mercy to those who suffer so unjustly there sins against your love. Gather them to the eternal kingdom of peace. We pray to the Lord. 

6. For all the prayers that we hold in the silence of our hearts today. We pray to the Lord. 

Priest: Lord God, giver of peace and healer of souls, hear the prayers of our Redeemer and the voices of your people.  Grant all those who sleep in Christ a place in your kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord.  AMEN.