Prayers of the faithful for Wednesday of the 6th week of Easter - 13 May 2026

Lord Jesus - you bring us the joy of the Gospel. 

Christ Jesus - you are the life and the resurrection. 

Lord Jesus - you are the beloved son of the Father. 

Priest: We present our prayers to our heavenly Father with faith and hope. 

1. That the Spirit will guide our study of God’s Word and help us to witness to God’s message in our lives.

2. That all who are ill or afflicted feels God’s healing love in their lives. 

3. That God will guide all those who are seeking employment to good opportunities 

4. For those who are struggling and for those in isolation. May the feel God’s presence with them. 

5. For peace in the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East.

6. For our deceased loved ones and family members. For their entry into eternal life. 

Priest: With Easter joy, we present our prayers through your son Jesus Christ. He is our risen Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

Prayers of the faithful for Tuesday of the 6th week of Easter - 12 May 2026

Lord Jesus - you bring us Easter joy. 

Christ Jesus - you are the beloved son of the Father. 

Lord Jesus - you forgive the sins of the contrite. 

Priest: With joyful hearts, we present our prayers to our heavenly Father: 

1. That through reading and praying the scriptures, our hearts may be set on fire and our commitment to God may grow

2. For missionaries, pilgrims, and aid workers. For courage, wisdom, and safety on their journeys. 

3. That we may always be aware of God’s presence with us. 

4. For a deeper appreciation of the gift of the Eucharist. 

5. For those who entered the Church at Easter. For those children and youth who received the Easter sacraments. For continued blessings on their journey of faith. 

6. For those who are recovering from natural disasters. 

Priest: With Easter joy, we present these prayers through your son Jesus Christ, our risen Lord forever and ever. AMEN.

12 May 2026 - homily for Tuesday of the 6th week of Easter - Acts 16:22-34

St Dominic de la Calzada was born into a peasant family in the province of Burgos in north central Spain in 1019, which is more than 1,000 years ago.  As a young man, he applied to be a Benedictine monk two different times, but was turned down. He instead lived as a young man as a hermit in a cave. He collaborated with the newly arrived bishop in the area to combat a plague of locusts. The bishop was very impressed with young Dominic and he was ordained a Diocesan priest. He spent a lot of time in his priesthood improving the pilgrimage route, building bridges, clearing land, and even building an alternative causeway route on the pilgrimage trail of St James that is now part of the modern Camino pilgrimage route in northern Spain. The town that he founded on the Camino is named after him and remains one of the highlights of the pilgrimage trail: Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Unfortunately, that town was one of the hardest hit places in Spain during the pandemic, with many of its residents dying.  There are coops of roosters in the cathedral named after him where he is interred in the crypt. The roosters represent a story that is told about him. If the rooster crows while you are in mass there, reportedly you will have good luck on the rest of the Camino.  What I love about Santo Domingo de la Calzada is that he shows how after doors close in our lives, we can still serve the Lord in creative and resourceful ways. 

Just as St Dominic de la Calzada adapted to his reality and the challenges he faced in his ministry, we have heard in our readings from ACTS at our daily masses about the challenges Paul and his companions faced in preaching the Gospel message. Today, we hear how Paul and Silas are stripped, beaten with rods, and thrown into prison.  Rather than bemoan their situation, they lift it up to the Lord, they sing hymns of praise and they pray to the Lord.  and praying for the other prisoners to hear. God answers their prayers with an earthquake that provides them a means of escape. Yet, they use this opportunity instead to convert souls and to preach the Gospel. Yes, God always meets us in our reality. We can us that reality and the opportunities God gives us to preach the Gospel. 

10 May 2026 - homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter CYCLE A - Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 - John 14:15-21

During the Easter season, I always enjoy hearing the readings from the Acts of the Apostles about the development and growth of the Early Church, of the missionary efforts of the leaders of the Early Church to evangelize and to preach the Gospel message out in the world. In our reading from Acts today, Philip goes to Samaria to preach Christ’s Gospel message. The people are filled with great joy at hearing this message and great miracles and healings take place. At the time of the Assyrian captivity 8 centuries before Christ’s brith, foreigners came to Samaria and intermingled with the Samaritan people. Their Jewish religion became mingled with idol worship, so Samaritans were seen as outcasts and not true followers of the Jewish faith. Thus, Philip going there and converting the people to way of Jesus would have been a big event in the Early Church. 

One other aspect that we may question about this reading from Acts is the comment that even though they had been baptized, Peter and John went sent to Samaria so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit had not yet fallen upon them. But how could this comment be made, since we all are baptized in the name of the Trinity, which includes the Holy Spirit, right? Well, Scripture scholars sees this as connected to the Pentecost event, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in a special way as Jesus ascended into heaven. The apostles brought the same spirit of what took place in Jerusalem at Pentecost to those in Samaria. We can also think of the way that the Spirit infuses us and strengthens us in a special way in the sacrament of confirmation, different from the way the Spirit is with us in our daily lives. 

In our Gospel today, the sending of the Holy Spirit as our advocate to be with us and to accompany us is the work of both the Father and the Son. We have had some baptisms here at Holy Savior during these first weeks of the Easter season. Do we see the Trinity as accompanying us always on our journey of faith, the Trinity in whose name we are baptized? Sometimes we forget the reality of the sacraments we receive and the reality they are to have on our everyday life of faith. In our Gospel today, Jesus tells us that if we love him, we will keep God’s commandments. Love is connected to the obedience and faithfulness we are to strive for on our journey through life as disciples of Christ. We can never forget the love we have for Jesus and the love he has for us. 

These past weeks of the Easter season, we have celebrate confirmation with our youth and first holy communion with our children. Next weekend, we will celebrate graduation with our graduates. I always say that God meets us in the reality of life. Those occasions have been very joyful for our families, our children, and our youth. Some of us face some very big challenges on our journey of faith. On Easter afternoon, I went to the state prison in Pearl where our Catholic inmates and I visited the new rehab unit they have now, where men who are facing severe addiction and mental health issues can go for rehabilitation and behavior modification. That is a needed addition to the prison and the men in the program are doing so well. One of them told me that he has not felt this good physically in more than 10 years, being able to leave the drugs behind him now and get clean. One of the men showed me this sheet of paper that he had made about 8 years ago before the pandemic when we were having a hard time getting the men to come to Mass. He would hold it up in the widow of the unit where he was living, asking the guard to let them out for mass. He saved it to remind him how he needs to be bold and courageous in living out his Catholic faith, that we cannot take for granted the opportunity to live out our faith. Thankfully, we have more access to the men right now. 

As we are coming to the end of the Easter season in these next couple of weeks, may we feel the risen Christ and the three persons of the Trinity accompanying us in the reality of our journey of faith. 

3 May 2026 - homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter - John 14:1-12 - prison ministry

Our readings on this fifth Sunday of Easter present us with the themes of dwelling places and home. We Catholics are aware that the earth is not our permanent home. We are a pilgrims on a journey of faith here on earth. We are journeying toward eternal life with God in his heavenly kingdom. 

We are called to make our dwelling here on earth during this lifetime. We are to live as disciples of Christ and to proclaim God’s kingdom on our journey of faith. As disciples, we form the Church, the body of Christ here on earth. But we are also to form a domestic church in the way we live out our faith each day in our personal lives. That is where the majority of our faith is lived out. When you go home to the free world, you will form a domestic church with your families. In a family, the words and actions of the family members form the faith of the family, the faith of the mother, father, and children. Your words and actions speak about your faith to your friends and to those people you interact with each day. Our faith begins at home. Our faith is reflected in how we live out our lives each day. 

We see our faith reflected in the sacrament of baptism. We in the Catholic Church see the sacrament of baptism as the beginning of our life of discipleship in Jesus. In a Catholic family, a child is baptized as a baby, as the parents make a profession of faith, profess the vows of their own baptism, and take responsibility for raising their child in the faith. 

How you live out the values of your faith each day is key to helping you grow in holiness. How you live out your faith each day is where you practice intimate and selfless love of God and other persons. 

In John’s Gospel, Jesus speak as heaven as a home that is filled with many dwelling places. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” Jesus gives us this comforting image of the eternal life with God that awaits us in his kingdom. Jesus assures us of the personal love that God has for each one of us as he prepares for those who are faithful for him a place in the eternal kingdom. 

Do you take your daily life of faith seriously? Do your treat the moments of the day as being a domestic church? Do you take time to read the daily Bible readings and to pray and to share your faith with others? We have men who come to mass when they think we are going to hand things out or when we have a meal, but then, when it is a regular mass or nothing special, then we don’t see them. We have some men who tell me they are too busy. One man even told me that he was too busy and did not have time for mass, that he was the hardest working man on the compound, yet he told me that as he was playing a video game and did not even have time to put the video game down and talk to me. We see men here at CMCF that waste their time all day long with things, but then don’t have an hour to go to Church. 

As we celebrate the 5th weekend of Easter and as we hear this wonderful Gospel reading today, may we respond to this great love that God offers us by taking good, responsible care of our earthly dwelling, the everyday moments in our life of faith. In our dwelling place here on earth, may we honor and worship God with our prayers, with our thoughtfulness toward each other, and with our generous hospitality shown toward all.

10 May 2026 - bulletin reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter

It seems like there is never any downtime for most of us in the modern world. It seems like we have busy lives and busy schedules all the time. Yet, we are called to make our journey of faith a priority in our lives. We make time for a lot of other things, but we are called to make time for the Lord, to make that the center of our lives. It is still the first part of May, and we have already had our first Friday devotion, our first Saturday devotion, our first Wednesday evening of adoration, our first communion Mass with our children, and our healing Mass for the month. We will still have a lot going on at Holy Savior and Immaculate Conception during the summer months. I hope you will join us. Blessings. Happy Mother’s Day weekend to everyone. Father Lincoln. 

10 May 2026 - prayers of the faithful for the 6th Sunday of Easter

Introduction: We are nearing the end of our celebration of the Easter seasons, as we celebrate the risen Christ in our weekend liturgies in a special ways. We will close out the Easter season in the next two weekends with our celebrations of the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost. As we reflect on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and the paschal mysteries, may we always feel the joy of the risen Lord in our hearts. 

Lord Jesus - you call us to a life of discipleship. 

Christ Jesus - you lead us on the path of holiness. 

Lord Jesus - you call us to keep God’s commandments. 

Priest: As you promise to send us the spirit of truth to accompany us on our faith journey, we present our prayers to you today with faith and hope: 

1. That Jesus’ commandment to love one another may motivate ministries of outreach in the Church to those in need. We pray to the Lord. 

2. That we may care for our planet and all its inhabitants with wise stewardship and reverence, recognizing the Creator in all of creation. We pray to the Lord. 

3. As we celebrate May as the Month of Mary, we pray that we united our prayers with Mary’s prayers. May we grow in our devotion to her. We pray to the Lord. 

4. For those who are afflicted and ill in body, mind, or spirit, May the Lord release them from all that holds them down and liberate them in new life in Christ. We pray to the Lord. 

5. For mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers. That the Lord may strengthen them and guide them and their families in their lives of faith. We pray to the Lord. 

6. For those who are struggling in different ways on their journey. That the Holy Spirit lead them in the right direction and restore them to wholeness. We pray to the Lord.  

7. For all who have died. For our deceased family members and loved ones. 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: As we continue our journey through the Easter season, may we feel the joy of the risen Lord accompanying us each step of the ways. We make our prayers through your son Jen Christ, our Lord forever and ever. Amen.