We are winding up the month of October this upcoming week. The big feast day we have this upcoming week celebrates St Simon and St Jude. I not only think of St Jude as associated with the famous children’s hospital in Memphis, but many people can relate to St Jude as the patron saint of seemingly impossible causes. The Catholic faithful have a special love for the tender heart of St Jude, who will pray with us and present our prayers to the heavenly Father. When we feel lost or when we feel overwhelmed with things, St Jude will be there for us. With great joy this weekend, we celebrate our first women’s ACTS retreat in the Jackson metro area. We are very excited to have these women end their retreat with the 10:30 am Mass at Holy Savior this Sunday. Have a blessed week everyone. Father Lincoln.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
25 October 2026 - prayers of the faithful for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A - 10:30 am Mass Holy Savior
Introduction: We welcome everyone today at Mass at Holy Savior. We especially want to welcome our visitors today and all of the women who attended the ACTS retreat this weekend at Our Lady of Hope retreat center. It is a blessing to be able to celebrate our ACTS retreat here at Holy Savior at Mass this morning. May the Lord open our hearts and minds to the way he is present to us in word and in sacrament at Mass this morning.
Lord Jesus - you are our strength.
Christ Jesus - you bring us the joy of our faith.
Lord Jesus - you are a model for all believers.
Priest: We now turn to our heavenly Father in humility and faith, lifting up our needs, the need of the Church, and the needs of the world. Our merciful Lord indeed hears the cries of the poor.
1. For our Holy Father Leo XIV, Bishop Kopacz, and all our clergy and Church leaders. May approach their ministry with the humility and contrite hearts, leading us all in truth and mercy. We pray to the Lord.
2. For the leaders of the nations of the world and of communities here in the United States. May listen closely to the cries of the poor, the marginalized, the stranger, and the vulnerable. We pray to the Lord.
3. For the oppressed and those who suffer. For those who seek justice, peace, or physical healing in their lives. May they experience the comforting and uplifting hand of Christ in their time of need. We pray to the Lord. 4. May all of us Catholics recognize our spiritual poverty before God. May we treat one another with deep compassion and empathy. We pray to the Lord.
5. That unborn children may be safely welcomed into the world and protected by our laws and our hearts. We pray to the Lord.
6. For missionaries serving in remote and difficult areas throughout the world. May their service be rooted in the love of Christ, may they be protected from harm, and may they be sustained by the Holy Spirit. We pray to the Lord.
7. For all the women who attended the ACTS retreat this weekend. For their families and loved ones. May the Holy Spirit who was alive in their hearts during this ACTS retreat weekend continue the spirit of the retreat in their everyday lives. We pray to the Lord.
8. For the prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts. For those who have asked for our prayers. We pray to the Lord.
Priest: Heavenly Father, receive the prayers of your humble people. May our words and actions spring from a sincere heart. Grant us your mercy. We make these prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Monday, October 12, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
23 October 2026 - Prayers of the faithful for Friday of the 29th week in Ordinary Time
Lord Jesus - you call us to be your disciples.
Christ Jesus - you are our source and our strength.
Lord Jesus - you call us to be missionary in spirit.
Priest: Let us unite our prayers with the prayers of all believers today as we present our petitions to God:
1. For all Church leaders, especially Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Joseph Kopacz. May they lead the Church in unity and courage.
2. For all of our governmental leaders. May the Lord lead them and guide them in the difficult decisions they have to make.
3. For all missionaries serving the Church throughout the world. For a missionary spirit in all of us. For greater understanding and dialogue amongst the religions of the world.
4. For our children, our youth, and our families. For a strengthening of their faith and a greater effort in the way we reach out to our families.
5. For those who are struggling through life. For those who are recovering from natural disasters. For those struggling with addictions, depression, and mental health issues. For healing and help for those who need it.
6. For our parish. For all who serve here in the ministries here. For continued blessings for our parish.
7. For the spirit of Respect life month to last throughout the year. That all of us may have a greater respect for life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.
8. For the sick and the afflicted. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.
9. For the prayers we hold in our hearts today.
Priest: Heavenly Father, with faith and hope, we present these prayers through your son Jesus Christ, our Lord for ever and ever. AMEN.
23 October 2026 - St John of Capistrano - homily for Friday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time - Ephesians 4:1-6
Today is the feast day of St John of Capistrano. We probably are familiar with him by his Spanish name, as mission San Juan Capistrano in Orange County, California was named after him by the Franciscan missionaries who brought God’s word to the native people of California. The Spanish missionaries usually named missions and areas after the saint of the name in which they arrived in that location. St John of Capistrano was born in 1386 in the kingdom of Naples in Italy. He was imprisoned during a war with a neighboring town. He entered the Franciscan community in Perugia after his release. After being ordained to the priesthood, he brought his gifts of preaching to countries all over Europe – throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Through his preaching, John of Capistrano tried to unify the Christians throughout the European realm. He also wrote religious tracts against different heresies. He died in 1456 at the age of 70.
We have been hearing from St Paul’s letters to the Galatians and the Ephesians these past several weeks. Today, in his letter to the Ephesians, St Paul writes how he is a prisoner of the Lord as he write from his imprisonment in Rome. Writing this message behind bars, it gives weight to his message to the Ephesians to be worthy of the calling to live a Christian life that they received through their baptism. He exhorts them to be patient, gentle, and humble. He was also probably praying that he himself would be follow those same virtues in his challenging life circumstances. He calls them to live in unity as one Body and one Spirit, of which those virtues would help to achieve. We can think of the ways our faith and God’s love can set us from free from all that keeps us down.
22 October 2026 - St John Paul II - homily for Thursday of the 29th week in Ordinary time - Ephesians 4:1-6
When we consider that Pope John Paul II served as Pope from 1978 to 20025, one of the longest pontificates in the history of the Church, we can think of the influence he has had on the Church. He made a profound impact on the Church and on the world. And his contributions as pope continue to have an impact on the Church and the world today.
One of the first popes who was not from Italy for many centuries, he made an impact on the world in helping to bring an end to communism in his native country of Poland and in many other countries in Europe.
In the life of the Church, he promulgated a new Catechism, providing a new authoritative summary of Catholic doctrine for the Catholic faithful. He also oversaw the reform of Canon Law. He issued many influential documents during his papacy, including 14 encyclicals and 15 apostolic exhortations. He also wrote the influential theology of the body, which addressed the topic of human love, sexuality, and the dignity of the human body. He advocacy for the pro-life movement also made a big impact in the United States and in other countries in the world.
In the realm of spirituality, he popularized the spirituality of St Therese, whom he named a doctor of the Church. He also popularized his personal devotions to the Divine Mercy and Our Lady of Fatima. He beatified and canonized numerous saints, more than many of his predecessors combined. He also established World Youth Day in 1985. His travels to many countries help revitalize the Catholic faith throughout the world.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes how he is a prisoner of the Lord. Paul indeed was imprisoned in Rome at the time that he wrote this letter. Even though he was behind bars, he was able to exhort the Ephesians to be patient, gentle, and humble. I tell the prisoners whom I visit and minister to in the state prison in Pearl that there are far worst prisons that can confine them in their lives than the bars that they are behind right now at the state prison. We can be imprisoned by the addictions we have, and those addictions can take many different forms. In fact, many of the prisoners I visit admit to me that they still struggle with their addictions while in prison, with so many drugs readily available. We can be imprisoned by false expectations and a false sense of values, imprisoned by clinging the to values of the world and our worldly appetites that never seem to be satisfied. St Paul calls us to the one Body, the one Spirit, the one faith. That is where we are called to be.
21 October 2026 - St Hilarion - homily for Wednesday of the 29th week in Ordinary Time - Ephesians 3:2-12
We have been hearing from St Paul’s letters to the Galatians and the Ephesians at daily Mass these last several weeks. In today’s reading from his letter to the Ephesians, St Paul talks about God’s grace at work in our lives and God’s universal plan of salvation. St Paul sees his accomplishments as a missionary not as personal achievements, but rather as God’s grace working within him, allow him to serve God and God’s people. St Paul was called specifically as the evangelizer of the Gentiles, not something everyone in the early Church agreed with, as some saw salvation still be offered to just the Jews. But according to St Paul, it does not matter whether we are Gentile or Jew, God offers salvation to all. With God’s grace, we can draw ever closer to the Lord on our journey.
It is sometimes difficult to discern God’s grace, to recognize it in our lives with all the noise surrounding us in the world today. Today, we celebrate on the the Desert Fathers of the early Church who sought God in the silence of the desert, St Hilarion. Born in 291, he went into the desert after his conversion to the way of Jesus after studying in the ancient center of learning in Alexandria, Egypt. Taking only a humble set of clothing with him, he wove baskets and sold them to make a living. The cell where he lived in the desert later became a monastery, initiated by some of his followers. St Jerome wrote about St Hilarion, popularizing him with many of the Catholic faithful. The example of St Hilarion and the other desert father opened the way for monasticism in the coming centuries, which would have a great affect on the Church and on Western civilization. We live in a world with so much noise filling up space. As we commemorate St Hilarion today, may we open our minds and our hearts to God’s silence and to God’s holy word.