This Sunday, October 4, 2026, we commemorate Respect Life Sunday, the beginning of Respect Life Month for the month of October. The theme this year is: "Mary, Mother of Life." This them highlights Mary, our Blessed Mother, as a model for cherishing and defending human life at every stage, from conception to natural death. This weekend at all of our liturgies at Holy Savior and Immaculate Conception, we will celebrate Respect Life Masses. Have a blessed weekend everyone. Father Lincoln.
Lord Jesus - you guide us along the right path.
Christ Jesus - you give us new life.
Lord Jesus - you lead us to the fulness of life.
Priest: May we be grateful for the gift of faith and be confident in God's abundant kindness toward us. Let us now bring our needs and the needs of our world before our God of love and mercy:
1. For our Church leaders and world leaders. May our leaders be guided by the Holy Spirit to foster truth, justice, and lasting peace. We pray to the Lord.
2. For all who labor in God's vineyard. May we reach out to the sick, the lonely, and the suffering. We pray to the Lord.
3. For our family members and loved ones who have died. For the souls in purgatory. May they be welcomed into the eternal joy of God’s kingdom. We pray to the Lord.
4. For Pope Leo’s October prayer intention. For the establishment and strengthening of mental health ministries throughout the Church. May we work together to overcome the stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental illnesses. We pray to the Lord.
5. May we honor Respect Life Month in our words and our actions. We pray to the Lord.
6. In our prayers today, we lift up priests, religious sisters, brothers, and lay missionaries who serving in mission territories worldwide. We pray for their evangelization efforts and their service to those in need as we recognize the month of the world missions. May all of us be missionary in spirit. We pray to the Lord.
7. As we honor Mary in the month of October in a special way, we unite our prayers with Mary’s prayers and intercession. 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: Gracious God, hear the prayers of your people. Pour out your mercy upon us and grant us what we need, through Christ our Lord forever and ever. AMEN.
We started off the month of October with Respect Life Sunday. The theme for Respect Life Month honors Mary in a special way as an example for us as we respect human life in its many forms. As October is a month that is also dedicated to Mary and dedicated to praying the rosary, it is wonderful that this year we are reflecting upon Mary and her connection to our respect for human life. Last weekend, we also celebrate the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, a saint who is beloved by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Many of us can relate to the way that St Francis of Assisi saw God in all creation: in plants, in nature, in the cosmos, and in animals. We had a special blessing of the pets last weekend in commemoration of St Francis, which I love to do each year. This year, the Church has declared a special anniversary year dedicated to St Francis, since it is the 800th anniversary of his death. We have a wonderful month of October in our Catholic faith, celebrating many wonderful things. Have a blessed week everyone. Father Lincoln.
Introduction: In our Gospel today, we hear about a king who invites everyone to a grand feast to celebrate his son’s wedding. We, too, come to a joyful feast each time we celebrate Mass. We celebrate the eucharistic feast, the wedding feast of the Lamb. We accept the invitation to celebrate this feast each time we come to Mass. We receive a foretaste of the heavenly banquet we will attend in eternal life with God. Let us give thanks together at Mass today.
Lord Jesus - you guide us along the right path.
Christ Jesus - you give us new life.
Lord Jesus - you lead us to the fulness of life.
Priest: May we be grateful for the gift of faith and be confident in God's abundant kindness toward us. Let us now bring our needs and the needs of our world before our God of love and mercy.
1. For our Church leaders and world leaders. May all our leaders be guided by the Holy Spirit to foster truth, justice, and lasting peace. We pray to the Lord.
2. For workers, families, and for all who labor in God's vineyard. May we reach out to the sick, the lonely, and the suffering. We pray to the Lord.
3. For the faithful departed. For the souls in purgatory. May they be welcomed into the eternal joy of God’s kingdom. We pray to the Lord.
4. For Pope Leo’s October prayer intention. For the establishment and strengthening of mental health ministries throughout the Church. May we work together to overcome the stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental illnesses. We pray to the Lord.
5. That mothers facing difficult or challenging pregnancies may receive loving support, radical solidarity, and the resources they need. May we honor Respect Life Month in our words and our actions. We pray to the Lord.
6. In our prayers today, we lift up priests, religious sisters, brothers, and lay missionaries who serving in mission territories worldwide. We pray for their evangelization efforts and their service to those in need as we recognize the month of the world missions. We pray to the Lord.
7. As we honor Mary in the month of October in a special way, we unite our prayers with Mary’s prayers and intercession. 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: Gracious God, hear the prayers of your people. Pour out your mercy upon us and grant us what we need, through Christ our Lord forever and ever. AMEN.
Lord Jesus - you are the new covenant.
Christ Jesus - you heal the sick and you drive out demons.
Lord Jesus - you reflect the glory of God the Father.
Priest: We now present our prayers to our heavenly Father:
1. For our Church leaders. For Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Kopacz. For their health and well-being.
2. That we may all enter into a deeper reliance on God’s love and care.
3. For families facing crisis. May they hear Christ’s invitation to live in faith and hope.
4. For all who are recovering from floods, wildfires, and natural disasters throughout the county.
5. For all who are facing the storms of persecution, particularly the Christians in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
6. May our political leaders show respect for their opponents and for the people whom they govern.
7. For a great love and devotion to the Eucharist.
8. For the prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts today.
Priest: In faith and hope, we present our prayers through your son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever. AMEN.
We continue to hear from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians today in our first reading. St Paul explains that those who have faith receive the same blessing as Abraham, for Abraham is our father in faith. We receive this blessing regardless of being Jew or Gentile. Paul goes on to explain that Christ came to free us from the covenant of the Jewish law in order to give us the path of faith under our new covenant in Christ. God has made the covenant available to all as a freely given gift. This message is echoed in the psalm today: The Lord will remember his covenant forever.
The saint we celebrate today lived in fidelity to God’s covenant throughout his lifetime. Born in 1801 in London, John Henry Newman was a prominent Anglican priest in England who taught at the prestigious Oxford University. He was influential in the Oxford movement at the University, which was a 19th-century theological revival within the Anglican Church of England that sought to reconnect the Anglican Church with its Catholic and apostolic roots. He converted to the Catholic faith in 1845 and was ordained a Catholic priest. He was a member of the religious Congregation of the Oratory. He was made a cardinal in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII and died in 1890. Pope Leo XIV officially declared Saint John Henry Newman the 38th Doctor of the Universal Church on November 1, 2025, during Mass on the Solemnity of All Saints. Earlier this year, Pope Leo XIV added his feast day to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial. He is admired in the Church for the generosity in which he served in his intellectual pursuits, in his preaching and teaching, and in his service to the poor and the least in society. The Vatican has stated that he is a great example to all disciples of Christ in the way he always searched for the truth of God in his theological studies and writings. When he was appointed Cardinal, he chose the motto: "Cor ad cor loquitur" ("Heart speaks unto heart”), which means that God’s love reaches out to us directly, that true faith happens through a personal, loving encounter rather than through cold facts or strict logic alone. This is true in our relationship with God as well in our relationship with our neighbor. We unite our prayers with the prayers of St John Henry Newman today.
I thought that St Paul was very harsh in the way our passage from his letter started out today, calling the Galatians “stupid.” St Paul was obviously was very angry at the way the Galatians were forsaking their faith, trying to rely on human works and human effort in order to try to achieve salvation. We Catholics here in the South often are accused by our Protestant brothers and sisters of trying to rely on our good works and our own human efforts in order to achieve our salvation. It is one of the questions I often get asked as a priest by non-Catholics, about how good works fit into God’s plan of salvation for us. Our good works are to be a fruit of our faith and salvation, the way that we live out our faith, not a means of achieving salvation. We are to see salvation not as something we earn, but as a freely given gift from God. St Paul himself is a good example of this, of how he went into action after his conversion, of how he felt a call from God to bring the Gospel message to the Gentiles. Sometimes we need a reality check in our lives of faith, which is why St Paul uses these harsh words with the Galatians. St Paul always seems to give us a lot to think about, doesn’t he?
