19 April 2026 - prayers of the faithful for the 3rd Sunday in Easter Cycle A - prison ministry

Lord Jesus, you are a fountain of God’s grace and mercy. 


Christ Jesus, you give us food for our journey in the Eucharist. 

Lord Jesus: you are the way that leads us to new life. 

Priest: As we continue our journey through the Easter season, we present our prayers to our heavenly Father: 

1. That we may always live as a eucharistic people and promote a eucharistic culture at CMCF.  We pray to the Lord. 

2. For our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Kopacz, and all our Church leaders. That they may lead their people to a richer appreciation of the presence of the Lord in the breaking of the bread. We pray to the Lord. 

3. For our civic leaders and the people whom they serve, especially the most vulnerable. We pray to the Lord. 

4. That we Christians may not drift from meeting the Lord each week in the Eucharist. For a greater love for the Mass. We pray to the Lord. 

5. Our prayers go out to our family members, our spouses, and our children. May the Lord watch over them. We pray to the Lord. 

6. For the sick, the afflicted, and those battling addictions. May they know the care and love of Christ. We pray to the Lord. 

7. For peace throughout the world, especially in Ukraine and in the Middle East. For the safety of the men and women serving in the military. We pray to the Lord. 

8. For our deceased loved ones and family members. For their eternal union with God. We pray to the Lord. 

9. For the prayers we hold in our hearts today. We pray to the Lord. 

Priest: Heavenly Father, we present these prayers the risen Christ. He is our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

28 April 2026 - Prayers of the faithful - TUESDAY OF the 4th week of Easter

Lord Jesus - you tend your lambs - Lord have mercy. 

Christ Jesus - you feed your sheep - Christ have mercy. 

Lord Jesus - you shepherd your flock - Lord have mercy. 

Priest: With faith and hope in the risen Christ, we present our prayer to our God of love and mercy: 

1. For the Church throughout the world. May our faith in the love God be expressed in our love for one another. 

2. For peace in our world. May all lands that suffer violence and injustice find peace and reconciliation. We pray especially for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine. We pray for safety for the men and women serving in the military. 

3. For the poor, the homeless, and for those who are unemployed. May our care and concern for those in need be a sign of God’s mercy and love. 

4. For the protection and sanctity of human life. May all people be treated with the dignity they deserve. May we respect all human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. 

5. For the children of our parish who are preparing for the Sacrament of first holy communion. May they grow in wisdom and grace on their journey of faith. 

6. For the sick and the afflicted.  For those battling addictions. For those who need healing and reconciliation in their lives. 

7. For the prayers we hold in our hearts today.  We pray to the Lord.  

Priest: Heavenly Father, you are present in our midst. We pray that you continue to lead us and guide us as we celebrate the Easter season. We present our prayers through the risen Christ, our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

28 April 2026 - homily for Tuesday of the 4th week of Easter - Acts 11:19-26

Peter Chanel was born in France in 1803. He worked as a shepherd as a young by. He became a parish priest, but was intrigued by the letters sent home by missionaries to places like India and the Americas since he was a young boy. He joined the society of Mary, known as the Marists, as a young priest. That order was in the early stages of its formation. He spent his first years as a Marist serving as a spiritual director at their seminary. He traveled as a missionary to the Canary Islands, Chile, and the South Pacific Islands, establishing Marist mission sites at those places. He served as a missionary on the island of Futuna in the South Pacific near Fiji. He was killed there in 1841 in a dispute and is considered to be a martyr of the faith. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. He is one of the patron saints of the Oceania area of the South Pacific. 

In the Acts of the Apostles today, we hear how news reaches the Church in Jerusalem about how the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles in Antioch. This was quite startling news, since to this point, the Gospel message was just being presented to the Jews. Barnabas was sent to Antioch to investigate what was going on. When he recognized God’s grace at work, he encouraged the evangelizers in their efforts to spread Christ’s Gospel message. 

Missionary efforts continue in different ways. We heard about Peter Chanel’s missionary work in the South Pacific in the 19th century. I find that many of the men whom I serve in the prison have not been introduced to a lot of the basic concepts of Christianity. We here in the Church in modern America have a lot of missionary work to do as well. May we hear God calling us to be missionary in spirit and to be evangelizers for our faith. 

26 April 2026 - prayers of the faithful for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction: We welcome you to Mass this weekend as we celebrate Jesus as our Good Shepherd in the midst of the joyful Easter season. Jesus cares for and nurtures us with the love of the Good Shepherd. He is the gate through which we enter the path of salvation. May we received Jesus today with open hearts as he is present to us in word and sacrament. 

Lord Jesus - You are our Good Shepherd. 

Christ Jesus - You are the the gate through which we enter salvation. 

Lord Jesus - You look for the lost sheep. 

Priest: With faith and hope today, we present our prayers through Jesus, our Good Shepherd: 

1. For Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Kopacz, and all our Church leaders. May they form and nurture their flock with the love and compassion of the Good Shepherd. We pray to the Lord. 

2. For vocations in our Church to the priesthood, the diaconate, consecrated religious life, and lay ministry. We pray to the Lord. 

3. That we in our parish and our Diocese be active in supporting the vocations of our children, youth, college students, and young adults. We pray to the Lord. 

4. That we may reach out to the poor, the vulnerable, and the suffering through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. We pray to the Lord. 

5. That our civil leader may always promote a spiritual cultural in our society. For the freedom to practice our religion. We pray to the Lord. 

6. For our deceased loved ones and family members. That they achieve eternal union with God. We pray to the Lord.

7. For peace throughout the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East. We pray to the Lord. 

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

Priest: We ask these prayers through Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. He does not neglect his flock in their need. He is our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

26 April 2026 - bulletin the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This weekend, we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, which always falls on the 4th Sunday of the Easter season, in which we have a Gospel reading about Jesus as the shepherd caring for his flock. This weekend is also the annual world day of prayer for vocations, in which we not only pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, but also for vocations to the diaconate and lay ministry. The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd speaks to all of us. Our children love the presence of Uno the lost sheep in our sanctuary area of Holy Savior, representing the lost sheep that Jesus goes out of his way to search for. Blessings to all of you on Good Shepherd Sunday. Father Lincoln. 

26 April 2026 - 4th Sunday of the Easter Season cycle A - John 10:1-10

In the Old Testament, the Jewish nation was presented the model of the Good Shepherd. In the 23rd psalm, we are told: The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. The prisoners asked me about my favorite Bible verses, and after a lot of reflecting on that, since as a priest so much of Scripture speaks to me in different ways, the verses from the 23rd psalm and about Jesus being the Good shepherd speak to me. 

Jesus as the Good Shepherd speaks to all of us, no matter who we are. We have Uno the lost sheep here with us every Sunday during Mass. I got the idea of having Uno when I visited a parish in New Hampshire in the town of Alton, on the shore of beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. The priest there had a couple of stuffed lambs in the altar area, and I noticed that they moved places in between the masses there. I love having Uno here to speak to our children, to show them that they are important to us and are an important part of our Catholic community here in our parish. 

In our Gospel today from John, Jesus tells us that he is the gate for his sheep and for his flock. He tells us that whoever enters through him will be saved. Jesus is the fulfillment of the good shepherd that is spoken about in the 23rd psalm and elsewhere in Scripture. The shepherd enters through the gate to take care of the sheep, not to oppress or harm them or lead them astray. The sheep recognize the authority of the good shepherd and they follow him. Jesus leads his people to salvation, to take them out of the darkness of the world. The work of the good shepherd is the work that was entrusted in him by the Father, the work by which Jesus was sent into the world. Jesus is the gate of salvation for all. We are called to trust Jesus and to follow him as the good shepherd. 

We have a lot of voices around us that can challenge what we believe in our faith and lead us away from the path of the Good Shepherd.  In movies and TV and songs and social media, we get the message that a lot of things that are against our faith are OK to do. 

Do we listen to those other voices? Do we follow a path that leads us down a different road away from our faith? Or do we listen to our Good Shepherd and follow him? 

This year is the 63rd anniversary of the world day of prayer for vocations. According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the purpose of this day of prayer is to publicly fulfill the Lord's instruction to pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.” This day of prayer affirms the primacy of faith and grace in all that concerns vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate, consecrated religious life, and lay ministry vocations. While appreciating all vocations, the Church concentrates its attention this day on vocations to the ordained ministries (priesthood and diaconate), consecrated life in all its forms (male and female religious life, societies of apostolic life, consecrated virginity, secular institutes), and to the missionary life. We pray for vocations today.  We will have an ordination of a new priest, Will Foggo, on May 17 this year. We will have the ordination of our new deacons on July 17, including Hunter Yentzen and Chris Hallewell. We pray for all those men in a special way and for an increase in vocations. 

I want to mention adoration of the blessed sacrament. The devotions of our Church help us deepen our Catholic faith and deepen our relationship with Jesus. Adoration is a special devotion where we spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist. We have an adoration room in our religious eduction building. That room is available 24 hours a day to be present with Jesus in the blessed sacrament of the eucharist and to pray in his presence is quiet holy space reserved for prayer and adoration. We have different times in our parish to pray as a part of our community with the blessed sacrament. We have adoration this upcoming Saturday from 8:00 am to 9:00 am in our first Saturday devotion, a devotion associated with the apparition of Mary in Our Lady of Fatima. We also have adoration on the first Wednesday evening of the month from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. This month, it will be May 6. When I first came to the parish, although everyone is invited to the first Wednesday adoration, we invite in a special way our children and youth and families. This month, we our youth trips coming up this summer, I am asking our youth who attended the youth convention this year and who are going to our trips to St Meinrad and Steubenville this year to come to adoration to experience that devotion in the context of your parish, since you will be having adoration in conjunction with your youth trips, and we want to pray for you and give you a special blessing in the context of your parish community. We want to invite all of you to join us for adoration and to experience Jesus in that special devotion of our faith. 

24 April 2026 - homily for Friday of the 3rd week of Easter - St Fidelis - John 6:52-59

Born in 1577 in the era of the Protestant reformation, St Fidelis started his professional life as a lawyer in Germany. However, he became disenchanted in practicing law and decided to dedicate himself to serving God in a consecrated religious community, joining the Capuchin Franciscans, of which his brother was a member. He very boldly lived out his faith and proclaim the faith in word and in action as a Capuchin Franciscan. He was sent to minister in different regions of Germany, where his preaching and ministry transformed entire communities. He often cared for the sick, especially in outbreaks of disease. For his great zeal for the faith, he was chosen to lead a mission delegation the country of Switzerland to bring people back to the Catholic faith. He would spend many hours in prayer and was a great example of faith for the people in both his words and his way of life. His example led people to criticize him and to threaten his life and to spread false accusations about him. One evening, he was shot at when delivering a homily at Mass. Leaving the Mass that evening, he was confronted by a group of Calvinist soldiers who killed him.  He died in 1622 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746. 

On this Friday in the third week of Easter, we hear from 6th chapter of John’s Gospel from the Bread of Life discourse, in which Jesus explains how he is truly present in us in his body and his blood in the Eucharist that we share. Since I have been a priest, we have had the year of the eucharist a couple of times, we have had a eucharistic revival, and our country had a eucharistic congress. We host adoration regularly in our parish. And I regularly talk about the importance of the eucharist and the importance of identifying as a eucharistic people as Catholics. Even though we come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, it is important for us to see the eucharist as central to who we are and a unifying factor of our faith. May we truly see ourselves as people of the eucharist.