12 November 2026 - prayers of the faithful for Thursday of the 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Priest: With joy in our hearts, we now present our prayers to our heavenly Father: 

1. That we in the Church may take up our crosses and follow Jesus. 

2. For the grace of humility. May we live more like Christ each day. 

3. For a greater appreciation of the Sabbath. May we give God honor on the day of the Lord. 

4. May we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into a more authentic and virtuous life. 

5. May God inspire our world leaders to find new ways to reconcile and to resolve disputes. 

6. For all who are traveling. May God keep them safe. 

7. For the faithful departed. For the names inscribed in our book of remembrance. 

8. For the prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts today. 

Priest: Heavenly Father, we present our prayers through your son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

12 November 2026 - St Josaphat - homily for Thursday of the 32nd week in Ordinary Time - Philemon 7-20

St Josaphat is the saint we celebrate today.  He was a bishop in present-day Belarus in the early 17th century.  He was killed by an angry mob because he was advocating that his community of Christians, who were Ruthenians and who were a part of the Orthodox Church, be joined in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. We think of the division that characters the world today and that characterizes Christianity in so many way.  When the Roman empire was split into the East and the West in the 4th century, it foreshadowed the split was to come in the Church the 11th century, when a schism split the Church in the year 1054. There have been signs of reconciliation and friendship in recent years between the Churches in the East and the West, but, unfortunately, Christianity remains very divided today. 

The last two days, we heard from the letter of St Paul to Titus. Today, we hear from the letter of St Paul to Philemon, which is so short that it is not even organized into chapters. St Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison himself, probably in Rome.  But Paul is not interested in his own safety and well-being and release from prison. Instead, St Paul is interested in the welfare of the runaway slave Onesimus, who was returning to his owner, Philemon. The faith journey St Paul is so interesting and filled with so many striking contrasts. He started out as a prosecutor of Christian, pursuing them to be arrested or killed. After his conversion to the way of Jesus, he works tirelessly to spread the Gospel message to the world, even willing to go to prison for the sake of the Gospel. When I was in Rome a few years ago at the Basilica of St Paul just outside the walls of the ancient city of Rome, I even got to see a piece of the chains that enslaved Paul when he was in prison. Paul wrote to so many different Christian communities as their spiritual father, one who spent so much time nurturing them in the faith. He even calls Onesimus his spiritual son in the faith, his own very heart. May the zeal and tenacity that characterizes Paul journey of faith inspire us to live out the Gospel message in the ordinary moments of our day. 

11 November 2026 - Wednesday of the 32nd week in Ordinary Time - Titus 3:1-7 - St Maria Vincenza Poloni

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St Martin of Tours and Sister Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy who had a very big presence both in Mississippi and in Ireland. However, I would like to speak about a rather new saint that was canonized under Pope Leo XIV.  Luigia Poloni was born in 1802 in Verona, Italy. She was the youngest of twelve siblings. Following in the footsteps of her father, who had a great love for the poor, she met Blessed Charles Steeb, a German-born priest who served in Verona. Together, they worked with the elderly, the poor, and the chronically ill. In 1836, she worked to heal victims of a cholera epidemic. In all her service, she had a devout life of prayer. In 1848, with Father Charles Steeb, she founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and took Maria Vincenza as her name in religion.  Her motto, “Serving Christ in the Poor,” became the cornerstone of this new congregation. She died 1855 from cancer and was buried in the municipal cemetery of Verona. The congregation that she and Father Steeb established grew outside of Verona and expanded to other nations, including Portugal and Tanzania. She was beatified in 2008 and was canonized under Pope Leo XIV. 

Our first reading today is from the New Testament letter of St Paul to Titus, which was written around the years 62-68 AD. St Paul wrote to his companion Titus, whom he left on the island of Crete, a place that was infamous for challenges such as greed, violence, and sexual immorality. Titus was charged with organizing house church on the island and preaching the values of the Christian faith to these inhabitants. Titus was a gifted Gentile believer in the faith who was a peacemaker and who had been on other mission trips with St Paul. Paul called the people to a transformation from their past inequities, to have hearts that are open to God’s mercy, grace, peace, and forgiveness, to place their hope in the promise of eternal life with God. This theme of St Paul’s letter to Titus calls us to transcend the anger and frustration that often characterizes our lives in the modern world to the transformation and new life that God offers us.  

11 November 2026 - prayers of the faithful for Wednesday of the 32nd week in Ordinary time

Lord Jesus - you call us to God’s wisdom. 

Christ Jesus - you hear the cry of the poor. 

Lord Jesus - you bring hope to the world. 

Priest: As we unite our prayers with Mary and the community of saints today, we present our prayers to our heavenly Father: 

1. That the Holy Spirit enliven the Church. May we love without expectations. May we hope without limits. 

2. That the different religions of the world may work together to be good stewards of the earth and our natural resources. 

3. That we reach out to the hungry, the poor and the alienated. May we serve them in dignity and respect. 

4. For world leaders and governments. May their vision seek to bring peace and hope to all people. 

5. For a greater respect for human life. May every person deeply honor and appreciate the gift of life from conception to natural death.

6. For the faithful departed. For the names enrolled in our book of remembrance during this month of remembrance. 

7. For the prayers we hold in the silence of our hearts. 

Priest: With faith and hope, we present our prayers through your son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

10 November 2026 - prayers of the faithful for Tuesday of the 32nd week of Ordinary Time

Lord Jesus - you call us to be missionary in spirit. 

Christ Jesus - you call us to bring your Gospel message to the world. 

Lord Jesus - you call us to be your disciples. 

Priest: In unity with the prayers of the Blessed Mother and the community of saints, we present our prayers to our heavenly Father: 

1. We pray for the sick and the afflicted. For the dying and the grieving. For those struggling with mental health issues and addictions. 

2. That all of us would help each other on our journey of faith, supporting each other’s hopes and dreams. 

3. We pray for our children, college students and youth. For their studies and their school activities. 

4. For the names written in our book of remembrance. We pray for all the faithful departed during this month of remembrance. 

5. That we would grow as a community as the Body of Christ in our love and devotion to the Eucharist. 

6. That we would bring hope to the world through living out our faith each day. 

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

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

10 November 2026 - homily for Tuesday of the 32nd week in Ordinary Time - Titus 2:1-8, 11-14 - St Leo the Great

Today, our first reading comes from the letter to Titus, written by St Paul to his trusted missionary companion. Titus was a Greek Gentile convert to the way of Jesus. Paul left Titus behind on the island of Crete to organize and establish leadership in the local churches there. This letter was written around the years 62 and 64 AD. 

Paul asserts the importance of teaching sound doctrine, rather than abstract or nebulous theories and ideas. Paul teaches that the faith of the community must be visible through their actions and words and in the values through which they live. Paul urges Titus to be a good example to the Christians in his community, to model Christian integrity and the values of our faith. Paul gives good advice for us in the modern world today as well in the reading from Titus. 

Today, we celebrate Pope Leo the Great on his feast day. With “the great” attached to his name, we know that he has a profound impact on the Catholic Church through his leadership.  He was elected Pope in the year 440 at a time when the Church was battling several heresies. One of these heresies was Nestorianism, which held that Christ had two natures: a human nature and a divine nature. Because of these two natures, this heresy claimed that Christ was two separate persons. Another heresy, Monophysitism, held that Jesus only had one nature, his divine nature, which had replaced his human nature. For the defense he wrote against these heresies and for his other writings, Leo was named Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754.  

Although a lot of heresies were put to rest in the Early Church, we have new heresies today, or the old ones creep up on us again in different disguises. One such heresy is Pelagianism, the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without the help of God’s divine grace. Pope Francis and other Christian leaders have condemned what they see as a modern-day version of Pelagianism, of so many who think that through their own efforts, they make everything right in their lives, and in a sense achieve their own salvation. Pope Francis called this a “spiritual worldliness.”  

Leo the Great saw our salvation and our journey through life intrinsically tied to the salvation we have in Christ. Leo the Great wrote: “No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross.  No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.”  Pope Leo the Great, we pray for your intercession and we unite our prayers to your prayers today. 

8 November 2026 - bulletin reflection - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are now in the month of remembrance. We are getting close to the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of Advent. This week I will be attending the annual meeting and retreat of the national pontifical mission societies at the Augustine institute campus just outside of St Louis. I always enjoy the mission societies gatherings, so I am looking forward to a very spiritually uplifting time up in St Louis. We are collecting items for Advent and Christmas outreach, for the Arc Angel program, for the prison ministry, and for the Carmelite sisters. We are always thankful for the generosity of our Immaculate Conception and Holy Savior parishioners. Blessings to all of you. Have a blessed week. Father Lincoln.