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Daily Readings
Weekly reading
Readings for the week of June 21, 2026
- Sunday: Jer 20:10-13 / Ps 69:8-10, 14 and 17, 33-35 / Rom 5:12-15 / Mt 10:26-33
- Monday: 2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18 / Ps 60:3, 4-5, 12-13 / Mt 7:1-5
- Tuesday: 2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36 / Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11 / Mt 7:6, 12-14
- Wednesday: Vigil: Jer 1:4-10 / Ps 71:1-2, 3-4a, 5-6ab, 15ab and 17 / 1 Pt 1:8-12 / Lk 1:5-17
- Day: Is 49:1-6 / Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15 / Acts 13:22-26 / Lk 1:57-66, 80
- Thursday: 2 Kgs 24:8-17 / Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9 / Mt 7:21-29
- Friday: 2 Kgs 25:1-12 / Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 / Mt 8:1-4
- Saturday: Lam 2:2, 10-14, 18-19 / Ps 74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21 / Mt 8:5-17
Pastor Message and Prayer
6/21
We can trust Christ's example
Read Matthew, chapter 10, verses 16 to 42
"Be a winner! Reach for the top." Media and society in general take delight in hearing about winner. As the song from the eighties goes: "The winner takes it all, the loser standing small..." Losers don't count and don't write the history, nor do they get much compassion.
So, what is this that Jesus is asking from his disciples now: losing their life to find it? And what about this strange opposition between love for our dearest ones and our love for him? Is this the Jesus we know and really want to follow? Jesus has hardly called the Twelve and entrusted them with the mission of proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom when we hear him say that he has 'come to set a man against his father, and and a daughter against her mother..." This is getting confusing. What is he talking about?
"Those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 10:38
Yet, Jesus keeps reassuring his disciples: "Do not worry about how you are to speak...";"have no fear of them...do not fear those who kill the body...do not be afraid...none of these will lose their reward." Jesus is not sending his diciples to defeat. But he wants them to be fully aware of the obstacles and resistance they will meet. The diciples' mission will undoubtedly require costly sacrafices, but their Teacher has set an example for them to follow by showing them, at every moment in his own life and ministry, to trust in the Spirit, who will speak through them, and in the heavenly Father, who watches over the tiniest creatures and takes special care of the little ones.
How do I react when faith issues become divisive amoung family and friend?
Prayer Starter:
Lord Jesus, you have spoken words of life and peace and yet you had to suffer persecution and death. Give us the strength to follow you on the path to everlasting life and joy.
Fr. Joachim
St. Mary Mass Times
Saturday 6:00pm
Sunday 8:30am
Daily Mass Times
Wednesday 8:30am
Wednesday: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament 9am-9:30am
Friday 8:30am
First Friday 8:30am Healing Mass and Adoration
Confession Times
Saturday from 5:30-5:50 or
by appointment by calling the Rectory at 815-858-3422
St. Mary Office Hours
Wednesday 8:30 am- 3:30 p.m.. by appointment
Thursday 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
