My Family Prayer Book

  2026-10-11 Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Gracious Father, you invite every one of us to the banquet of your Kingdom, and you call us not because we are worthy, but because you are generous. As we gather around your Word today, open our ears to hear your invitation, and open our hearts to answer it with joy. Lord Jesus, in the Parable of the Wedding Banquet you show us a God who longs to fill his house with guests. Keep us from the excuses that draw us away from your table. Give us the humility to accept your call, and help us to put on the wedding garment of faith, repentance, and love. Holy Spirit, enlighten our minds and warm our hearts. Guide our conversation, that we may listen to one another with patience and charity, and discover what this parable asks of us in our own lives. Make us worthy guests at your table here on earth, until we share in the wedding feast of the Lamb...

 2026-10-04 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time   Opening Prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord God, Vine dresser of your people,   You planted your vineyard with love, you cleared the ground, set a wall around it, and were right to hope for good grapes. Open our hearts today as good soil to receive your Word. Give us ears to hear the song of your lost flock, and eyes to see how little we are doing for them. Show us where we are yielding wild grapes and spur us instead toward justice and righteousness. Save us from the pride of the tenants who kept for themselves what was your gifts given freely to us to do your will. Father, you sent  the prophets,  your only begotten Son and many holy men and women, whom we rejected and cast out, Remind us again and again that your only begotten Son our Lord and Redeemer has became the cornerstone. Let us not resist his call to show mercy and compassion, but welcome his lost sh...

 2026-09-20 Twenty-fifth Sunday of the year   Opening prayer Good and gracious Lord of the Vineyard, You call us at every hour of the day, and your generosity knows no measure of our merit. As we open our hearts to your word this day, free us from the envy that counts another's blessing as our loss, and from the pride that believes we have earned  your mercy, which you give freely.  Teach us that our ways are not your ways, and our thoughts are not your thoughts. Help us to rejoice when your goodness falls on others as it falls on us - just like the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Teach us to trust that the last will be first, and the first will be last, in your unending love. Open our ears now to hear what you would say to us, and open our hearts to receive it with gratitude, and not with calculation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.   Prayer for healing : Heavenly Father, we surrender our loved one and friends who are in need of healing to y...

   2026-09-13 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Introduction:  The theme of all the readings today is Forgiveness.  Bishop Barron in a 2005 discourse uses a powerful illustration from the Life of Saint Marina the Monk that is thought to have originated among Coptic monks of the Scetis desert near Alexandria, Egypt, sometime between the 5th and early 6th centuries — which is why the story is so strongly associated with Coptic (Egyptian) monastic tradition, and why Marina/Marinos is venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church specifically as a patron for those falsely accused. Marina was a woman who, along with her father, disguised herself as a man and joined a monastery, living as the monk "Marinos." Years later, an innkeeper's daughter became pregnant and, to protect the real father, falsely accused Marinos of being responsible. Marinos never revealed the truth — since doing so would mean exposing that "he" was actually a woman — and fell to his knees, falsel...

 2026-09-06 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Opening Prayer O Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation! Heavenly Father, we come before Your presence with thanksgiving and lift up our hearts to You in song. For You are a great God, a King above all kings. September 1st marked the start of the Season of Creation (September 1 – October 4), an ecumenical season inviting Christians around the world to pray and care for God's creation, rooted in Pope Francis's Laudato Si'.  In Your hands are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are Yours also. The sea is Yours, for You made it, and Your hands formed the dry land. We thank You, Lord, for the beauty of Your creation, for the life You have given us, and for sustaining us each day by Your providence. Come O faithful, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. For You are our God, and we are the people of Your pasture, the sheep of Your...

 2026-08-30 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 20:7-9 Psalm 63 Romans 12:1-2 When Paul was persecuting Christians, Christ stopped him cold, asking "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me" - we the disciples of Christ are the body of Christ. Sacrifice at the time of Christ was offerings in the Temple to reconcile oneself to God by atoning for one's sin and coming face-to-face or eyelash-to-eyelash with God. But Paul says, Jesus wholly man and wholly God is the supreme sacrifice that gathers together all previous sacrifices to reconcile all of mankind with God. By becoming a living sacrifice we detach ourself from the world and become the clay that allows God the potter to meet us in the flesh so we can be his true disciples to think, feel, say and do as he sees fit. Matthew 16:21-27 Just last week, Peter confessed the messianic identity of Jesus - "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." . Jesus confirmed Peter’s confession, saying, "Bles...

 2026-08-23 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 22:19-23 Isaiah 22, theologically is interpreted as a contrast between self-seeking, prideful leadership (Shebna) and faithful stewardship (Eliakim). Shebna and Eliakim are two officials in the royal court of Judah during King Hezekiah's reign. Shebna was the royal steward (or "master of the household") — essentially the palace administrator, one of the most powerful positions in the kingdom, overseeing the royal household and holding the "key" of authority in the palace. Isaiah delivers a harsh judgment against him (Isaiah 22:15-19). Shebna is condemned for his pride and self-glorification — specifically for carving out an elaborate tomb for himself in the rock, "on the height," as a monument to his own importance. Eliakim son of Hilkiah is the man God appoints to replace Shebna (Isaiah 22:20-24). Isaiah describes Eliakim being clothed with Shebna's robe and sash and given his authority — he ...

 2026-08-16 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Opening Prayer The Canticle of Mary. And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”   Prayer for healing : Heavenly Father, we surrender our loved one and friends who are in need of healing to your loving care and miraculous healing. May the life-giving powers of your touch flow into every cell of the...