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A group of NFL players from across the league have gathered for a 70-second video demanding that the NFL deliver a clear message about racial injustice in the wake of the death of George Floyd.The video starts with Saints receiver Michael Thomas saying, “It’s been 10 days since George Floyd was brutally murdered.”Then comes DeAndre Hopkins to ask, “What will it take?”“For one of us to be murdered by police brutality?” Browns receiver Jarvis Landry adds.“What if I was George Floyd?” Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson asks.“If I was George Floyd,” Giants running back Saquon Barkley also asks.“What if I was...

June 5, 2020 Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr Reading 1 2 Tm 3:10-17 You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you...

Yesterday, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was asked by a journalist if he would be taking a knee during the National Anthem now. In the past, he has declined to. He said: I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees continues to stand against players kneeling during the national anthem when the season starts, and on Wednesday he told Yahoo Finance that he would never agree with the gesture. “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell you what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States,” Brees said. After receiving backlash about his comments, Brees reiterated his stance later to ESPN saying that he...

June 3, 2020 Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs Reading 1 2 Tm 1:1-3, 6-12 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dear child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.I am grateful to God, whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition...

May 27 2020 Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 20:28-38 At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus: “Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them. So be...

May 26 2020 Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, priest Reading 1 Acts 20:17-27 From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public...

May 25 2020 Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 19:1-8 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and down to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come...

May 22 2020 Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 18:9-18 One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them.But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him to the tribunal, saying, “This...

May 21 2020 - Day Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 18:1-8 Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. He went to visit them and, because he practiced the same trade, stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. Every sabbath, he entered into discussions in the synagogue, attempting to convince both Jews and Greeks.When Silas and Timothy came down from...

May 20 2020 Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 17:15, 22—18:1 After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in...

May 18 2020 Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 16:11-15 We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city. On the sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in...

Saturday, May 16, 2020 SATURDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 15:18-21 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus warns us to expect persecution. But do not be afraid, because in Jesus Christ, we are connected to the very power of God, to that which is here and now creating the universe. No matter how much violence and mayhem is going on, we have a place of safety. How wonderfully Jesus expresses this: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The body passes, but the soul, that place where you are in contact...

May 15 2020 Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 15:22-31 The Apostles and presbyters, in agreement with the whole Church, decided to choose representatives and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. The ones chosen were Judas, who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers. This is the letter delivered by them: “The Apostles and the presbyters, your brothers, to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia of Gentile origin: greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate from us have upset you...

May 14 2020 Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle Reading 1 Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and sisters (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, “My brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. Judas was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. For it is written in the Book of Psalms:Let his encampment become desolate,...

May 12 2020 Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 14:19-28 In those days, some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the...

May 02 2020 Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Acts 9:31-42 The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.As Peter was passing through every region, he went down to the holy ones living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been confined to bed for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get...

May 01 2020 Friday of the Third Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 9:1-20 Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”...

April 30 2020 Thursday of the Third Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 8:26-40 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.” So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go...

April 29 2020 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Acts 8:1b-8 There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria and...