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Daily Readings from the USCCB“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” John 15:16After Judas betrayed our Lord, the Apostles gathered together to pick someone to succeed him. They decided it should be someone who had been with them from the beginning. They prayed for guidance and cast lots “and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles” (Acts 1:26). Little is known about the ministry...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/14/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 13:10-125 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. 8 So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we...

Wednesday 14 May 2025 Saint Matthias, Apostle Feast St. Matthias Catholic Church - Bala Cynwyd, PA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: C(I).First readingActs 1:15-17,20-26'Let someone else take his office'One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

(Hymn at the link.) With everyone so urgent about who is Pope Leo XIV, we may want to pull back and think about who he will seem to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, after his death, after the next Pope. When God sends the people a scourge because they dispise his blessings, and they are trying to understand why bad things are happening to supposedly good people, you can't just look at the punishment, you need to examine those who are the punished. The punishment for our faithlessness was a Dictator Pope who deliberately promoted...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.” John 10:24–25Why is it that these people did not know that Jesus was the Christ? They wanted Jesus to speak “plainly” to them, but Jesus surprises them by saying that He already answered their question but they “do not believe.” This Gospel passage continues the...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/13/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 9:12-1712 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never...

13 May 2025 Tuesday of the 4th week of Eastertide St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Chicago, IllinoisReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 11:19-26They started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Lord JesusThose who had escaped during the persecution that happened because of Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they usually proclaimed the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Jesus to them as well. The Lord helped them, and...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/12/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 8:6-146 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out...

12 May 2025 Monday of the 4th week of Eastertide St Pancras Old Church, LondonReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 11:1-18God can grant even the pagans the repentance that leads to lifeThe apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the pagans too had accepted the word of God, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the Jews criticised him and said, ‘So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them, have you?’ Peter in reply gave them the details point by point: ‘One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,’ he began,...

POPE LEO XIV REGINA CAELI Loggia of the Blessings of St. Peter's Basilica Sunday, 11 May 2025Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!I consider it a gift from God that the first Sunday of my service as Bishop of Rome is Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter. On this Sunday, we always hear proclaimed at Mass a passage from the tenth chapter from the Gospel of John, where Jesus reveals himself as the true Shepherd: who knows and loves his sheep and gives his life for them.This Sunday also marks the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which we...

Join together with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.'I Urge, then, First of All, that Requests, Prayers, Intercession and Thanksgiving be Made for Everyone: for Kings and All those in Authority that we May Live Peaceful and Quiet Lives in All Godliness and Holiness.' 1 Timothy 2:1-2Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind. Genesis 49:24His Bow Remained Strong and Steady and Rested in the Strength that does not fail him, For the Arms of his Hands were Made Strong and...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” John 10:27–28The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is an endearing image. Many artists have depicted the gentleness of Christ as He leads His sheep or carries a straying lamb on His shoulders. We are given this image today as we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday. In our short Gospel passage today, Jesus addressed some of the Jews who were trying to trap...

11 May 2025 4th Sunday of Easter Church of St. Gangulphus, Heinsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, GermanyReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 13:14,43-52'We must turn to the pagans'Paul and his friends carried on from Perga till they reached Antioch in Pisidia. Here they went to synagogue on the sabbath and took their seats. When the meeting broke up many Jews and devout converts joined Paul and Barnabas, and in their talks with them Paul and Barnabas urged them to remain faithful to the grace God had given them. The next sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/11/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 8:1-58 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the...

Praying daily since 2015: Join with hundreds of FReepers to pray daily on FR for President Donald TRUMP, Vice President,J.D. Vance, and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, Healthcare Systems and the Media.And this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us.1 John 5:14

By Dr. John BergsmaThis upcoming Lord’s Day is often known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” since each year the Gospel reading is taken from John 10, the “Good Shepherd Discourse.” It’s also often observed as a day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, since priests and religious are visible manifestations to us of Christ in his role as the Good Shepherd. Most of the Readings are tied together by a shepherding theme. 1. The First Reading continues the traditional Christian practice of reading Acts during the season of Easter. We are up to Acts 13, the point...

10 May 2025 Saturday of the 3rd week of Eastertide Montilla – Basilica of San Juan de ÁvilaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 9:31-42The churches grew and were filled with the consolation of the Holy SpiritThe churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit. Peter visited one place after another and eventually came to the saints living down in Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight...

Daily Readings from the USCCBAs a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” John 6:66–67Today’s Gospel concludes the beautiful and profound sermon on the Bread of Life (see John 6:22–71). When you read this sermon from beginning to end, it is noticeable that Jesus moves from more general statements about the Bread of Life that are easier to accept to more specific statements that are challenging. He concludes His teaching just prior to today’s Gospel...