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Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. John Houghton1486-1535; protomartyr of the English Reformation; served as a parish priest, then became a Carthusian; arrested for opposing King Henry VIII’s Acts of Succession and Supremacy; first man to refuse to swear to the Oath of Supremacy; executed at Tyburn Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/25/21 Gospel: Luke 13...

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/24/21 Gospel: Mark 10:46-52

Saturday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. John of Capistrano, 1386-1456; practiced as a lawyer in the courts of Naples; became governor of Perugia; entered the Franciscans, and was a student under St. Berardine of Siena; after ordination, he traveled through Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, and Poland, preaching penance and establishing Franciscan communities; s...

Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, 1920-2005; made pastoral visits to 124 countries; promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives; encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement in Poland, and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe; began World Youth Day; wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints, and beatified...

Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Hilarion, 291-371; disciple of St. Anthony the Great, companion of St. Hesychius; stayed with St. Anthony before becoming a hermit; returned to St. Anthony, and fled to Sicily to escape notice; performed so many miracles that people would flock to him when they knew he was in the area; died on Cyprus Office of Readings and Morning Pr...

Wednesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Paul of the Cross, 1694-1775; born in northern Italy, spent time as a soldier, then turned to solitary prayer, developing a devotion to Christ’s passion; founded the Congregation of the Passion–the Passionists–in 1720, and became its superior general, spending the rest of his life in Rome Office of Readings and...

Tuesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Saints Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and companions, the North American martyrs; arrived in Quebec in 1636 to work among the Huron Indians; Isaac Jogues was captured by a Mohawk party, and was tomahawked and beheaded on October 18, 1642; Jean de Brebeuf composed catechisms and a dictionary in Huron, but died in 1649 after four hours of extreme...

Feast of St. Luke; author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles; died about 84 A.D. Monday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/18/21 Gospel: Luke 10:1-9

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/17/21 Gospel: Mark 10:35-45

Saturday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 1647-1690; Visitation nun who received revelations from Jesus over 13 months, instructing that his human heart be the symbol of his divine-human love Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/16/21 Gospel: Luke 12:8-12

Friday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582; along with St. John of the Cross, a reformer of the Carmelite order; a woman of prayer, discipline, and compassion; her writings, especially “The Way of Perfection” and “The Interior Castle” have helped generations of believers Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/15/21 Gospel: Luke...

Thursday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Pope St. Callistus I; slave in an imperial Roman household who lost money he was to deposit; was eventually released, and was arrested for brawling in a Jewish synagogue; released, and became superintendent of the Christian cemetery in Rome, still known as the Cemetery of St. Callistus; became an advisor to the pope, and was eventuall...

Wednesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Edward the Confessor, 1003-1066; sent to Normandy as a youth, when the Danes invaded England; acclaimed King of England in 1042; built St. Peter’s Abbey at Westminster, site of the present Abbey, where he is buried; his piety gained him the surname, “the confessor” Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/13/21...

Tuesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Edwin of Northumbria, 586-633; pagan king who converted through the efforts of his wife’s chaplain; spent the remaining six years of his reign as a devout Catholic monarch who brought peace to his kingdom; slain in battle and was venerated as a martyr Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/12/21 Gospel: Luke 11:37-41

Monday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, 1881-1963; born of a farming family in northern Italy; named a cardinal and patriarch of Venice in 1953; a month short of entering his 78th year, he was elected pope; called the Second Vatican Council, and criticized the “prophets of doom”; on his deathbed, he said, “It is not that the gospel has c...

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/10/21 Gospel: Mark 10:17-30

Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Denis and companions; Denis is regarded as the first bishop of Paris; sent to Gaul from Rome in the Third Century; beheaded in the persecution under Emperor Valerius in 258 A.D. Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/9/21 Gospel: Luke 11:27-28

Friday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Keyne; lived in the Fifth Century, daughter of King Brychan of Brecknock, Wales; became a hermitess in Somersetshire, England, traveled widely, and founded numerous churches Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/8/21 Gospel: Luke 11:15-26

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary Thursday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/7/21 Gospel: Luke 11:5-13

Wednesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, 1811-1849; born in Quebec; invited by her bishop to found the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of women dedicated to Christian education; she remained unswerving in her concern for the poor Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/6/21 Gospel: Luke 11:1-4

Tuesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, 1819-1867; born in Bavaria, he came to the United States in 1843; worked under St. John Neumann in Pittsburg; served in parish ministry in Maryland, and trained Redemptorist students; appealed to President Lincoln not to draft his students for military service during the Civil War, though some were; preac...

Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226; a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally, actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyrfully, without limit, and without a sense of self-importance; received the stigmata two years before his death, at age 44 Monday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/4/21 G...

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/3/21 Gospel: Mark 10:2-16

Memorial of the Guardian Angels Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 10/2/21 Gospel: Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, 1873-1897; entered the Carmelite convent at the age of 15, died at age 24; she saw a redemptive suffering in quiet suffering; came to Carmel “to save souls and pray for priests”; her autobiography, “The Story of a Soul,” is read and loved throughout the world Office of Readings and Morning Prayer f...