June 19, 2026 Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time / Saint Romuald, Abbot Gospel: Matthew 6:19–23
Today is Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint Romuald, Abbot. The Roman Martyrology tells us: Saint Romuald (c. 950–1027) was born in Ravenna, Italy, of a noble family, and entered the Benedictine monastery of San Miniato, influenced by the Cluniac reform. He later founded hermitages at Fonte Avellana and Camaldoli, the latter becoming the motherhouse of the Camaldolese Order of hermit monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict. After a life wholly dedicated to prayer and severe penance, the Saint died in peace in 1027.
Today’s Gospel passage from Saint Matthew continues the Sermon on the Mount. In this portion of the discourse, Jesus teaches His disciples the true scale of values.
In daily life, we constantly face challenges posed by this present world. All that belongs to this world can draw us into an excessive pursuit of passing things. Too often, we adopt what seems to us the most natural means of claiming for ourselves what was never ours to begin with, failing even to recognize that our ways run contrary to all that God has taught us. We tell ourselves that what we now possess has been earned solely by our own hands, and so we forget the God who gives all. In truth, without His gift, we could not even continue to exist in this world.
Worse still, we may imagine that by amassing treasures here below, we secure for ourselves a life of ease and luxury in the world to come, as though our earthly existence could somehow be prolonged by material wealth. Such is the mindset of those who follow this passing age.
The value system of a Christian, however, stands in stark contrast. We believe that all we have is God’s, and that we are but His unprofitable servants. If we embrace this outlook and order our lives accordingly, we come to understand that nothing of this world can accompany us into the Kingdom of Heaven. Earthly riches cannot be carried across the threshold of eternity by our mortal flesh. What avails for entrance into that Kingdom is the good we have done in this life, and those brothers and sisters who, moved by our prayer and witness, choose to receive Baptism in Christ, to be cleansed in His infinite mercy from Original Sin, and to share in the eternal life of His divinity through the Anointing of the Holy Spirit and communion with all the Saints. United with us in faith, they sustain us by their prayers and support us by their deeds—and in them, we store up treasure in heaven.
O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
June 18, 2026 Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Gospel: Matthew 6:7–15
Today is Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew continues the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about prayer.
We know that prayer takes various forms: vocal prayer and mental prayer, personal prayer and communal prayer. Vocal prayer is when we offer our petitions to God with our lips—often by reciting prayers from the Church’s tradition, such as those found in prayer books or devotional pamphlets. At other times, we may simply speak directly from the heart, asking God to hear and grant our needs. Mental prayer, on the other hand, is when we pray silently before God, lifting up our intentions inwardly in His presence. These are forms of personal prayer. Communal prayer, by contrast, is when we join together with the faithful—in parish communities or broader ecclesial gatherings—to pray, whether through the celebration of the Liturgy or the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours. A striking example is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In all these forms of prayer, the Our Father holds a central place—the very prayer Jesus taught us Himself.
When we pray the Our Father, we may presume that our heavenly Father will surely grant every request we make. Yet often we do not sense His closeness or His love. The reason we sometimes feel distant from the Father’s tenderness is that we resist living in Christ as He taught, and we do not follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who desires what is truly good. Thus, Christ speaks to us in parables of “the Father who sent Him into the world” (cf. Jn 14:24). But when we heed the Savior’s words, receive His teaching, and approach the Father in the manner He prescribed (cf. Mt 6:7–13; Lk 11:1–4), and when we continually yield to the guidance of “the Spirit whom the Father sends in the name of Christ” (cf. Jn 14:26), putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we become true “children of God” (cf. Rom 8:13–14). Only then can we discern the Father’s will and live it out in every circumstance, faithfully embodying all that Christ has commanded.
O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
June 17, 2026 Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Gospel: Matthew 5:43–48
Today is Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time. The text from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew continues the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. In this discourse, Jesus teaches us the norm of Christian conduct in matters of faith.
We often see people praying in churches and on the streets. Among those who pray in churches and on the streets, some choose to pray in a contemplative manner, while others pray aloud. Jesus says to these people: “And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.” He further says: “But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who see in secret will repay thee.” (cf. Matt. 6:5-6) Simply put: prayer must proceed from the heart, and through prayer, one must return to one’s innermost self, thereby deepening one’s union with God.
We often see people fasting. They fast or abstain to restore their bodies to a state of equilibrium. Likewise, the Church requires us to fast and abstain. For instance, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the Church obliges us to observe the laws of fasting and abstinence; every Friday, the Church requires us to abstain, so that through bodily austerity, we may experience the tenderness God holds for us, and through such penance, complete what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Some brethren in the Lord say: “If you eat the flesh of warm-blooded animals on Friday, you commit a sin.” I wish to remind these brothers and sisters: Jesus does not ask us to pursue external fasting, nor does He ask us to harm our bodies through abstinence. Rather, He asks for an interior fast, that bodily discipline may help us return to our true selves, experience the love of the Heavenly Father, feel the dialogue between the Divine Word and our soul in its depths, and sense the warm presence of the Holy Ghost, ever filled with the manifold graces bestowed upon us by God.
O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
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