9 October 2026 Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time or Optional Memorial on Saint John Henry Newman, Priest and Doctor of the Church or Optional Memorial of Saint Denis, Bishop and Martyr, and his Companions, Martyrs or Optional Memorial of Saint John Leonardi, Priest Gospel: Luke 11:15 26
Today is Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time. Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorials of three saints. The recently published Roman Missal tells us:
Saint John Henry Newman (1801 1890) was born in London, baptized on 21 February 1801, and studied at Trinity College, Oxford. As a Fellow of Oriel College and Vicar of the University Church, Newman became a leading figure in the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. His search for truth led to his reception into the Catholic Church by Blessed Dominic Barberi at Littlemore on 9 October 1845. Newman subsequently established the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England and spent most of his Catholic life in Birmingham. After many trials and disappointments, Pope Leo XIII created him a Cardinal in 1879 in recognition of his theological work and personal witness. He died on 11 August 1890 and was canonized by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019. On 9 November 2025, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments added his memorial to the Roman Calendar, to be celebrated as an Optional Memorial.
Saint Dionysius (+ c.258) is venerated as the first Bishop of Paris and patron of France. He is said to have been sent to Gaul by Pope Fabian and to have been beheaded at Montmartre together with Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon. Some writers wrongly identified him with Dionysius the Areopagite, mentioned in Acts 17:34, who was claimed as the author of a series of works of mystical theology actually written in the fifth century. The great Abbey of Saint Denis in Paris is the burial place of many Kings and Queens of France.
Saint John Leonardi (c. 1542 1609) was born near Lucca (Italy) and, after training as a pharmacist, was ordained a priest. This allowed him to bring to people the medicine of God, Jesus Christ. He founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God and also helped establish the College of Propaganda Fide in Rome, which trained missionaries. He died of influenza while ministering to the Roman populace. He was chosen as patron of pharmacists in 2006.
The Scripture passage taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke today tells us of the judgement of the Jews of Jesus’ time upon Him after He drove out a demon, and of Jesus’ response. Let us try to understand.
First, Luke tells us: When Jesus was driving out a demon, some of the crowd said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. (cf. Luke 11:15 16)
Today, when we come to church to attend Holy Mass, we often hear some people say: The reason we choose to believe in God and to come here to attend Mass is because we like to watch the priest perform tricks on the altar. Sometimes we also feel that priests are like tools, merely acting by the authority given them by Jesus Christ. At other times, like those who falsely accused Jesus, we demand that the words the priest speaks and the Sacred Word of God he proclaims provide evidence to prove that God truly exists.
Who is the Beelzebul mentioned by Luke? Beelzebul was an idol worshipped by the Philistines on the plain of Sharon; his temple was at Ekron. He was originally a god of healing and deliverance from plague. When some Jews did not receive graces from their God, they would secretly go to Ekron to ask Beelzebul for healing. Therefore, this is clearly a pagan deity; whoever follows the mindset of this false god is one who refuses to accept what Jesus teaches — the law of God’s world.
In the parable Jesus tells, we see the crucial words: “kingdom”, “kingdom of God”. We know that in Jesus’ time, the Jews longed for a powerful Jewish kingdom like that of King David. In that kingdom there would be God, priests, the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, and various political factions. In that nation, social conflicts between classes were acute; people struggled for their own interests and fought among themselves for power. They even wanted to replicate such social systems and state structures in what they thought was the kingdom of God. This is the secular logic followed by the Jews. The kingdom of God spoken of by Jesus — that is, the logic of God which He proclaims — is a world centered always on God. In the kingdom of God as He describes it, there are no longer any political parties or classes; there is only the God who loves mankind and those who are loved by God. We no longer quarrel for our own interests, because all of us, through the grace of Baptism in the Lord Jesus Christ and by the oil of joy given by the Holy Spirit, have been made children of God. They no longer seek to hold power in the kingdom of God as Jesus describes it, but only desire to praise God together in that kingdom.
However, entering the kingdom of heaven that Jesus speaks of is not easy, because our three enemies — the devil, the flesh, and the world — constantly make us weak. Even if we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven that Jesus speaks of, the temptations of the world and the weakness of the flesh render us utterly feeble, making us unable to resist the assaults of the devil. Therefore, we urgently need the help of the Word of God, because we know: wherever the Word of God and His Gospel reach, the devil and his agents can by no means stand firm but must inevitably flee.
On this Optional Memorial of Saint John Henry Newman, Priest, Saint Dionysius, Bishop, and Saint John Leonardi, Priest, let us with one accord offer our prayer to God:
Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. 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
October 8, 2026 Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time Gospel: Lk 11:5-13
Today is Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel of Luke presents us with a parable that Jesus told his disciples. Let us try to understand it.
First, Saint Luke tells us that Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he replies from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because of their friendship, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs.” (cf. Lk 11:5-8)
In our daily lives, we often encounter people who, compelled by necessity, seek various forms of help from us. When we meet them, we often arbitrarily assume they are frauds, that they seek help merely to satisfy their own needs, and we even fear that once we give them what they need, they will demand even more. Thus, we become like the master of the house in Jesus’ parable today, who refused to lend the three loaves, and are unwilling to provide for their needs according to our ability. (cf. Lk 11:5-7) For it seems to us that whenever we offer what help we can to those who seek it, we will suffer loss.
What lesson can we learn from Jesus’ words? The answer is obvious. God created us in His own image and entrusted all of His creation to us, so that we might have dominion over the world He created. (cf. Gen 1:26-31) Therefore, everything we currently possess does not belong to us; we are merely its stewards. If someone comes to us at midnight seeking help, even if we are already resting, we must still provide them with whatever they need according to our circumstances and to the best of our ability. In doing so, we are helping Jesus.
Today, let us imitate the Good Jesus and the Merciful Heavenly Father, spreading love through concrete actions—a love that is voluntary, spontaneous, and unforced. May those who urgently need help, through all that we do, see the gracious face of God revealed to them, and thus choose to be like us: through receiving the one Baptism of Christ and the anointing of the one Holy Spirit, becoming children of God; and through receiving the one Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, being united together in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. 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
October 7, 2026 Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary Gospel: Luke 11:1–4
Today is Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. According to the recently published Roman Missal: this feast was originally called “Our Lady of Victories,” commemorating the Battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571), when a Christian fleet defeated the Turks. Pope Saint Pius V attributed this victory to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. This great devotion of the Rosary is sometimes traced back to Saint Dominic and his confreres in the thirteenth century, who preached against the Albigensian heresy; although it more likely took its familiar form in the fifteenth century. Since then, it has spread all over the world and has produced marvelous fruits, leading countless Christians to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Today, the passage from the Holy Gospel according to Luke presents us with the scene of Jesus teaching His disciples how to pray to the Heavenly Father. This scene perfectly aligns with the feast we celebrate today. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.
First, Luke tells us:
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” (Cf. Lk 11:1)
In the writing of the Evangelist Luke, we see Jesus at prayer many times. For example, before choosing the Twelve Apostles, He went up the mountain to pray and spent the whole night in prayer to God. (Cf. Lk 6:12) Another instance: after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, He also prayed alone. (Cf. Lk 9:18) In today’s Gospel passage, we see Jesus at prayer once again. Clearly, Luke intends to tell us through this that prayer is essential in the life of faith.
We know that in Jesus’ time, the disciples who came to Him already had a new way of life. Although there were various prayers derived from the Old Testament — the most famous being the Psalms — perhaps John had also taught his disciples to pray with the Psalms, but Jesus had never taught His own disciples how to pray. Therefore, the disciples came to Jesus, hoping that He, like John, would teach them to pray.
Today, the prayer Jesus taught His disciples differs from the teachings of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the rabbis of His time. He invites His disciples to offer prayer directly to the Heavenly Father, to express our gratitude to Him, thanking Him for creating us from nothing, for giving us life, and for nourishing us with all the creatures of heaven and earth, enabling us to live in this beautiful world. And we ask Him to grant us abundant grace, so that we may imitate Christ, emptying ourselves in order to better receive the grace bestowed upon us by God, and to assist God in the work of redemption on earth, so that the pilgrim Church on earth may continue to practice all that Christ has taught her, imitating Christ in every time and place, and courageously bearing witness to the truth in the world, doing the holy will of God.
Now, let us consider what we ask of God when we offer our prayers to Him. I still remember a conversation with a certain priest who served in a rural parish. He told me that he once saw a brother requesting him to offer a Mass for the sake of taking revenge on his enemy. This reminds me of another invitation Jesus extends to us today. He invites us to lay down hatred and seek His Word (Cf. Lk 11:3–4), for only His Word can truly calm our restless hearts, enabling us to listen to the Heavenly Father’s converse with us in the depths of our hearts, and preventing us from losing our way or stumbling in the changing circumstances of this earthly life.
I recall the teaching of a certain deceased bishop: living in this changing world, it is not enough for us to offer prayers to God by ourselves; we also need the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Queen of the Rosary, because Jesus always hearkens to the prayers the Blessed Virgin Mary offers to Him on behalf of her children. Building upon this deceased bishop’s teaching, I would further like to invite all brothers and sisters in the Lord: in addition to seeking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Rosary is also an excellent supplement, for through the Twenty Mysteries of the Rosary we can behold the beauty of Christ’s holy countenance and draw abundant grace therefrom.
This feast also brings to mind the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs on the Rosary. I would like to take this opportunity to quote some of them:
“The Rosary is my favorite prayer. A wonderful prayer! In its simplicity and its depth, it contains the whole breadth of the Gospel message… Through the Rosary, the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the mother of the Redeemer. At the beginning of the third millennium, I entrust this Apostolic Letter to you, Bishops, priests, and deacons in your Churches, and to all the People of God, that you may rediscover the beauty of the Rosary. A family that prays the Rosary remains united. By placing Jesus at the center of life, the family can share in His joy and suffering, entrusting its future hope into His hands. May the Rosary return to Christian families, making them schools of the Gospel, where it is proclaimed and lived.” (Pope Saint John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Apostolic Letter, October 16, 2002)
“Today we confirm together once again that the Holy Rosary is not a rite belonging to the past, remembered with nostalgia. On the contrary, the Rosary is experiencing a new spring. This is undoubtedly one of the most eloquent signs that the new generation of young people is filled with love for Jesus Christ and His Mother Mary. In today’s fragmented world, this prayer can help us place Christ at the center of our lives, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary did. She pondered all things concerning her Son in her heart. When we pray for the Rosary, we relive those important and crucial moments in the history of salvation. It not only turns our hearts to Christ, but also brings true peace, reconciliation, and healing to our hearts and to the world.” (Cf. Pope Benedict XVI, Address at the Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, May 3, 2008)
“Dear brothers and sisters: the month of May is approaching, a month in which God’s people express their love and devotion to the Virgin Mary with particular fervour. During this month, it has become a tradition for families to pray the Rosary together. The secret to praying the Rosary in families lies in ‘simplicity.’ Excellent models of prayer that can be imitated are easily found online. Contemplating the face of Christ together and having a heart like that of the Blessed Virgin Mary will enable us to grow closer to one another spiritually and help us overcome the trials of the present time. I pray for all of you, especially for those who are suffering most.” (Pope Francis, Letter to All the Faithful on the Recitation of the Rosary in the Month of May 2020, April 25, 2020)
“How heartening it is to hear Christians chanting with devout hearts full of faith, holding candles as they process toward their Heavenly Mother — the mother given to us by Jesus on the Cross. The Blessed Virgin’s intercession is by no means secondary; through the Blessed Virgin, all things become possible once more for each of us.” (Cf. Pope Leo XIV, Address at the Candlelight Rosary Procession in Lourdes, France, September 27, 2026)
On this Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, let us follow the teachings of the Popes and together offer our prayers to God:
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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