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Daily Readings
Weekly reading
Readings for the week of September 20, 2026
- Sunday: Is 55:6-9 / Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18 / Phil 1:20c-24, 27a / Mt 20:1-16a
- Monday: Eph 4:1-7, 11-13 / Ps 19:2-3, 4-5 / Mt 9:9-13
- Tuesday: Prv 21:1-6, 10-13 / Ps 119:1, 27, 30, 34, 35, 44 / Lk 8:19-21
- Wednesday: Prv 30:5-9 / Ps 119:29, 72, 89, 101, 104, 163 / Lk 9:1-6
- Thursday: Eccl 1:2-11 / Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17bc / Lk 9:7-9
- Friday: Eccl 3:1-11 / Ps 144:1b and 2abc, 3-4 / Lk 9:18-22
- Saturday: Eccl 11:9-12:8 / Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17 / Lk 9:43b-45
- Next Sunday: Ez 18:25-28 / Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 / Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5 / Mt 21:28-32
Pastor Message and Prayer
9/20
Exaltation of the Holy Cross (II)
In our story, the seraph serpents are the messengers of death. Suffering terribly from the snakes' bites, people acknowledged their fault and confessed to the Lord and Moses. Moses interceded and God provided relief. God gave an unexpected antidote to the serpents. They lived not by a serum bases cure, but by an artificial serpent set up high on a pole, which only nedded to be looked at for the recovery and immunity from attacks of the serpents thereafter.
The story shows that the Lord alone is the Healer. The serpents brougth death, but the Lord brought the cure. He showed that not only was he a healing God, but was in fact also, the Lord of the serpents and his divinity overpowered the serpents.
Hosea the prophet encourages the people to return to the Lord "for He has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1). Even more directly God himself invites the people to come to him confidently after the Exodus: "I am the Lord, your healer" (Exodus 15:26). Ezekiel, too turns his attention more and more to the future and expresses his hope for a new work of God that would be undertaken in the future: "have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Exekiel 18:23).
The New Testament knows of this episode. In John 3:14 we find Jesus focusing on the antidote, telling us that he himself is the antidote to our death-oriented sinful lives. As the Lord used the form of a bronze serpent to counter effects of the serpents on the Isaraelites, The New Testament teaches that to counter the effects of sin and death, is found in Jesus. In the passage from the book of Numbers we see a simple call to look at the raised bronze serpent on a pole, and live.
A call to faith and to look with trust at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, makes it possible to grow in the knowledge that divine forgiveness lies at the heart of the Gospel.
Prophet Isaiah says something similiar: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!" (Isaiah 45:22).
Fr. Joachim
St. Mary Mass Times
Saturday 6:00pm
Sunday 8:30am
Daily Mass Times
Wednesday 8:30am
Wednesday: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament 9am-9:30am
Friday 8:30am
First Friday 8:30am Healing Mass and Adoration
Confession Times
Saturday from 5:30-5:50 or
by appointment by calling the Rectory at 815-858-3422
St. Mary Office Hours
Wednesday 8:30 am- 3:30 p.m.. by appointment
Thursday 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
