St. John Catholic Church

St. John Catholic Church Mass Schedule: Saturday 4:00 P.M. Sunday 7:00 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. Weekday Masses M-F 8:00 A.M.

09/07/2026

St. John of the Cross: “In order to come to be all, desire in all things to be nothing.” —

St RosaliaPatron Saint of: Palermo, Sicily, and against plagueFeast Day: September 4St. Rosalia (1130–1166 A.D.) was bor...
09/04/2026

St Rosalia
Patron Saint of: Palermo, Sicily, and against plague
Feast Day: September 4
St. Rosalia (1130–1166 A.D.) was born to a wealthy and noble Norman family, descendants of Charlemagne who had migrated to Sicily. From a young age Rosalia was strongly drawn to Christ, which caused her to leave her life of wealth and comfort to follow Him in complete solitude as a hermitess. Tradition holds that St. Rosalia was led by two angels to a cave near Palermo where she spent the rest of her life in prayer, complete solitude, and works of penance. On the cave wall she wrote "I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ." Centuries later, when a plague was ravaging Palermo, her relics were discovered in the cave by a hunter to whom she had appeared in order to direct him to their location. Rosalia instructed the hunter to have her relics carried in procession three times around the city, after which the plague ceased. St. Rosalia was credited with saving the city, and a sanctuary was erected in her cave which remains a pilgrimage site to this day. St. Rosalia is the patron of Palermo and Sicily, Italy. Her feast day is September 4th.

09/04/2026

Friends, in today’s Gospel (Luke 5:33–39), people ask Jesus why he doesn’t encourage fasting among his followers. Jesus’s answer is wonderful: “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” (That’s a typically Jewish style, by the way, answering a question with another question.)

This great image of the wedding feast comes up frequently in the New Testament, most obviously in the wedding feast at Cana narrative. And it is echoed in the tradition. Jesus is the wedding of heaven and earth, the marriage of divinity and humanity; he is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride. In him, the most intimate union is achieved between God and the world.

Could you imagine people fasting at a wedding banquet? Could you imagine going into an elegant room with your fellow guests and being served bread and water? It would be ridiculous! The mark of the Christian dispensation is joy. Exuberance. Delight. God and the world have come together. What could be better news?

St Gregory The GreatPatron Saint of: Musicians, singers, teachers, and liturgical musicFeast Day: September 3Pope St. Gr...
09/04/2026

St Gregory The Great
Patron Saint of: Musicians, singers, teachers, and liturgical music
Feast Day: September 3
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604 A.D.) was the son of a wealthy Roman senator. His mother and two of his aunts are also saints, which provided him with a strong and devout religious upbringing. His skill in grammar and rhetoric were exceptional, and he followed in his father's political footsteps by serving in public office as the prefect of Rome. Discerning a call to the religious life, he sold all of his possessions and converted his home into a Benedictine monastery. He used his liquidated assets to build six other monasteries. Because of his talent and intelligence he was unanimously chosen to become the Roman Pontiff, the first monk to become Pope. During his lifetime Rome was sacked by invading barbarian hordes, and the city also suffered severe damage from floods and pestilence, causing his pontificate to be an important one. He brought stability and order to the Church in a time of great societal and cultural upheaval. His profound influence on the doctrine, organization, and discipline of the Church cannot be underestimated, thus earning him the title "The Great" which he shares with only two other popes. For his abundant doctrinal and spiritual writings he is also considered to be one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. He is most commonly known for promoting and standardizing the sacred music of liturgical worship, now called "Gregorian Chant." Pope St. Gregory the Great is the patron of popes, masons, choir boys, singers, teachers, and musicians. His feast day is September 3rd.

09/04/2026

“The Sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.” St. Gregory the Great

St BrocardPatron Saint of: Carmelites and Carmelite spiritualityFeast Day: September 2St. Brocard (d. 1231 A.D.) was a F...
09/03/2026

St Brocard
Patron Saint of: Carmelites and Carmelite spirituality
Feast Day: September 2
St. Brocard (d. 1231 A.D.) was a Frenchman who traveled to the Holy Land to enter into religious life there. He was among the first group of hermits to establish a community of monks on Mount Carmel. Details of his life are scarce, but it is believed that St. Brocard was the prior of the community after the death of St. Berthold, who is considered to be the founder of the Carmelites. Brocard, as the new leader of the community, desired to formalize the monks' way of life on Mt. Carmel. He requested that St. Albert, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, write and establish a rule of life for the community, which he then imposed on the group as their discipline. The Rule of St. Albert established the Carmelites as a new religious order. St. Brocard was considered an expert on Islam and Eastern affairs and was to accompany St. Albert to the Fourth Lateran Council, were it not for St. Albert's murder before the Council convened. The Council suppressed the creation of new religious orders, which put the Carmelites in a tenuous position as they were not approved by the Holy See prior to this new decree. St. Brocard led the community through an uncertain period until they achieved special approval from the Holy Father. St. Brocard's feast day is September 2nd.

09/02/2026

Friends, in today’s Gospel (Luke 4:38–44), Jesus declares his mission: “I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he continues to pursue his mission among us in our efforts to do the work of evangelization.

Do we need evangelization? The statistics couldn’t be clearer. Did you know that the fastest-growing category in polls of religious affiliation is “none”? And did you know that there are far more nones than Catholics in this country?

So, Catholics cannot avoid the demand of evangelization, proclaiming the faith. Vatican II couldn’t be clearer on this score, seeing the Church itself as nothing but a vehicle for evangelization: It’s not so much the case that the Church has a mission, but rather that a mission has the Church.

St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II made this idea central to their teaching. In fact, John Paul famously called for a new evangelization. Bringing people to Christ is not one work among many; rather, it is the central work of the Church, that around which everything else that we do revolves.

St GilesPatron Saint of: Beggars, disabled people, breast-feeding mothers, and against cancerFeast Day: September 1St. G...
09/01/2026

St Giles
Patron Saint of: Beggars, disabled people, breast-feeding mothers, and against cancer
Feast Day: September 1
St. Giles (7th c.) was born to a wealthy and noble Greek family. He devoted his life to the things of God and grew in sanctity, but found that his material and spiritual riches drew unwanted praise and attention. To escape prestige, he sold all of his possessions, gave his wealth to the poor, and moved away to Gaul (present day France) to live in solitude in the wilderness as a cave-dwelling hermit. He lived in this way without companionship for many years while practicing severe penances. He became so impoverished that God sent a deer to be his companion and to nourish him with its milk. One day a royal hunting party in pursuit of the deer chased it into the saint's cave. A hunter shot an arrow into the cave, and instead of hitting the deer, he injured the saint. St. Giles was discovered and soon became known throughout the countryside as a holy hermit, the king himself often coming to visit him. St. Giles consented to receive disciples who desired to imitate his way of life. The king built a monastery for these followers, who lived as monks under the Rule of St. Benedict with St. Giles as abbot. St. Giles was known as a miracle worker during his life, and his monastery and the town that grew around it became a shrine and place of pilgrimage, especially for crippled beggars. St. Giles became one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages, and is the patron of many causes including lepers, hermits, cripples, epileptics, cancer patients, the mentally ill, the disabled, and the poor. St. Giles' feast day is September 1st.

Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)Opening prayer of Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: O, Mother most holy and sorrowful,...
09/01/2026

Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)
Opening prayer of Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: O, Mother most holy and sorrowful, Queen of Martyrs, you who stood by your Son as He agonized on the cross; by the sufferings of your life, by that sword of pain that pierced your heart, by your perfect joy in heaven, look down on me kindly as I kneel before you, sympathizing with your sorrows and offering you my petition with childlike trust. Dear Mother, since your Son refuses you nothing, ask of His Sacred Heart to mercifully grant what I ask, through the merits of His sacred passion, along with those of your sufferings at the foot of the cross. Mother most merciful, to whom shall I go in my misery if not to you who pities us poor, sinful exiles in this valley of tears? In our name, offer Jesus but one drop of His most precious blood, but one pang of His loving heart. Remind Him that you are our sweetness, our life, and our hope, and your prayer will be heard. Amen.

09/01/2026

Friends, today’s Gospel (Luke 4:31–37) reports that Jesus came to Capernaum, entered the synagogue on a sabbath, and began to teach. So far, so ordinary. Any bar-mitzvahed adult had the privilege of speaking in synagogue and commenting on the Scripture.

But then it says that the people “were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.” Once again, we’d probably pass over this rather quickly, but it meant the world to a first-century Jew. The ordinary teachers would have appealed to their own teachers and authorities, and finally to Moses and the Torah, which were unassailable.

The Sermon on the Mount gives a wonderful example of Jesus’s authoritative teaching. He appears as the new Moses. Like Moses, he goes up on a mountain, and like Moses, he brings down a kind of new law. But here the comparisons get strained, for Jesus does something that even Moses could never do: He claims authority over the Torah itself. “You have heard it said... but I say.”

What he means is that they have heard it said in the Torah! And this was the authority beyond which there was no appeal. That’s why the people “were astonished at his teaching.”

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8014 Church Street
Hungerford, TX
77448

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