St. Mary's Catholic Church Joplin, MO

06/15/2026

🎶“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
Mercy Monday is here!
Join our friend Steve Angrisano in praying and singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
🙏🏼🎶🙏🏼🎶🙏🏼

06/15/2026

A little reflection of the constancy on God’s love in our life.
It’s also Mercy Monday—mark your day with prayer later today by praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet with Steve Angrisano.

06/15/2026

🙏🏼 St. Germaine Cousin, pray for us!
Wow—What a story!

JUNE 15 + Today is the Feast Day of Spiritual Warrior Saint Germaine Cousin — the Patron Saint of child abuse victims and the disabled + Pray for us

Germaine Cousin was born in 1579 in France. After her mother died when Germaine was just an infant, her father Laurent was re-married to a woman named Hortense, who despised the young girl. Germaine was born weak, ill and with a deformity of her right hand. Hortense, in her cruelty, starved Germaine forcing her to crawl to eat from a dog dish. Hortense even poured boiling hot water on Germaine's legs, all the while her father did nothing to protect her.

Due to the abuse of her stepmother, Germaine became even more weak and ill, developing a disease known as scrofula, a type of tuberculosis that causes glands to swell. She developed sores that left her immune system vulnerable to other diseases.

Germaine's own siblings took part in the torment by putting ashes in the little food she did receive and pitch in her clothes. Afraid her own children would catch Germaine's diseases, Hortense made her sleep in the barn, and the only food she ate were the scraps for the animals.

Instead of being lonely, Germaine found solitude with God. She had a rosary made of knots and would pray simple prayers. Out of her prayers grew a deep faith and trust in God. She attended Mass daily without fail. One day, a long rain flooded the river and a villager saw the river part so that she could cross to get to Mass on time.

Germaine's holiness infuriated her stepmother and she waited to catch Germaine doing wrong. One evening Hortense saw Germaine with a bundle in her apron. Certain that Germaine had stolen bread, she began to chase and scream at the child. As she began to beat her, Germaine opened her apron and beautiful bright flowers that didn’t grow during that season tumbled out. Germaine handed a flower to her stepmother and said, “Please accept this flower, Mother. God sends it to you as a sign of His forgiveness.”

Germaine was found dead on her bed of leaves at the age of 22. When her body was exhumed 40 years later, it was found incorrupt.

When you read Germaine's story, the Walt Disney classic Cinderella quickly comes to mind. Germaine was a real life Cinderella except that she didn't marry a Prince. Her ending and reward was much greater as she was rescued by the Prince of Peace and her Divine Mother and received a crown far more glorious than any crown this world could have given her. She is a humbling reminder that we might not be rewarded for being faithful in this life, but the rewards in the next are incomparable to anything we deem as valuable on earth.

06/12/2026

A reminder, join Bishop Rice tonight as he consecrates the Diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart!

Friday, June 12
St. Agnes Cathedral, Springfield
5:30 p.m. Mass

If you are unable to join in person, the Mass will be Livestreamed

06/12/2026

From Spiritual Warriors...

JUNE 12 + Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ❤️

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practiced and well-known devotions in the Roman Catholic Church. It takes the physical heart of Jesus as representation of His Divine love for humanity. This feast has been on the Roman Catholic Liturgical calendar since 1856, and is always celebrated 19 days after Pentecost Sunday and always falls on a Friday. The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity.

From the earliest days of the Church, "Christ's open side and the mystery of blood and water were meditated upon, and the Church was beheld issuing from the side of Jesus, as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that we find the first unmistakable indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Through the wound in the side, the wound in the Heart was gradually reached, and the wound in the Heart symbolized the wound of love."

The origin of the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart in the modern form, derived from the French Roman Catholic Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. She learned the devotion from Jesus during a mystical experience and her revelations were numerous. On December 27, 1673, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon His heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of His love, telling her that He desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of His goodness, and that He had chosen her for this work. In July 1674, Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of His heart, also saying when He appeared radiant with love, He asked for a devotion of expiatory love, frequent reception of Holy Communion, especially Holy Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the Observance of Holy Hours.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. In his Encyclical, “Miserentissimus Redemptor,” Pope Pius XI stated, “The spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” The “Golden Arrow Prayer” directly refers to the Sacred Heart.

THE GOLDEN ARROW PRAYER

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

06/12/2026

Final Prayer 🙏🏼

🙏Thank you for praying the Sacred Heart of Jesus Novena with us! Here are our prayers for today’s feast day... We're praying for you.

Dear Lord Jesus, I have specific requests that may only partially fill the infinite needs and desires that are in my heart. I ask that You answer me not only for those requests but also for a greater reliance on You to satisfy the needs and desires that You have given me.

Please grant the prayers of all those who prayed this novena with me. Bless them with Your love and make them holy!

May I seek You with a sincere heart knowing that it will profit me nothing if I gain the whole world yet lose my soul.

So, help me to see Your good and gracious purpose in all my trials. Help me to see Your blessings in every day and help me to love You more.

Thank You for everything, Lord Jesus!

Amen.

🙏https://www.praymorenovenas.com/novena-to-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus

06/11/2026

REMINDER: Knights of Columbus meeting tonight at 7pm in the Parish Center.

06/11/2026

Hope this is on your calendar!! Sign up now if you haven't already done so!!

Totus Tuus is just a few weeks away, and your help is needed to make this faith-filled week a success!

Additional volunteers are needed to assist with classroom support, provide meals for the Totus Tuus team, and donate snacks for participants throughout the week.

Sign up to volunteer today: https://tinyurl.com/2rbzej4c

Thank you for helping create an incredible experience for the children and youth of our Catholic community.

06/11/2026

🙏St. Barnabas, pray for us!

Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle
June 11
Patron Saint of Cyprus, Antioch, and peacekeeping missions
Invoked against hailstorms

In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,
and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
And a large number of people was added to the Lord.
Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch.
For a whole year they met with the Church
and taught a large number of people,
and it was in Antioch that the disciples
were first called Christians.

Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers:
Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger,
Lucius of Cyrene,
Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, completing their fasting and prayer,
they laid hands on them and sent them off.
Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3

For more about the life of St. Barnabas, visit:
https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/june-11-saint-barnabas-the-apostle/

Image: Storye book, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons