Prince of Peace Catholic Church

08/27/2026

08/26/2026

Picture Days are happening this week at Shawe and Pope John!

POPE JOHN:
Tuesday, August 25th - Kindergarten, 4th, 5th, and 6th Grades

Wednesday, August 26th - Preschool, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grades

Students in K-6th must wear their school uniform for fall pictures!

Pope John Picture Order Link:
https://inter-state.com/FlyerEntry/0504YR

SHAWE MEMORIAL:
- Tuesday, August 25th

Shawe students may dress up for Picture Day or wear their regular school uniform. Students who choose to dress up should follow school handbook guidelines for appropriate dress.

Shawe Picture Order Link:
https://inter-state.com/FlyerEntry/0505EXF

Bring your best smile!

08/26/2026

We're almost done! We have one last prayer to pray together tomorrow.

God has blessed us in so many ways, it is often easy to forget His blessings. It is often easy to focus only on the bad things in life.

Today, let's thank God for all His blessings in our lives!

If you've had any of your prayers answered throughout this novena, you can share those with us all here. We're praying for you.

Here are the prayers for today:
Day 9 - St. Monica Novena
(Audio/Video Version)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your own son.

(Mention your intentions here)

With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me, that I might join you in such a deep faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

Above all, dear Saint Monica, pray for me, that I may, like your son, turn from my sin and become a great saint for the glory of God.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Share the St. Monica Novena!

08/26/2026

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Bishop Robert Barron
Cycle A
Ordinary Time
21st wk of Ordinary Time
Daily Reading

First Reading
2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.

Psalm
Psalm 128:1-2, 4-5
Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
Thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion.
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.

Gospel Reading
Matthew 23:27-32
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors.

Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus judges the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. He says, “On the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.”

One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is to fall into the trap of auto-salvation, the conviction that one can save oneself through heroic moral effort. The principal problem with such a strategy is that it results in the strengthening of the very egotism that one hopes to overcome.

What Jesus so vehemently critiqued in the Pharisees was just this kind of egotism: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones.” Sin is not a weakness that we can overcome but a condition from which we have to be saved.

This insight should allow us, at an elemental psychological and spiritual level, to relax and to surrender. What happens often in the hearts of sinners is a kind of tightening of the spirit as the mind and will strive to break out of the prison of fear. All of this stretching and straining serves only to throw the ego back on itself in a misery of failure and self-reproach.

08/25/2026

Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Bishop Robert Barron
Cycle A
Ordinary Time
21st wk of Ordinary Time
Daily Reading

First Reading
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3a, 14-17
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.

For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Psalm
Psalm 96:10, 11-12, 13
Say among the nations, “The Lord is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.”
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.

Gospel Reading
Matthew 23:23-26
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cu**in, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus forcefully calls the Pharisees (and us) to change their hearts and behavior.

St. Augustine defines sin as incurvatus in se—that means “caved in around oneself.” To be in sin is to be “caved in” around the ego and its narrow concerns. When the Lord says, “Reform your life,” he means move from that old mind and make him the center of your life.

We must know and feel in our bones what is wrong in us; we must look it in the face and acknowledge it with uncompromising honesty. Without this journey into our own inner hell, we will not feel the compunction to shift our way of being and seeing. And we must awaken to what is godlike in us, what is rich and unbroken, what is united with the saving designs of God. Without this clear sense, we will fall into complacency and see metanoia as, at best, a cruel illusion.

08/25/2026

St. Monica demonstrated incredible patience during her trials in life. She suffered patiently and with a deep faith in God's goodness.

Let's pray today that we may all have the faith of St. Monica -- that we will have incredible patience in the face of difficulty.

Here are the prayers for today:
Day 8 - St. Monica Novena
(Audio/Video Version)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your own son.

(Mention your intentions here)

With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me, that I might join you in such a deep faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

Above all, dear Saint Monica, pray for me, that I may, like your son, turn from my sin and become a great saint for the glory of God.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

08/24/2026

spel Reflections
Monday, August 24, 2026
Bishop Robert Barron
Cycle A
Ordinary Time
21st wk of Ordinary Time
Daily Reading

First Reading
Revelation 21:9b-14
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Psalm
salm 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18
All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.
The Lord is just in all his ways,
and kind in all his doings.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

Gospel Reading
John 1:45-51
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Reflection
Friends, in a conversation with Jesus in today’s Gospel, Nathanael (usually identified with the apostle Bartholomew) makes the earliest New Testament profession of faith in Christ’s divinity: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” Faith is the virtue upon which Christianity rests and is the capacity to see beyond the senses to a deeper or higher reality.

There is an anticipation of faith in Plato’s parable of the cave, in which a man escapes from a cavern where he had been forced to see only flickering shadows on the wall. When he emerges from the darkness, he is blinded by the intensity of the sunlight. When his eyes adjust, he surveys a new world of depth and color.

In a similar way, Christianity holds that God’s revelation draws us beyond what we can know and introduces us to a dimension of being vibrating at a higher pitch. To be a person of faith is to know that the universe of the senses is but the tip of the iceberg, a gateway. And it is to resist the idolatry of Enlightenment rationalism, which tells us that only superstition and obscurantism lie beyond what we human beings can measure.

08/24/2026

St. Monica suffered verbal abuse from her husband's violent temper for years. Today let's pray for all who are suffering.

Here are the prayers for today:
Day 7 - St. Monica Novena
(Audio/Video Version)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Saint Monica, you were once the mournful mother of a prodigal son. Your faithfulness to prayer brought you and your son so close to God that you are now with him in eternity. By your intercession and God’s grace, your son St. Augustine became a great and venerable Saint of the Church. Please take my request to God with the same fervor and persistence with which you prayed for your own son.

(Mention your intentions here)

With your needs, worries and anxieties, you threw yourself on the mercy and providence of God. Through sorrow and pain, you constantly devoted yourself to God. Pray for me, that I might join you in such a deep faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

Above all, dear Saint Monica, pray for me, that I may, like your son, turn from my sin and become a great saint for the glory of God.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.