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Monday 9am - 4pm Tuesday 9am - 4pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm Friday 9am - 4pm Sunday 11:15am - 12:15pm

St. Lawrence Catholic Church, 405 7th Street, Monett, MO (2026)

06/02/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Saturday 30 May 2026: Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (Jude 17.20-25): Responsorial Psalm: 62: R/. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Gospel text (Mk 11:27-33): Today, the Gospel is asking us to think what our intentions are when we go to meet Jesus. Some go without faith, without recognizing His authority: this is why “the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?” (Mk 11:27-28). If our prayers do not turn to God, we have no faith. But, as Saint Gregory the Great says, “when we vehemently stand fast on prayer, Jesus halts to restitute the light because God stops in the heart which recovers the light it had lost.” If we have a good disposition, even if we are mistaken, believing the other person to be right, we shall welcome his words. If our intentions are good, even if we drag the weight of sin, when we pray, God will help us understand our misery, so that we can reconcile with Him, and may ask with all our heart his forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance. Faith and prayer go together. Saint Augustine tells us “if faith is lacking, prayer is impossible. So, when we pray, let us believe and pray so faith is not lacking us. Faith produces prayer, and prayer, in turn, produces the strengthening of the faith.” If our intentions are good, and we turn to Jesus, we shall discover who is He and will understand his word, when He asks us: “Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?” (Mk 11:30). Through the faith we know it was a work of God, and that His authority comes by way of his Father, who is God, and by Himself, for He is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. And because we know Jesus is the only savior of the world, we turn to his Mother who is also our Mother, so that we may receive Jesus' words and life, with good intention and good will, to relish in the peace and joy of the sons of God.

06/01/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Monday 1 June 2026: Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr: Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (2Pt 1:2-7); Responsorial Psalm: 90: R/. In you, my God, I place my trust. Gospel text (Mk 12:1-12): Let us recall the context in which Jesus proposes the parable we have just heard. Seeing him teaching in the Temple, "priests, scribes and elders" ask him: "By what authority do you do this? Or who gave you the authority to do it? "(11, 28). At first, Jesus evades the question by asking another, which concerns the origin of the baptism proposed by John - "did it come from heaven or men? "(11, 30). Faced with the hypocritical silence of his interlocutors, Our Lord in turn refuses to answer, considering that he is not accountable to men who claim to lead the people when they are unable to discern the heavenly origin of the Baptist ministry. However, Jesus does not remain for this purpose of not receiving. Through the parable he proposes to them, he will not only answer indirectly to the question posed to him, but he will also prophesy the paradoxical path by which his divine mission will be fulfilled. The scenario imagined by Notre-Seigneur presents a series of striking contrasts. So to begin with, we are surprised by the meticulous care that the owner takes to a vineyard, which he brutally leaves after having "rented it to winemakers". This unexpected turnaround seems to betray an amazing lightness; unless the "trip" is interpreted as a voluntary withdrawal, aimed at leaving all the space for the winemakers. In which case, the unexpected departure would be part of the conditions for a probation: are these workers worthy of the trust that the master places in them by letting them dispose of his property? The answer given by the parable is frankly negative: by hitting the first servant and knocking out the second, they signify their contempt for the owner. Breaking the rental contract, they affirm their autonomy and become masters of the field, refusing to report on their management. Drawn into the spiral of violence, these ungrateful winemakers even go so far as to murder the servant, apparently forgetting that they share the same status as him. This refusal of their condition is fully confirmed by the rest of the story: by killing "the beloved son", it is the position of heir that they try to usurp, as confirmed by their conciliabule: "Let's kill him and the inheritance will be ours! "Surprising reasoning: since when do murderers benefit from their victim's share of inheritance? Only the son is heir; by killing him, it is the Father they aim at; it is from him that they want to get rid of to appropriate his property. If they do not "respect" the son, it is because they ignore the sacredness of the filial relationship. They refuse to see the owner as a father, having locked him in the character of the rival who must be rid of at all costs to enjoy his property independently. This time, however, the measure is full. Having no one left to send, the master of the vine comes himself to execute the just sentence and "perishes the homicidal winemakers". However, he does not recover his property, but "gives the vine to others". It can be assumed that he "gives it in lease" as to the first winemakers, but the story does not specify it. Perhaps it should be heard that these new winemakers, having proven trustworthy, have gone from the status of servants to the filial condition, which they now share with the only and beloved son? Is not this what verses 22-23 of Psalm 118 quoted by Jesus suggest: "The stone which the builders rejected - namely the only Son of the Father - has become the cornerstone" of the house of God whose believers constitute the "living stones" (1 P 2, 5), participating in the faith in the divine filiation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Mark specifies that "the leaders of the Jews had understood that it was for them that Jesus had said this parable"; they therefore recognized themselves in the characters of the homicidal winemakers. But they do not review their murderous projects, without realizing that by their hardening, they precisely confirm the outcome of the story. Lord, open our eyes to our complicity with the spirit of evil, which pushes us to challenge you as a jealous rival. At the heart of this world that boasts and rejoices at having “killed” you, we want to proclaim that you are the living God and the God of life; the Father full of tenderness and mercy, who triumphed over death by resurrecting Jesus, and who offers us to participate in his divine filiation in the Spirit. Also, we want to “approach you Lord, living stone, rejected by men, chosen by God” to attach ourselves to you by living faith and ardent charity.

05/30/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Sunday 31 May 2026: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (A): 1st Reading (Exod 34:4b-6.8-9): Responsorial Psalm: Dan 3: R/. Glory and praise for ever! 2nd Reading (2Cor 13:11-13): Gospel text (Jn 3:16-18): Today, it is good for us to hear John's Gospel words: “For God so loved the world...” (Jn 3:16), because in the festivity of the Blessed Trinity, God is worshipped, loved, and served —for God is Love. In Him we find an association with Love, and whatever He actively does, He does out of Love. God loves; He loves us. This great truth is one of those that transform us, that make us better, because it enters our understanding, becoming entirely evident to us. And it deeply affects our actions, honing them into total loving actions. And the purer love becomes, the greater and more perfect it is. St. John of the Cross wrote: “Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.” And this is true, because this is what God always does. He “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17), thanks to Jesus Christ's life and to His love, unto His death on the Cross. Today, we contemplate Him as the only one that reveals to us authentic love. We speak so much about love, that perhaps it has lost its originality. Love is what God feels for us. Love and you will be happy! Because to love is to offer our life for those we love. Love is gratuitous and simple. Love is emptying oneself, to hope for everything from God. Love is to diligently serve those who need us. Love is losing to regain a hundredfold. Love is living without keeping score of what one is doing. Love is what makes us resemble God. Love —and only love— is eternity already in our midst! Let us live the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of Love, as it gives us God's love made flesh. It allows us to participate in the fire that burns in the Heart of Jesus, and it forgives and recasts us so that we can love with the very Love with which we are loved.

05/30/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Saturday 30 May 2026: Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (Jude 17.20-25): Responsorial Psalm: 62: R/. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Gospel text (Mk 11:27-33): “Today, the Gospel is asking us to think what our intentions are when we go to meet Jesus. Some go without faith, without recognizing His authority: this is why “the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?” (Mk 11:27-28). If our prayers do not turn to God, we have no faith. But, as Saint Gregory the Great says, “when we vehemently stand fast on prayer, Jesus halts to restitute the light because God stops in the heart which recovers the light it had lost.” If we have a good disposition, even if we are mistaken, believing the other person to be right, we shall welcome his words. If our intentions are good, even if we drag the weight of sin, when we pray, God will help us understand our misery, so that we can reconcile with Him, and may ask with all our heart his forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance. Faith and prayer go together. Saint Augustine tells us “if faith is lacking, prayer is impossible. So, when we pray, let us believe and pray so faith is not lacking us. Faith produces prayer, and prayer, in turn, produces the strengthening of the faith.” If our intentions are good, and we turn to Jesus, we shall discover who is He and will understand his word, when He asks us: “Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?” (Mk 11:30). Through the faith we know it was a work of God, and that His authority comes by way of his Father, who is God, and by Himself, for He is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. And because we know Jesus is the only savior of the world, we turn to his Mother who is also our Mother, so that we may receive Jesus' words and life, with good intention and good will, to relish in the peace and joy of the sons of God.”

05/29/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Friday 29 May 2026: Memorial of Saint Paul VI, Pope: Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (1Pt 4:7-13): Responsorial Psalm: 95: R/. The Lord comes to judge the earth. Gospel text (Mk 11:11-25): “Today, fruit and prayer are key words in the Gospel. The Lord approaches a fig tree and finds no fruit there, only leaves, and he reacts by cursing it. According to Saint Isidore of Seville, “fig” and “fruit” share the same root. The next day, surprised, the Apostles say to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered” (Mark 11:21). In response, Jesus Christ speaks to them of faith and prayer: “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). There are people who hardly ever pray, and when they do, it’s with the hope that God will solve a problem so complicated that they can no longer see a solution to it. And they justify this with the words of Jesus we have just heard: “Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours” (Mark 11:24). They are right, and it is very human, understandable, and legitimate that, faced with problems that overwhelm us, we trust in God, in some power greater than ourselves. But it must be added that all prayer is “useless” (“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him”: Mt 6:8), insofar as it has no direct practical use, such as—for example—turning on a light. We receive nothing in return for praying, because everything we receive from God is grace upon grace. So, is prayer unnecessary? On the contrary: now that we know it is nothing but grace, that is precisely when prayer is most valuable—because it is “useless” and “free.” Even so, there are three benefits that prayer of petition gives us: inner peace (finding Jesus as our friend and trusting in God is relaxing); thinking through a problem, analyzing it, and knowing how to frame it is already half the battle; and third, it helps us distinguish between what is good and what we might simply want on a whim in our prayer intentions. So, in hindsight, we understand through the eyes of faith what Jesus says: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14:13).”

05/28/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Thursday 28 May 2026: Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (1Pt 2:2-5, 9-12): Responsorial Psalm: 99: R/. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord! Gospel text (Mk 10:46-52): The healing of the blind man is a prominent miracle of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, most notably in John 9. Jesus restored sight to a man blind from birth by applying a mixture of mud and spittle to his eyes and instructing him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. The narrative is a deeply symbolic and highly debated account throughout history, emphasizing both physical restoration and spiritual. The miracle is frequently interpreted as a physical manifestation of Jesus's declaration, "I am the light of the world". It illustrates the transition from spiritual blindness to faith, contrasting the beggar who comes to recognize Jesus with the religious leaders who refuse to see the truth. Sometimes the way Jesus answers our prayers may not be the way we or others think they should be, BUT our prayers are answered. I am certain that the blind man and his family prayed many days and many nights for his sight to be restored. Thinking about this scripture, I have to reflect on my own life and wonder what things in my life I am blind to. This text was more than just about his physical vision, it included spiritual blindness as well. The blind man’s parents were more concerned about being thrown out of the synagogue than proclaiming what Jesus had done for their son. I wonder why that is. I wonder why sometimes we care more about what others may think than the more important part, which is the blessing. Sometimes in life when Jesus has healed us, blessed us, or answered our prayers, others may not see it or see the importance. But like the blind man, we should boldly tell others what Jesus has done. As we continue with the ordinary time, what are some things in your own life that you want Jesus to open your eyes to? What a blessing it must have been to be healed by the Son of Man.

05/27/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Wednesday 27 May 2026: Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (1Pt 1:18-25); Responsorial Psalm: 147: R/. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem. Gospel text (Mk 10:32-45): I join Don Schwager when he sustains that Jesus called himself the "Son of Man" both to identify himself with our human condition, subjected to pain and death, and with his divine mission to restore the world to the glory God had intended from the beginning of creation. The 'Son of Man' is a prophetic title for the Messiah recorded in the prophecy of Daniel (see the Book of Daniel 7:13-14). In Jesus' time the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah who would set them free from the oppressive rule of Rome. Jesus came to set people free from the worst oppression of all - the tyranny of endless slavery to sin, Satan, and death. Jesus came to bring us into a new covenant relationship with God that would not end with death but lead to everlasting peace, joy, and abundant new life. Why did the Messiah have to suffer rejection, condemnation, and death on a cross? On no less than three different occasions the Gospel accounts record that Jesus predicted he would endure great suffering through betrayal, rejection, and condemnation to tortuous death. The Jews resorted to stoning and the Romans to crucifixion - the most painful and humiliating death they could devise for criminals they wanted to eliminate. No wonder the apostles were greatly distressed at such a prediction! If Jesus their Master were put to death, then they would likely receive the same treatment by their enemies. Why did Jesus freely and willingly lay down his life for us? Did not God promise that his 'Anointed One' (the literal meaning of 'Messiah' and 'Christ' in Hebrew and Greek) would deliver his people from their oppression and establish a kingdom of peace and justice? The prophet Isaiah had foretold that it was God's will that the "Suffering Servant" make atonement for sins through his suffering and death (Isaiah 53:5-12). Jesus paid the price for our redemption with his own blood. The ransom Jesus paid sets us free from the worst tyranny possible - the tyranny of sin and the fear of death. Jesus' victory did not end with death but triumphed over the tomb when he rose again on the third day. Jesus defeated the powers of death through his resurrection. Do you want the greatest freedom possible, the freedom to live as God truly meant us to live as his sons and daughters? Jesus weds authority with sacrificial love and service: Jesus did the unthinkable! He wedded authority with selfless service and with loving sacrifice. Authority without sacrificial love is brutish and self-serving. Jesus also used stark language to explain what kind of sacrifice he had in mind. His disciples must drink his cup if they expect to reign with him in his kingdom. The cup he had in mind was a bitter one involving crucifixion. What kind of cup does the Lord have in mind for us? For some disciples such a cup entails physical suffering and the painful struggle of martyrdom. But for many, it entails the long routine of the Christian life, with all its daily sacrifices, disappointments, set-backs, struggles, and temptations. Through death to self we serve and reign with Christ our victorious Lord: A follower of Jesus must be ready to lay down his or her life in martyrdom and be ready to lay it down each and every day in the little and big sacrifices required. An early church father summed up Jesus' teaching with the expression: to serve is to reign with Christ. We share in God's reign by laying down our lives in humble service as Jesus did for our sake. Are you willing to lay down your life and to serve others as Jesus did?

05/26/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Tuesday 26 May 2026: Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest: Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time: 1st Reading (1Pt 1:10-16): Responsorial Psalm: 97: R/. The Lord has made known his salvation. Gospel text (Mk 10:28-31): Faced with the requirement to abandon all his property to receive eternal life in sharing, the rich young man has just left. Peter then turns to Jesus: "Behold, we have left everything and we have followed you". In other words: 'Sord, for us, eternal life is assured since we have renounced everything we had to follow you!' It is true that in order to commit themselves to the following Jesus, the first disciples consented to a real detachment from their family and professional environment. But, eternal life is a gift, a grace. To obtain it, it is therefore not a matter of accomplishing extraordinary things but of receiving and accepting everything that is given. Jesus shows it well when, in response to the detachment, he promises to give exactly the same things and, moreover, a hundredfold: "In truth, I tell you, no one will have left home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or fields because of me and because of the gospel, who does not receive the hundredfold now, in the present time, in house, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, with persecutions, and, in the world to come, eternal life". Would it be a matter of leaving everything we have, the people who are dearest to us, to receive them from the Lord as part of new relationships, transformed by his grace? In fact, what deprives us of eternal life is not so much our property as the relationship we have with them. Too often, we believe that they are the fruit of our only merit and that we have rights over them when they are first and foremost a gift from God. Entering such a detachment "because of Jesus and the gospel" can only be perceived as a provocation by a world too attached to itself, too withdrawn into itself. His reaction? Persecution which for Jesus is not of the order of possibility but of reality. Persecution will allow us to verify our faithfulness in our march following Christ. In this context, it will not present itself as an obstacle but as the place where we can experience in advance the transforming power of the Resurrection that gives us part in the very life of God. Following Jesus causes a reversal of values that leads to detachment from the world and leads to persecution. But it also gives to enter from here below in the Kingdom of God which one does not seize with the strength of the wrist. The last words of Jesus in our pericope remind him as if to insist: "Many first will be last and the last will be first". Lord, do not allow the inheritance you reserve for us to escape us because of a disorderly attachment to the goods of this passing world or by the fear of trials intended to purify our faith. But grant us, throughout our journey here below, to keep our eyes fixed on you who are at the origin and at the end of our faith, in order to grasp, you the object of the promise, as we ourselves have been grasped by you (cf. Ph 3, 12-14).

05/25/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Monday 25 May 2026: St. Bede, the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church: Memorial of the Blessed Virgin: Mary, Mother of the Church: 1st Reading (Gen 3,9-15.20): Responsorial Psalm: 86: R/. Glorious things are told of you, o city of God. Gospel text (Jn 19:25-34): These words are from John 19:26-27, spoken by Jesus from the cross to His mother, Mary, and the Apostle John. They carry deep theological and practical meaning. Jesus ensured the physical and emotional safety of his widowed mother by entrusting her to His beloved disciple. It established the new "family of God," positioning Mary as a spiritual mother to all believers. Jesus' words, "Behold, your son", effect what they express, making Mary the mother of John and of all the disciples destined to receive the gift of divine grace. On the Cross Jesus did not proclaim Mary's universal motherhood formally, but established a concrete maternal relationship between her and the beloved disciple. In the Lord's choice we can see his concern that this motherhood should not be interpreted in a vague way, but should point to Mary's intense, personal relationship with individual Christians. May each one of us, precisely through the concrete reality of Mary's universal motherhood, fully acknowledge her as our own Mother, and trustingly commend ourselves to her maternal love. Under God, she had raised the man who was God. And even now in his greatest agony, even as he writhes in this dehumanizing, extended ex*****on, his soul does not curve inward to nurse his pain, but opens outward to the one who nursed him. Here the greatest victim ever of other people’s sin retreats not to himself and his suffering. He does not sulk or pout. He is not consumed with his own trauma, but looks beyond himself to make provision for this woman. His mother. The woman who so humbly and diligently and ordinarily served the very Son of heaven in the earthiest of ways, from his conception and birth, to his utter humiliation and ex*****on. God became human through her — not just through her womb, but through decades of guidance, nurture, and prayer. So, in the moments before he breathes his last, Jesus turns to his beloved disciple to ensure his mother will have his tangible care even after he is gone. Never was Jesus more human, and never was he more divine, than at this moment, in this place, at this time, when he spoke three simple words: “Behold, your mother!”

05/23/2026

Contemplating today's Gospel: Saturday 23 May 2026: Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter: 1st Reading (Acts 28:16-20.30-31): Responsorial Psalm: 10: R/. The just will gaze on your face, o Lord. Gospel text (Jn 21:20-25): Why do we often compare ourselves with others? Do we envy those who seem more fortunate than ourselves? Why did Peter question Jesus about John's future? Jesus had predicted that Peter was to suffer and die as a martyr for his faith. What would John's fate be? Jesus seems to indicate that John would live a long life - in fact he outlived all the other apostles. Jesus says, "Follow me and you will have life in abundance": While Peter and John were both called as disciples of Jesus, each was given a particular task and mission to fulfill. When Peter questions John's role, Jesus responds, "What is that to you? Follow me!" Peter's given task was to "shepherd the sheep of Christ," and in the end to die as a martyr for the Lord Jesus. John's role was preeminently to witness to the risen Lord Jesus and to give his testimony to the Gospel account of Jesus' identity as the divine Son of God who became a man to save us from sin, Satan, and death (John 20:31). John lived to long age and wrote the Gospel as his testimony to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not cease to do great works of power and love through his people today: John ends his Gospel with an astonishing remark: "Human books cannot exhaust the person and work of Jesus Christ." His power is inexhaustible, his grace is limitless, his wisdom unfathomable, his triumphs are innumerable, and his love is unquenchable. We can never say enough of the power, majesty and glory which belongs to Jesus Christ alone. Do you witness to others the joy of the Gospel message that Jesus died for us to bring us new life, freedom, love and power to live as his disciples? May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love." (Prayer of Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226)

St. Lawrence Catholic Church

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Monday	9am - 4pm
Tuesday	9am - 4pm
Wednesday	9am - 4pm
Thursday	9am - 4pm
Friday	9am - 4pm
Sunday	11:15am - 12:15pm