June 23-28: June 23 Monday: Mt 7:1-5: “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The context:In today’s passage, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus condemns our careless, malicious, and rash judgments about others’ feelings, motives, behavior or actions.

Reasons why we should not judge others: 1) No one, except God, is good enough, and only He has the right and authority, to judge us, because only He sees the whole truth, and only He can read the human heart. 2) We do not see all the facts or circumstances, nor the power of the temptation, behind a person’s evil deed. 3) We have no right to judge others because we have the same faults as the ones we are judging and often to a higher degree (remember Jesus’ funny example of a man with a wooden beam in his eye trying to remove the dust particle from another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard, “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.” 4) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us.

Life message1) Let us leave the judgment to God and refrain from being critical and judgmental. Let us remember the advice of saints: “When you point one finger of accusation at another, three of your fingers point at you.” Let us also heed the Jewish rabbi’s reminder, “He who judges others favorably will be judged favorably by God.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/25

For additional reflections, click on: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video; https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections

June 24 Tuesday: Birth of Saint John the Baptist:Luke 1:57-66: For a brief account, click on: (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/nativity-of-saint-john-the-baptist) Luke 57 57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. 58 And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your kindred is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all marveled. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

The context:Today’s Gospel describes the birth and naming of St. John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet. He was given the mission of heralding the promised Messiah and of preparing the Chosen People to welcome that Messiah by preaching to them repentance and the renewal of life. John was born to the priest, Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth in their old age. Today’s Gospel passage describes John’s birth, Circumcision, and Naming ceremony.

A miraculous birth and an event of double joy: His elderly parents rejoiced in John’s birth, as he was a gift from God in their old age. Since the child was a boy, all their neighbors rejoiced with them, and the village musicians celebrated the birth by playing their joyful music. The Naming followed the baby’s Circumcision, and Elizabeth insisted that the child should be named John (which means “the Lord is gracious”), the name given him by the Archangel Gabriel when he spoke to Zechariah. Appealed to by the gathered people, the mute Zechariah approved that name by writing, “His name is John.” At that action of obedient surrender to the Lord God, the priest’s speech was restored, and he loudly proclaimed the praises of God for blessing him with a son and Israel with her Deliverer, Whose herald his son would be.

Life messages: 1) We need to pray for our parents and be thankful to them for the gift of life, the training, and the discipline they have given us, and the love and affection they have lavished on us. Let us ask God’s pardon if we are, or were, ungrateful to them, do/did not take proper care of them in their illness or old age or ever inflicted pain on them. 2) We need to remember and pray for our godparents who sponsored us in Baptism, which made us children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, heirs of Heaven, and members of Jesus’ Mystical Body, the Church.

3) We should have the courage of our Christian convictions as John the Baptist did, and we should become heralds of Christ as the Baptist was, by our transparent Christian lives. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/25

For additional reflections, click on: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video; https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections

June 25 Wednesday;Mt 7:15-20:“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits..

The context: In today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives his Church a warning against false prophets and their false doctrines. Jesus compares them to wolves in sheep’s clothing and tells us we can recognize them by observing the lives they lead and the doctrines they teach.

False and true prophets: The Old Testament speaks of false prophets and how they mislead God’s people. Jer 23:9-40 is a classic example. The prophet condemns the false prophets of Baal. The Old Testament gives three signs of true prophets: a) they honor God and promote the worship of the one true God; b) they care for the poor; c) they fight for justice. Modern false prophets in the Church try to remove the cross from Christianity, dilute sin, and avoid teaching about God’s judgment while claiming that morality is relative a position which God abhors: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness” (Is 5:20). They try to separate the people of God from the Magisterium of the Church. But modern true prophets lead exemplary and righteous lives, obey God’s laws and the Church laws, and demonstrate the virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance. In addition, they produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). St. Jerome, in his Latin Translation of the whole Bible (the Vulgate) expanded this passage from Galatians to Twelve Fruits: “Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Benignity [Kindness], Goodness, Long-suffering [Patience under stress] Mildness [Gentleness], Modesty, Continency, Chastity. Since the Church uses the Vulgate as the foundation of Scripture, the Church teaches that there are 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit. [Scott P Richert What
Are the 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit? What They Really Mean June 22. 2025

Life
message: 1) As Christians, we participate in the
prophetic role of Christ. Hence, we have the duty of leading others to Christ
by our exemplary Christian lives. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/25

For
additional reflections, click on: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video;
https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections

June 26 Thursday: Mt 7:21-29: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven.  22 On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty
works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, `I never knew
you; depart from me, you evildoers.’  24 “Everyone then who hears
these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house
upon the rock; 25 ….29

 The context:
Today’s Gospel is the concluding part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus
gives us two warnings: 1) that we must match our profession of Faith with
actual obedience to the will of God, and 2) that we must build our life on the
firm foundation of his teachings.  Jesus warns us against hypocrisy and
challenges us to make a radical commitment to his word by putting it into
action.

Criterion for
entrance to Heaven: In the first part of the Gospel for today,
Jesus asserts that fidelity, both in Faith and in its practice, is what gives
one admission into the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus is speaking about the
future leaders in his Church who will prophesy, cast out demons, and accomplish
deeds of power in the cause of Christ without stopping to reflect on whether
they are obeying Jesus and living according to his ideals.  Fine words can
never be a substitute for fine deeds.  We may deceive men with our words,
but we cannot deceive God who reads our hearts.  That is why the Apostle
James advises us in his epistle, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving yourselves (Jas 1: 22).

The obedient wise man
and the non-obedient fool: Jesus contrasts a wise man who practices
what he believes with a fool who does not practice his religious beliefs, using
the images of one man who built his house on firm rock and another who built
his house on loose sand in summer, right in the rainy season flood-plain of a
river.

Life messages: 1) We
need to build our family on a strong foundation: There can be no
great marriage and no great family without a solid foundation,
and that foundation begins with the husband and wife doing and being the
love of Christ for each other and for their children.  The members of the
family must love one another the way Jesus wants us to love, to forgive each
other as he teaches, and to become servants of one another the way Jesus was to
everyone.

2) We need to synchronize our living with
our profession of Faith: The test of our Sunday worship is the effect it
has on us during the rest of the week in our homes and workplaces and the way
it influences our relationships with friends and neighbors.  The great
test is the care, consideration, and sensitivity we show to our neighbors, many
of whom would otherwise lack affection, words of encouragement, and
forgiveness. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/25

For
additional reflections, click on: https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video;
https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections

June 27 Friday: (Most Sacred Heart of Jesus): https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/the-sacred-heart-of-jesus  Lk 15: 3-7:

Devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the second most-popular Catholic devotion among
Catholics, the first being the Rosary.The infinite love and mercy of God is shown in many different metaphors
and symbols like the Baby in the manger, the Good Shepherd, the Crucifix, the
Sacred Heart, and the Divine Mercy Picture.The devotion to the
Sacred Heart is based on the apparitions of Our Lord from 1673 to 1675 to  St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial in France. The Gospel passage, “They shall look on him whom they have
pierced” (Jn
19:35-37) lies at the foundation of the whole tradition of devotion
to the Divine Heart. The practices of the “Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” in the home and the “Consecration and dedication of the family to the Sacred Heart” were
begun by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey of the Congregation
of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and were later approved by the popes.
Official and social recognition of the rule of Jesus over the Christian family
is the purpose of the consecration of the family to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus.  The “Holy Hour,” the “Litany
of the Sacred Heart,”  “The Act of Consecration of the Family and
the Human Race to the Sacred Heart,” the “First Friday Devotion” and the “Novena
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” are different forms of this devotion.

Life Messages:
1) An invitation for
heart transplant. Our hearts become stony and insensitive through our daily
exposure to acts of cruelty, terrorism, injustice,
and impurity. Hence, God prescribes a change of heart through His prophet
Ezekiel (Ez 11:19-20) to make our hearts soft,
elastic, large and sensitive: ”I will give them a new heart and put a new
spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their bodies and replace
it with a natural heart.” The Sacred Heart of
Jesus should be the ideal heart for this medical procedure because Jesus said, “Learn of me I am meek and humble of heart.”
Let us ask to have the heart of Jesus.

2)  An invitation to love.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus challenges us to love others as Jesus loved,
selflessly, unconditionally and sacrificially, and to express this love in
humble and loving service done to others.

c)     An
invitation to pray: First, let us continue to pray for the grace of
healing for those who have been the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy
as the Church expresses its sorrow and seeks forgiveness from these victims.
Let us also pray that these victims may, in turn, accept the grace to forgive
those who have harmed and betrayed them. Second, let us pray for the grace
of courage for our bishops to be true shepherds in caring for their flocks;
in restoring discipline in clerical and religious life and in ending the
dissent that has undermined the Magisterium. Third, let us pray for the grace of
perseverance, that clergy and laity alike will keep the Faith and not lose
hope in difficult time of purification. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/25

Additional reflections: Click on https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video;
https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections.

Saturday June 28, Mt 8:5-17: “When Jesus entered Capernaum, a
centurion approached him saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed,
suffering dreadfully.’ He said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’The centurion
said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter
under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a
man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,‘
and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave,
‘Do this,’ and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and
said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have
I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and
will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of
heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be driven out into the outer
darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” And Jesus
said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for
you.”

 — And at that very hour his servant was
healed.

The
Context:
Having chosen the twelve disciples who would live with him, take care of his
needs and be taught by him, this unconventional Rabbi first gave the the Sermon
on the Mount (radically clarifying the Law and its practices with God’s view of
how these should be observed.” Jesus offered God’s miracles to validate his
power to teach with Divine Authority. He cleansed a leper in person, and responded
to the Faith of the humble Roman Centurion
by during his dying servant by a simple long-distance command. Then, at
the request of his new disciples, Jesus “rebuked” the high fever incapacitating
Peter’s Mother-in-Law, curing her instantly and restoring her strength.  After sunset and the end of the Sabbath, the
whole town turned out, bringing  “…many
who were possessed by demons, and he drove the spirits by a word and
cured all the sick.”

 

Life Messages  1) Jesus still responds to pleas
for healing and mercy from those who believe in  Him as One Who is One with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, and keep His word in their love service of those around them.  2) The pagan Centurion believed in Jesus  and his Divine Authority, enough to tell this
Rabbi that he no need to defile himself by visiting the Centurion’s pagan home.
Rather, Jesus should simply use his Divine Authority and command the healing , just
as the Centurion himself gets the work of the Legion done by commanding his men
to obey his orders.  3) Jesus not only
has Authority from God to act among us – in his own Incarnate life, Jesus obeys
the Father in all the things he does, living as man among us, as the Messiah of
God, teaching God’s insistence  that each
of us, His children by adoption, living in
willing, sacrificial, obedience to His Will.   

 

Optional Memorial Mass: The Immaculate heart of Blessed Virgin
Mary: For a short account, click ohttps://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/seasons-and-feast-days/immaculate-heart-of-mary-14358  

Lk 2:41-51: 41 Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to
festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the
boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for
him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned
to Jerusalem to look for him. ……51

 

This feast  commemorates the joys and
sorrows of the Mother of God, her virtues and perfections, her
love for God and her Divine Son and her compassionate love for mankind. … In
1969, Pope St. Paul VI moved the celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to
the Saturday, immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. Devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary is a special form of devotion to the venerable person of Mary,
similar to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Mary’s Immaculate Heart represents her interior life and the beauty of her soul.  Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the Divine
Heart as overflowing with love for men. This devotion is an attempt
to respond to Jesus’ love and to make reparation for the lack of love on the
part of mankind.  In the devotion to the Heart of Mary, on the other hand,
what seems to attract us above all else is the love of Mary’s Immaculate Heart for Jesus and for God.  The objective is to love Godand Jesus better, by uniting ourselves to Mary
for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. In this devotion, we think of
the love, virtues, and sentiments of
Mary’s interior life and try to put them into practice. 

Scriptural basis of
this devotion: It was
mostly the love, humility, faith, and other virtues of the Heart of Mary that
attracted early Christians to Mary, the mother of Jesus. They saw Mary’s heart
in its true color at the foot of the Cross.  Simeon’s prophecy furnished
this devotion with its most popular representation: the heart pierced with a
sword.  St. Augustine remarks: “At the foot of the cross, Mary cooperated
with Jesus in the work of our redemption through charity.”  One Scriptural
passage in support of this devotion is the twice repeated (Lk 2:19; 2:51)
saying of St. Luke given in today’s Gospel that “Mary kept all the things [the saying and doings of Jesus] in her heart,” that she might ponder on them and live by them. A few of the sayings of Mary recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat, disclose new features in Marian psychology. Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel. The Magnificat (Lk 1:46-56) is also an expression of her humility. The last words of Mary recorded in Scripture were spoken at the wedding feast in Cana when the wine ran out, and Mary approached Jesus, as usual, to tell them of this calamity. He had answered her that this was not His responsibility any longer, nor was it hers, for His Hour had not yet come. Mary understood that being the Messiah of God had changed Jesus’ position radically, and she humbly accepted this necessary change in their relationship as Mother and Son as God’s will for both of them, turning to the serving boys telling them, “Do whatever He tells you!” (Jn 2:5), the same instruction she gives all of us on every occasion! Finally, answering the woman in the crowd who praised Jesus’ mother as blessed, Jesus commented “Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep it”(Lk 11:28). It was Mary’s readiness to hear and do the will of God that endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the Mother of Jesus.

Life message: Let us take Mary as our role model and practice her virtues of trusting Faith, serving humility and readiness to do God’s will in our daily lives, thus becoming immaculate children of an Immaculate Heavenly Mother. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/25

For additional reflections, click on:https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video; https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/daily-reflections/; https://www.epriest.com/reflections