Archive for June 13, 2026

Sunday reflection with Dr Scott Hahn

Posted: June 13, 2026 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus 19:2–6

Psalm 100:1–2, 3, 5

Romans 5:6–11

Matthew 9:36–10:8


Kingdom of Priests

The words God speaks to Israel in today’s First Reading are intended for us as well.

The Church is the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel—a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (see Deuteronomy 26:19; Isaiah 62:12).

In the Church, we have been gathered as the new “Israel of God” (see Galatians 6:16). He has made us His own people, the flock He tends, as we sing in today’s Psalm.

Moses was Israel’s first shepherd (see Exodus 3:1). With the Promised Land in view, he prayed that God would raise up a successor so that God’s people would not be left as sheep without a shepherd (see Numbers 27:17).

These same words are used in today’s Gospel to describe Jesus’ pity for the crowds, who are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Israel’s shepherds—the Pharisees and scribes—had abandoned and misled the people through their hypocrisy and spiritual blindness (see Matthew 23:1–36; Jeremiah 50:6).

But God had long before promised that He Himself would come and save His sheep—searching over the whole earth where they had been scattered “for lack of a shepherd” (see Ezekiel 34:1–24).

Jesus is the new Moses and new David promised by the prophets, a divine shepherd-king sent to restore God’s priestly kingdom (see John 10:11).

As Moses commissioned Joshua as his successor, so we see Jesus today giving the Twelve His powers and authority (see Matthew 9:35; 10:1). In God’s plan, they are to seek out the lost sheep of Israel first and then bring all nations into the fold (see Acts 13:46; Romans 1:16).

Together we have been saved and reconciled to God, as we hear in today’s Epistle. As He delivered Israel, He has also made us a kingdom of priests in the Church (see Revelation 1:6).

So we come in this Mass to serve Him with gladness, to praise His kindness, which endures forever.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: June 13, 2026 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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We who are disciples of the Lord are sent on mission to proclaim the good news to all who will listen, to bind up wounds, to heal, to bring His peace, mercy, love, joy, and deliverance, so that all of us can one day be reunited in heaven.

Saint Anthony was one such disciple. He was a missionary through and through, and he touched many lives by his proclamation of the gospel.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for the gift of St Anthony, and I ask for your grace so that I can emulate him, to proclaim the gospel with such eloquence, touch the lives of many, and minister to them as he did. Amen

Saint Antony of Padua, Priest, Doctor 
Pray for us….


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First reading
Isaiah 61:1-3
He has sent me to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord


The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
to bind up hearts that are broken;

to proclaim liberty to captives,
freedom to those in prison;
to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord,
a day of vengeance for our God,

to comfort all those who mourn and to give them
for ashes a garland;
for mourning robe the oil of gladness,
for despondency, praise.



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Gospel
Luke 10:1-9
Your peace will rest on that man

The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!” And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is set before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you.”’