Father Michael's Thoughts This Week

WEEKLY THOUGHTS 29th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

OCTOBER 19, 2025

Dear Friends, 

Welcome to the celebration of the 29th Sunday in Ordinary time and third Sunday in the month of October. Thank you very much for your prayers as we concluded the Annual Convocation of priests in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. It was held at Marriot Hotel in Virginia Beach from Monday October 13th and ended on Thursday morning October 16th, 2025. It was a wonderful meeting with our brother priests. We also had sessions of study and reflection on the Ministry of a Priest. I am deeply thankful for your facilitation and prayers.  

This weekend – October 18th -19th is World Mission Sunday. The Holy Father Pope Leo XIV issued a special Message to all the faithful. In Summary, He encourages participants from every Catholic Parish to spread the Gospel and support Missionaries and agents of the Gospel. 

He calls for prayers and financial support for pastoral programs, new churches, the health and educational needs of those in the mission territories. He emphasizes that a call to be “a missionary of hope,” as a baptismal call for all Christians to renew their commitment to bring Christ to the world. 

He gives his personal testimony, reflecting on how faith, prayer and generosity on World Mission Sunday can transform communities – as he draws from his experience as a missionary in Peru. You may find the full text on USCCB or Vatican News websites. Happy Mission Sunday to everyone.

The Readings of last Sunday were about the healing of Naaman- a Syrian healed by the Prophet 

Elisah from the leprosy. He became a believer in the God of Israel after being healed from the leprosy. In the Gospel Jesus extended healing of the 10 lepers from leprosy as they called upon Jesus to have pity on them. They got cleansed on their way to present themselves before the priests- as proof for their healing. Only one out of the ten returned to give thanks to God. Jesus admired the action of gratitude to Jesus expressed by the Samaritan and despised foreigner. 

The Readings of this Sunday; Exodus 17: 8-13 is about the power of prayer with faith that can help us to defeat the powers of evil or Spiritual Amaleks in our lives. We need to persist in prayer and be supportive to overcome evil.

In the Gospel of Luke 18: 1-8 Jesus continue to teach his apostles on prayer. The disciples had earlier on made some prayer requests; “Lord increase our faith.” Then after seeing Jesus many times at prayer, they requested; “Lord teach us how to pray.” He taught them the “Our Father.” He taught them the importance of forgiving those who wrong or hurt us – a behavior very strange to the Jews. He stressed the importance of praying from the heart – with a spirit of honesty and truthfulness- non hypocrisy. He advised not to pray like the Pharisees

The invitation to pray always echoes a similar call of Jesus on prayer; “ask, you will receive, seek, you will find, knock, the door will be opened for you.” In other words, Jesus is telling us; “have faith in me; I know your needs” or be persistent in prayer. Paul exhorted Timothy to remain faithful to the deposit of faith- a treasure he had received, with a duty to teach and share it. Paul urged Timothy to be persistent and patient in teaching it to shape and transform the lives of believers.

Spiritual directors and teachers teach us on the routine of prayer as Jesus lived it. He spent most of the night praying. He chose a quiet environment to pray. As disciples of Jesus, we need to learn from Jesus the best teacher on prayer as well as the Saints.

It’s the duty of parents to teach your children basic prayers; not the religious education teachers. Please, endeavor to teach your children to give God a place in their lives. Kindly regulate their time spent on social media.

Let us learn from the Saints as teachers of prayer like, Saint Teresa of the little flower, St Teresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John Paul and many more. Let us overcome all forms of Amalekites in our lives with prayer.

Wednesday Mass time at Shepherd of the Hills will be at 4.00 pm beginning on October 22nd through the First Wednesday in Spring of 2026.  

Have a great week.